Those of you who follow us regularly will know that we, at Eurovision Ireland, have been looking at the highs and lows of each country in the years they have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest. Today, we are focusing on a country that joined the Eurovision family back in the 1990’s, Lithuania .

Lithuania’s participation at Eurovision

Lithuania first entered the contest in 1994, in Dublin, Ireland with Ovidijus Vyšniauskas representing the nation singing “”Lopšinė mylimai” . It wasn’t a great start for them , finishing last with the dreaded ‘nul points’. They then didn’t participate again until 1999 in Jerusalem , Israel, when Aiste sang “Strazdas”, faring slightly better than Ovidijus had back in 1994, finishing 20th with 13 points . Lithuania have participated 22 times in the contest , finishing in the top 20 on nine occasions and three top ten finishes .

Lithuania’s Highs at Eurovision

Lithuania have yet to win the contest and also to break into the top 5 . The closest they have got so far is back in 2006, in Athens, Greece when LT United with a rather shouty anthem song proclaiming “We are the Winners” of Eurovision did better than many may have expected when they not only qualified for the Grand Final but finished in 6th place.

The next best result following LT United came in 2021 , when The Roop with their catchy song “Discoteque”, finished 8th in Rotterdam , The Netherlands.

A few years before this, in 2016, Donny Montell managed to gain a respectable 9th place for Lithuania with “I’ve been waiting for this night”.It was an improvement on his 14th place at the contest in Baku 2012, when he sang “Love is Blind”.

This year, in Liverpool, Monika Linkyte, just missed out on the Top 10 in the Grand Final when she finished 11th with her song “Stay”.

In 2018, in Lisbon, Portugal, Leva Zasimauskaitė came to the contest with her gentle, emotional ballad “When we’re old.”Unfortunately , Leva missed out on the Top 10, coming 12th but still a respectable result for Lithuania and one some countries would cry out for now .

Lithuania’s lows at Eurovision

Apart from the nul points and last place on their debut at Eurovision in 1994, perhaps Lithuania would consider their other worst and lowest point to be at the contest in Kyiv ,Ukraine in 2005 , when Laura and the Lovers with the song “Little by Little” not only failed to make it out of the Semi Final, they came last in that Semi final with just 17 points!

In 2002 , in the days when there were no Semi Finals , Aivaras found himself on the trip to the contest in Tallinn , Estonia ,when the act originally chosen to go was disqualified . Unfortunately , he finished in a lowly 23rd place with just 12 points .

In 2009, in Moscow, Russia, Sasha Son with the song Love , qualified from the semi Finals . In the Grand Final, he was only able to make it to 23rd place with the same amounts of points as his finishing place , 23 .

Since the inauguration of the Semi Finals in 2004, Lithuania have failed to qualify for the final 7 times. Apart from Laura and the Lovers in 2005, their next worst non-qualifying result came in 2017 , ironically in the same city as Laura and the Lovers achieved their unwelcome result , when Fusedmarc with the song “Rain of Revolution ” came 17th in the second semi final .

So there we have it. That’s just some of the highs and lows of Lithuania at Eurovision . What do you think? Do you think there are others we should have included either for the result or just the sheer quality or lack of it ? What are your highs and lows for Lithuania at Eurovision? Let us know by dropping a line in our comments box below and you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.

Author : Sarah Rudman

Source : Eurovision Song Contest Wiki , LRT

Visual Source : You Tube, Eurovision.TV .