The withdrawal of two famous artists Vilija Matačiūnaitė and Artas from the Red group of the Lithuanian preselection process has changed the plans of LRT. Initially, it was planned to hold a qualifying round for the 12 well-known artists in the Red group and have ten of them proceed to the next round. After the two artists withdrew, the remaining ten will all proceed to the semi final automatically.
Last week LRT, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, announced the list of participants who made it through the first hearing by the expert jury. Many of these names, such as 4Fun, Ashtrey, U-Soul & Dima Šavrov, the duet Dove & Gerda, twins Edita & Erika, runners of pop idols show Natas, Augustė and Edita, also artists Rasa Kaušiūtė, Saulės Kliošas, Slap Jack, Stringaj, The Road Band and �ydrė, are certain to be encountered further down the marathon preselection process.
Favourites Rūta Ščiogolevaitė and Aistė Pilvelytė were allowed to participate in the competition even though they refused to sing in the introduction show.
Fourteen out of the forty nine original applicants did not pass to the second round. Twelve new and unknown artists made it to the Green group, and four of them will pass from the quarter final on January 27th to the semi finals.
Out of the thirteen more experienced artists that made it to the Yellow quarter final on February 3rd, seven will qualify to the semis. Together with the ten Reds (well known artists) who will go on with the scheduled show on February 10th anyway, plus three more acts that will be selected by a commitee – a total of twenty four artists will go on to compete in the two semi finals.
From the semi finals, fourteen artists plus two chosen by the LRT will make it to the Grand Final on March 3rd to fight for the opportunity to represent Lithuania in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.
Our sincere thanks to Eglė Jarašiūnaitė for supplying the information.
