The second heat of the 2008 Lithuanian preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest is about to start. Ten acts will fight tonight to win one of the four tickets to the final. The winners will be decided via televote and jury vote at a 50%-50% split. You can follow the show by clicking on the link below (LRT live streaming, external link). The show will be hosted by Rolandas Vilkončius.
A live webcast will be provided here.
The article will be constantly updated.
The show has started but the webcast is unstable, buffering ever few seconds. We are watching something that looks like a rerun of the running order draw for tonight and we are also introduced to the three member jury. The presence of the Lithuanian flag is made felt everywhere, but fortunately not in the colours of the heats, like last year. (The die-hards will remember last year the candidates were split in 3 heats according to their stage experience and each heat had one of the colours of the flag.)
Few of tonight's contestants are well known to the Lithuanian public. Angelas is a band that has been around for quite some time now, Sasha Son was extremely popular when he was twelve and Raimonda is quite well known as she participated in the Dangus 2 talent show.
1. Kristina Botyriūtė- Life is joyful
Life is joyful but unfortunately Kristina although joyful is quite out of tune and vocally challenged. The first song of the evening is rock n'roll and charleston,right out of a 50's movie, with Kristina dressed in a white mini dress and her lively and energetic dancers taking over the stage dressed to match.
2.Face time-Celebrate
Three singers take the stage now plus a three member band in the back. A happy up tempo dance tune from Face time, funky and joyful. A very good, happy performance with the orchestra dancing crazily around (LT United rings a bell?) and waving their instruments about. They certainly look like they are having a blast on stage, all of them, especially the instrument players turned party animals. The song is not much but the show is fun, amateurish in an appealing sort of way. And the jury are smiling (they were dead serious while delivering their verdict to the previous performer)
The "dancers" keep making faces at the camera and the whole team is overjoyed with the jury's verdict.
3.Angelas- Little sunshine
Two sexy female dancers in white mini dresses accompany the lead singer in this rockish dance song that is slightly outdated. An energetic performance by all three but we can safely say that it was "killed" by the antics of the previous song.
4.Funny Beat- Evertown
Tapdancing as the band enters and a tch tch part that reminds us (if we want to remember) the Greek entry in the 2007 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, a rock song where Joan Jett meets kindergarten, a nice catchy tune, as non Eurovision as they make them but it sounds good, and memorable too which is a plus. The best performance so far this evening with the petite female lead singer accompanied by four , hmmm partly undressed male dancers in jeans and sleeveless (and buttonless) shirts. Something for everyone in Evertown.
5.Sasha Son- Miss Kiss
A melodic, up tempo soul ballad is next by Sasha Son. Sasha is casually dressed as are his dancers. The choreography is good, ballet inspired and the song is sweet and catchy from the first few notes and the crowd seems to love it, a lot! The lyrics are in parts the kind love struck teens (and not only) like to hum, "I am missing you, I miss kissing you" etc. That could definitely do well tonight but if it does, the rest of the lyrics need refinement. The jury loves it as well, as Sasha aka Dima gets the longest speech so far.
6. Flaer-New love story
A entirely different picture now as Flaer ask for a chance to make a new love story sounding like The Cure on a bad day. After all the dancing and loving here comes a punk rock band. Their song is not actually bad for its style and the performance is moody and becoming but it's been done before and it isgoing absolutely nowhere with Eurovision.
7. The webcast is down for us, praying it will come back soon :-((
8. Raimonda Masiulytė-Birdie tweet
Ok, here's a definite qualifier! Raimonda's song is a melodic, slow ballad with very nice lyrics. The crowd loves her as does the jury who congratulates her (no hidden cards here). Her performance was simple and strong, good vocals, slightly reminiscent of Lisa Andreas.
9. Flaxon- Lietuva man kaip Pary�ius
A crash course in Lithuanian now by Flaxon as the song is extremely repetitive, at least we learnt Mano namai, cia mano namai, whatever that means (any Lithuanians care to offer the translation?). An understated, californian punk rock style song, melodic on one hand but not interesting on the other. This is the only song in Lithuanian tonight, could it do the Evdokia Kadi? (Cyprus 2008)
10.Justina Adeikytė- Calling your name
One more ballad for the end. Pretty average, nice to listen to in the car but … that's that. Long faces again from the jury.
The recap now
And the winners are: Sasha Son, Raimonda, Funny Beat and Ingrida Ziliute.
