Lithuania has become the latest country to select its act for the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. Last night Jurijus emerged the winner of Eurovizijos Atranka2019 with his song “Run With The Lions” and will, therefore, be heading to Tel Aviv in May to represent Lithuania at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovizijos Atranka featured forty-eight acts who first competed in four heats which saw half of the hopefuls eliminated each week. The successful contestants who advanced to the semi-finals faced an even tougher challenge with only four from each semi-final making it through to the grand final.
The winner was decided by a 50/50 jury and public vote and it seems both loved “Run With The Lions” and its catchy chorus as Jurijus received the maximum points from both the juries and the televote. He therefore won the competition and the honour of representing Lithuania at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv.
You can watch Jurijus perform “Run With The Lions” below:
Lithuania first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1994 but unfortunately failed to receive any points. This led to them withdrawing from the contest until 1999. Since their return, Lithuania have only made it to the top ten on two occasions: in 2006 with LT United’s “We Are The Winners” and ten years later with Donny Montell’s “I’ve Been Waiting For This Night”. Last year, they were represented by Ieva Zasimauskait? who delivered a beautiful performance of “When We’re Old” only just missing out on reaching the top ten. Lithuania will be hoping Jurijus can bring home the trophy for the first time in their history.
To do this, he will have to compete against acts from forty-one other countries. Announced acts so far are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, Jonida Maliqi for Albania, Eliot for Belgium, Miki for Spain, Serhat for San Marino, Duncan Laurence for The Netherlands, Tamara Todevska for North Macedonia, Michela Pace for Malta, Bilal Hassani for France, Lake Malawi for the Czech Republic, PÆNDA for Austria, Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman for Finland. Michael Rice for the United Kingdom, Sergey Lazarev for Russia, Mahmood for Italy, Kate Miller-Heidke for Australia, D-Moll for Montenegro, Kobi Marimi for Israel, Katerina Duska for Greece, Victor Crone for Estonia, Tulia for Poland, Carousel for Latvia, and Roko for Croatia, Ester Peony for Romania, Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl for Slovenia, S!sters for Germany and Leonora for Denmark. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming months.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel-Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 42 countries will compete in the contest.