Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Run with the Lions", written by Ashley Hicklin, Eric Lumiere, and Pele Loriano. The song was performed by Jurij Veklenko. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. The national final took place over seven 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, eight artists and songs remained and "Run with the Lions", performed by Jurijus, was selected as the winner.

Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 16 May 2019. Performing during the show in position 12, "Run with the Lions" 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 eleventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 93 points.

Background

Prior to the 2019 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen 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, had managed to qualify to the final nine times. In the 2018 contest, "When We're Old" performed by Ieva Zasimauskaitė qualified to the final, where the song scored 181 points and placed 12th.

For the 2019 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's 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 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 8 August 2018. On 10 October 2018, LRT announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Tel Aviv.

Before Eurovision "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 2019. The competition involved a seven-week-long process that commenced on 5 January 2019 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 23 February 2019. The seven shows were hosted by Gabrielė Martirosianaitė and Giedrius Masalskis and were broadcast on LRT televizija, LRT Lituanica, and LRT Radijas, as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt.

Format The 2019 competition involved 49 entries and consisted of seven shows. The first to fourth shows were the heats, consisting of 11 to 13 entries each. The top six entries from each heat proceeded in the competition, with the remaining 24 entries participating in the fifth and sixth shows, which were the competition's semi-finals. Here, 12 entries participated in each show and the top four proceeded to the final. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining eight entries. A monetary prize of €5,000 was also awarded to the winning songwriters by the Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association (LATGA) in order to encourage further development of the song in an aim to achieve international success.

The results of each of the seven 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. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties in all shows were decided in favour of the entry that received the most points from the jury.

Competing entries On 10 October 2018, 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 10 December 2018. On 14 December 2018, LRT announced the 49 artists selected for the competition. Among the artists were previous Lithuanian Eurovision contestant Erica Jennings, who represented Lithuania in 2001 as part of SKAMP, Sasha Song, who represented the nation in 2009, and Jurgis Did, who represented the nation in 2010 as part of InCulto. The final changes to the list of 49 competing acts were later made with the addition of the group 120 to the list of performers, the addition of the song "Light On" for Monika Marija, and the withdrawal of singers Algirdas Daumantas Ciūnys, Emilija Valiukevičiūtė, Linas Jakštys, and Sasha Song and Dovilė.

Artist Song Songwriter(s) 120 "" Deivydas Zvonkus, Dovydas Laukys, Šarūnas Januškevičius Aldegunda "I Want Your Love" Gailė Asačiovaitė Alen Chicco "Your Cure" Faustas Venckus, Tomas Alenčikas Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys "" Martynas Enčius Banzzzai "I Don't Care" Martynas Puchovičius, Paulius Šinkūnas Cheri "Again" Viktorija Vyšniauskaitė, Vitalij Puzyriov Dagna Kondrotaitė "The Rush" Liutauras Janušaitis, Lionel Lombard Donata and Bing Bang "Doing the Loop" Lise Cabble, Christopher Wortley, DWB Edgaras Lubys "To the Sky" Edgaras Lubys Elizabeth Olshey "Never Enough (Of Your Love)" Konstantin Beyrer, Elizabeth Olshey, Šarūnas Vaidachovičius Emilija Gogolytė "Riddle" Sara Sangfelt, Ian Curnow, Ina Reni Alexandrow Filtered Tools "Survival" Donatas Sabaliauskas, Eglė Tamulionienė Gabriela Ždanovičiūtė "Home Is in Your Heart" Agnete Johnsen, Thomas Reil, Jeppe Reil, Christopher Wortley Gabrielė Rybko "Lay It Down" Laurell Barker, Georgie Dennis, Cameron Warren Gebrasy "Acceptance" Audrius Petrauskas, Alex Lipnevic, Jevgenij Podskokov Giedrius Nakas "" Giedrius Nakas Glossarium "Anyone" Tadas Kaminskas, Lukas Gubanovas, Saulius Šivickas Gražvydas Sidiniauskas "Another Movie" Andreas Sjo Engen, Janieck Devy, Radboud Miedema, Fabrizio Levita Henry and Tommy Modric "Neverpart" Tomas Sinickis Indrė Juodeikienė "Bad Option" Nácha, Rajan Muse, Koos Kamerling Junà "Strength of a Woman" Donatas Montvydas, Gytis Valickas-Echoes, Glenda "Gizzle" Proby Jurgis Brūzga "Ctrl Alt Delete" Kasparas Meginis, Edgaras Žaltauskas, Jurgis Brūzga, Andrius Kairys Jurgis Did and Erica Jennings "Sing!" Jurgis Didžiulis, Erica Jennings Jurijus "Run with the Lions" Ashley Hicklin, Eric Lumiere, Pele Loriano Justina Žukauskaitė "Hit Me Harder" Vytautas Karpauskas, Justina Žukauskaitė Kali "Don't B3long" Karolis Talutis, Arvydas Kriščikas "" Stanislovas Stavickis Laimingu Būti Lengva "" Audrius Pakšys Lukas Bartaška "River of Hope" Lukas Bartaška, Giedrius Misiūnas Mannazz "Blind Bird" Kamilė Kielaitė-Sienkievič, Dominykas Zalieckas Matas Ligeika "You Came Here to Fly" Matas Ligeika, Gintarė Liseckaitė Migloko "" Artūras Bieliauskas, Miglė Vilčiauskaitė Monika Marija "Criminal" Benny Jansson, Monika Marija Paulauskaitė, Thomas Karlsson, Mahan Moin "Light On" Rachel Suter, Monika Marija Paulauskaitė, Martin Wiik, Glen Eriksson Original Copy "Power of Sounds" Ieva Ščerbinskaitė Paola Hart "I'll Be Alright" Vitalij Rodevič, Paulina Paulauskaitė Queens of Roses "Runaway" Edgaras Koldaras, Artiomas Penkevičius Rūta "Paradox" Rūta Statkevičiūtė, Forest Blakk Saulės kliošas "" Alvydas Mačiulskas, Laurynas Šarkinas, Justė Starinskaitė Simona "This Day Begins with Love" Kęstutis Jablonskis, Raimundas Margalikas Sofija Eitutytė "My 7th Life" Florian Buba, Charlie Mason, Rike Boomgaarden, Marcus Brosch Soliaris and Foreign Souls "Song of My Life" Viktoras Alechnovicius, Artūras Daunys, Algimantas Minalga, Arminas Bagdzevičius Šarūnas Mačiulis "" Šarūnas Mačiulis Tiramisu "The Smell of Your Eyes" Martyna Rudelytė, Egidijus Lisovoj Twosome "1000" Paulius Šinkūnas, Justinas Stanislovaitis Valdas Lacko "Dare" Niklas Bergqvist, Simon Johansson, Malin Bergqvist Valerija Iljinaitė "Scars Are Beautiful" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Charlie Mason, John Matthews, Kaspars Ansons Voldemars Petersons "Dancing with the Stars" Ashley Hicklin, Becky Jerams, Christopher Wortley Živilė Gedvilaitė "Learn from Your Love" Anna Timgren, Alex Mullarkey

Jury members The jury panel consisted of three members in the heats and the first semi-final, four members in the second semi-final, and seven members in the final. +Jury members by show Jury memberHeatsSemi-finals Final Occupation(s) 1 2 3 4 1 2Arnoldas Lukošius musicianDarius Užkuraitis LRT Opus directorDeivydas Zvonkus composerGiedrė Kilčiauskienė singer, vocalist for the band Pieno lazeriaiIeva Narkutė singerJonas Nainys DJ, radio host, producerJulija Ritčik singer, representative of LATGAJurga Šeduikytė singerLeonas Somovas producerMykolas Katkus public relations specialist, lead singer of the band Tha Station Ramūnas Zilnys music reviewerRasa Bubulytė singerSigutė Stonytė opera singer, vocal teacherSimona Albavičiūtė-Bandita radio and television presenterVilius Alesius member of the band Skamp, representative of LATGA Vytautas Bikus composer, council member of AGATAVytautas Rumšas Jr. actor, director

Shows Heats The four heats of the competition aired between 5 January and 2 February 2019, and featured the 49 competing entries. The top six entries advanced to the semi-finals from each heat, while the bottom entries were eliminated.

Before the broadcast of the fourth heat, Gabrielė Rybko was disqualified due to breaking the twenty-eighth selection rule of the competition in regards to the fairness of the televote. However, her recorded performance was still part of the show.

+ Heat 15 January 2019 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Matas Ligeika "You Came Here to Fly" 5 473 4 9 8 2 Simona "This Day Begins with Love" 0 157 0 0 12 3 Filtered Tools "Survival" 4 267 2 6 9 4 Rūta "Paradox" 0 341 3 3 10 5 Šarūnas Mačiūlis "" 3 686 8 11 6 6 Aldegunda "I Want Your Love" 3 828 12 15 3 7 Gabriela Ždanovičiūtė "Home Is in Your Heart" 1 223 0 1 11 8 Migloko "" 12 639 7 19 2 9 Twosome "1000" 7 633 6 13 4 10 Mannazz "Blind Bird" 10 792 10 20 1 11 Gebrasy "Acceptance" 8 257 1 9 7 12 Glossarium "Anyone" 6 603 5 11 5

+ Heat 219 January 2019 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Tiramisu "The Smell of Your Eyes" 0 824 8 8 7 2 Giedrius Nakas "" 4 198 0 4 11 3 Justina Žukauskaitė "Hit Me Harder" 2 474 4 6 9 4 Lukas Bartaška "River of Hope" 8 592 6 14 4 5 Paola Hart "I'll Be Alright" 8 224 0 8 6 6 Valdas Lacko "Dare" 0 295 3 3 12 7 Emilija Gogolytė "Riddle" 6 880 10 16 2 8 Edgaras Lubys "To the Sky" 10 1,007 12 22 1 9 Donata and Bing Bang "Doing the Loop" 1 517 5 6 10 10 Gražvydas Sidiniauskas "Another Movie" 5 260 1 6 8 11 Junà "Strength of a Woman" 12 407 2 14 3 12 Banzzzai "I Don't Care" 0 250 0 0 13 13 Original Copy "Power of Sounds" 3 603 7 10 5

+ Heat 326 January 2019 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points 1 Laimingu Būti Lengva "" 0 149 0 0 12 2 Voldemars Petersons "Dancing with the Stars" 2 227 0 2 11 3 "" 0 146 0 0 13 4 Sofija Eitutytė "My 7th Life" 3 302 1 4 8 5 Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys "" 6 906 7 13 4 6 Dagna "The Rush" 4 739 6 10 7 7 Jurgis Brūzga "Ctrl Alt Delete" 5 663 5 10 6 8 Kali "Don't B3long" 2 308 2 4 9 9 Cheri "Again" 8 409 3 11 5 10 120 "" 0 548 4 4 10 11 Monika Marija "Criminal" 10 978 8 18 2 12 Jurijus "Run with the Lions" 12 1,533 12 24 1 13 Jurgis Did and Erica Jennings "Sing!" 8 1,077 10 18 3