Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Rain of Revolution" written by Viktorija Ivanovskaja, Denis Zujev and Michail Levin. The song was performed by the band Fusedmarc. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. The national final took place over 10 weeks and involved 49 competing entries. The results of each show were determined by the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote. In the final, seven artists and songs remained and "Rain of Revolution" performed by Fusedmarc was selected as the winner.
Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 16, "Rain of Revolution" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed seventeenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 42 points.
Background
Prior to the 2017 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in 1994. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Lithuania, to this point, has managed to qualify to the final eight times. In the 2016 contest, "I've Been Waiting for This Night" performed by Donny Montell qualified to the final where the song scored 200 points and placed 9th.
For the 2017 Contest, Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT broadcast the event within the nation and organised the selection process for its entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, Lithuania has selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure. LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 11 August 2016 and announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Kyiv.
Before Eurovision "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The competition involved a ten-week-long process that commenced on 7 January 2017 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 11 March 2017. The 10 shows were hosted by Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė and Gabrielė Martirosianaitė and were broadcast on LRT televizija, LRT Lituanica and LRT Radijas as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt.
Format The 2017 competition involved 49 entries and consisted of 10 shows. The first four shows consisted of 11 to 13 entries each and resulted in the elimination of 25 entries all together. The remaining 24 entries participated in the fifth and sixth shows where each show consisted of 12 entries and the bottom four were eliminated. The remaining 16 entries participated in the seventh and eighth show where each show consisted of eight entries and the top four advanced to the competition's semi-final. In the semi-final, two entries were eliminated and the top six proceeded to the final, while a public online repechage vote selected an additional entry for the final among six of the previously eliminated acts. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining seven entries.
The results of each of the 10 shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public televoting. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. During the first six shows, the jury votes were determined by a Lithuanian jury panel only. Starting from the seventh show, the jury votes consisted of a combination of a Lithuanian panel and an international panel. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties in all shows but the final were decided in favour of the entry that received the most votes from the public. In the final, a tie was decided in favour of the entry that was awarded the most points by the jury.
Competing entries On 12 October 2016, LRT opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for songwriters to submit their songs. Artists that applied to compete with a song were required to indicate which song they wanted to compete with on their application. The submission deadline for both applications concluded on 1 December 2016. On 28 December 2016, LRT announced the 51 artists selected for the competition during a press conference. Among the artists were previous Lithuanian Eurovision contestants Sasha Song, who represented Lithuania in 2009, and Vilija Matačiūnaitė, who represented the nation in 2014. On 26 January 2017, the final changes to the list of 51 competing acts were made with the withdrawal of singers Soliaris and Ruslanas Kirilkinas.
Artist Song Songwriter(s) Aistė Pilvelytė "I'm Like a Wolf" Aminata Savadogo, Kaspars Ansons Alanas Chošnau "7 Days" Alanas Chošnau, Marco Lo Russo aka Rouge Audrius Janonis "Run" Georgios Kalpakidis, Mickey Huskic, Nikos Sofis Audrius Petrauskas "Shine Like Gold" David Sneddon, Simon Gitsels, Ashley Hicklin Augustė Vedrickaitė "It's Not Over (Not to Me)" Augustė Vedrickaitė, Edgaras Žaltauskas, Kasparas Meginis Benas Malakauskas "Rolling" Jonas Talandis, Kristupas Bubnelis Dagna Kondratavičiūtė "Feel It" Kasparas Meginis, Edgaras Žaltauskas, Dagna Kondratavičiūtė, Alina Gadeikytė Deividas Žygas "Only You" Deividas Žygas Dovydas Petrošius "Love Is Free" Leonid Gutkin, Ashley Hicklin Edgaras Lubys "Could It Be?" Edgaras Lubys E.G.O. "My Story" Karolis Šliažas, Vaida Kalkauskaitė Elvina Milkauskaitė "Try" Becky Jerams, Malin Johansson, Vallo Kikas Erika Astrauskaitė "No More" Justinas Stanislovaitis Evaldas Vaikasas "Fire Kisses" Ashley Hicklin, Kim Nowak-Zorde, Soren Pagh Fusedmarc "Rain of Revolution" Viktorija Ivanovskaja, Denis Zujev, Michail Levin Gabrielė Vilkickytė "Jūra" Gabrielė Vilkickytė, Kristupas Jasiulionis Gabrielius Vagelis "Feel Myself Free" Gabrielius Vagelis Golden Monkeys "Septyni dievai" Vilius Krivickas, Edvinas Gurevičius Gražvydas "Paint the Sky Blue" Peter Karlsson Greta Zazza "Like I Love You" Jonas Thander Gytis Ivanauskas "Get Frighten" Marius Narbutis, Andrius Kauklys Hit "I Wanna Love You Tonight" Karolis Šliažas, Vaida Kalkauskaitė Ieva Zasimauskaitė "You Saved Me" Ąžuolas Paulauskas Julija Jegorova "Higher" Fabian Ruben, Lars E. Carlsson Justin3 "Streets of Vilnius" Justinas Stanislovaitis Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė "Love Shadow" Kaspars Ansons, Ashley Hicklin, Nicolas Moulin Lawreigna "Freedom" Philip Bloom Marius Petrauskas "She's My Universe" Roel van Velzen, Robin P. Francesco, Ashley Hicklin Mia "Sacrifice" Michael James Down, Will Taylor Milda Martinkėnaitė and Saulenė Chlevickaitė "Paperheart" Alan Roy Scott, Dillon Dixon, Jonas Brogger Filtenborg Monee "Nnn" Elena Jurgaitytė, Viktorija Šatkutė Neringa Šiaudikytė "Running Out of Time" Vytautas Bikus Otreya "Last Two Weeks" Ugnė Kudlaitė Paula "Let U Go" Gytis Valickas Queens of Roses "Fisherman" Christopher Wortley, Mahan Moin, Kaspars Ansons Rasa Kaušiūtė "Fly" Rasa Kaušiūtė Rugilė Daujotaitė "Perkūne ugniaveidi" Tomas Zdanavičius, Rugilė Daujotaitė Rūta Andruškevičiūtė "The Way to Your Heaven" José Juan Santana Rodríguez, Samuel Bugia Garrido Sasha Song "Never Felt Like This Before" Dmitrij Šavrov, Caleb Sutton, Justin Marcellina Shiny Raia "All You" Rasa Vaštakaitė Strėlės "Bastard" Anna Polukord, Jekaterina Pranevič Tadas Rimgaila and Samanta Tīna "Tavo oda" Stanislavas Stavickis Valdas Lacko "It's So Unfair" Paulius Jasiūnas, Monika Rotomskytė Valerija Iljinaitė "You Made Me Glow" Hans Olov Furberg, Karolina Furberg Varjetė "My Story" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson Vidas Bareikis and Ieva Zasimauskaitė "I Love My Phone" Vidas Bareikis Vilija Matačiūnaitė "I See the Lights" Vilija Matačiūnaitė, Viktoras Vaupšas Virgis Valuntonis "Victorious" Georgios Kalpakidis, Jonas Gladnikoff, Sara Ljunggren Vlad Max "I'll Never Let You Down" Alexander Blackford Silver Darter
Jury members The Lithuanian jury panel consisted of four members in the elimination shows and the semi-final, and six members in the final. The international jury panel in all shows consisted of three members. 11 jury members participated in the final, but only the votes of seven members were ultimately used. +Lithuanian jury members by show Jury memberElimination shows Semi-final Final Occupation(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Dalia Ibelhauptaitė directorDarius Užkuraitis LRT Opus directorDonatas Montvydas singer-songwriterGediminas Zujus producerGintaras Rinkevičius conductorJustė Arlauskaitė singer Kazimieras Šiaulys music criticNeda Malūnavičiūtė singerNomeda Kazlaus opera singerPovilas Meškėla singer Ramūnas Zilnys music reviewerSigutė Stonytė opera singerVytautas Lukočius conductor of the Vilnius Sinfonietta orchestra +International jury members by show Jury memberCountryElimination shows Semi-final Final Occupation(s) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Denis Ingoldsby colspan="6" rowspan="6" producerLauris Reiniks singerPeter Freudenthaler lead singer of the group Fools GardenSasha Jean Baptiste staging directorSean-Poul de Fré Gress rapperWill Wells producer, musician, touring member of Imagine Dragons
Shows
Elimination shows The eight elimination shows of the competition aired from the LRT studios in Vilnius between 7 January and 25 February 2017. The first four shows featured the 49 competing entries, while the fifth and sixth show each featured 12 of the 24 remaining entries in the competition, and the seventh to eighth show each featured eight of the 16 remaining entries in the competition. The top six entries advanced in the first four shows, while the top eight entries advanced in the fifth and sixth show, and the top four entries advanced in the seventh and eighth show. The bottom entries were eliminated in each show. + Show 17 January 2017 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Justin3 "Streets of Vilnius" 1 244 2 3 11 2 Rūta Andruškevičiūtė "The Way to Your Heaven" 0 98 0 0 12 3 Paula "Let U Go" 5 821 12 17 3 4 Golden Monkeys "Septyni dievai" 7 423 7 14 4 5 Augustė Vedrickaitė "It's Not Over (Not to Me)" 3 257 3 6 8 6 Sasha Song "Never Felt Like This Before" 10 438 8 18 2 7 Dagna Kondratavičiūtė "Feel It" 4 172 0 4 10 8 Audrius Petrauskas "Shine Like Gold" 5 228 1 6 9 9 Benas Malakauskas "Rolling" 8 284 4 12 6 10 Tadas Rimgaila and Samanta Tīna "Tavo oda" 2 290 5 7 7 11 Otreya "Last Two Weeks" 6 390 6 12 5 12 Edgaras Lubys "Could It Be?" 12 505 10 22 1 + Show 214 January 2017 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 E.G.O. "My Story" 5 377 6 11 6 2 Monee "Nnn" 3 376 5 8 7 3 Varjetė "My Story" 0 306 0 0 12 4 Gabrielius Vagelis "Feel Myself Free" 8 384 7 15 3 5 Ieva Zasimauskaitė "You Saved Me" 10 361 3 13 5 6 Rugilė Daujotaitė "Perkūne ugniaveidi" 2 362 4 6 9 7 Mia "Sacrifice" 12 500 10 22 1 8 Deividas Žygas "Only You" 0 42 0 0 13 9 Rasa Kaušiūtė "Fly" 5 339 2 7 8 10 Gabrielė Vilkickytė "Jūra" 4 313 1 5 10 11 Lawreigna "Freedom" 1 85 0 1 11 12 Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė "Love Shadow" 7 525 12 19 2 13 Valdas Lacko "It's So Unfair" 6 451 8 14 4