LRT, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, has released the names of the 51 artists bidding to becoming the nation’s next representative at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, as well as further details regarding the country’s selection process.

As confirmed by the Lithuanian national broadcaster, the nation’s selection process for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Eurovizija 2017, will kick off from the 7 January 2017 over the course of 10 weeks, in which we will see a grand total of 51 acts bid for the right to represent the nation in Kyiv next May.

Eurovizija 2017 participants

1. Aistė Pilvelytė
2. Alanas Chošnau
3. Audrius Janonis
4. Audrius Petrauskas
5. Augustė Vedrickaitė
6. Benas Malakauskas
7. Dagna Kondratavičiūtė
8. Deividas Žygas
9. Dovydas Petrošius
10. E.G.O.
11. Edgaras Lubys
12. Elvina Milkauskaitė
13. Erika Astrauskaitė
14. Evaldas Vaikasas
15. Fusedmarc
16. Gabrielius Vagelis
17. Golden monkeys
18. Gražvydas
19. Greta Zazza
20. Hit
21. Ieva Zasimauskaitė
22. Julija Jegorova
23. Justin 3
24. Kotryna Juodzevičiūtė
25. Lawreigna
26. Liepa Maknavičiūtė
27. Lolita
28. Marius Petrauskas
29. Mia
30. Milda Martinkėnaitė & Saulenė Chlevickaitė
31. Monika Mėčiūtė
32. Neringa Šiaudikytė
33. Otreya
34. Paula Valentaitė
35. Queens Of Roses
36. Rasa Kaušiūtė
37. Shiny Raia
38. Rugilė Daujotaitė
39. Ruslanas Kirilkinas
40. Rūta Andruškevičiūtė
41. Sasha Song
42. Soliaris
43. Strėlės
44. Tadas Rimgaila & Tina
45. Valdas Lacko
46. Valerija Iljinaitė
47. Varjetė
48. Vidas Bareikis
49. Vilija Matačiūnaitė
50. Virgis Valuntonis
51. Vlad Max

From the 2017 Eurovizija line-up, a total of 2 former Eurovision participants will be making a return to the selection in a bid to represent the nation for a second time; Sasha Song (Love, 2009) and Vilija Matačiūnaitė (Attention, 2014).

Small changes to selection

Unlike with previous years which saw each bidding artist perform at the majority of the shows throughout the selection, LRT has decided to make a slight change to the first few weeks of the competition.

Throughout the first 4 weeks of Eurovizija 2017, a total of 12-13 artists from the 51 participants will perform to the public for the very first time, with only around half of the acts qualifying to the next stage of the competition in the fifth show.

Explaining the decision behind the small changes to the selection process, Eurovizija organiser and producer Lauro Lučiūno revealed:

Last year, some participants complained that the selection phase was long and had to appear quite often, so this year the singer will appear in the first show, and if qualify to the next round – then they  will next appear in the fifth show.

In total, at least 6 acts will compete in the Grand Final of the selection on the 11 March 2017, in which the winner will be determined via a 50/50 jury/public vote, once again including the vote of an international jury.

Eurovizija 2017 dates

• 07/01: Show 1
• 14/01: Show 2
• 21/01: Show 3
• 28/01: Show 4
• 04/02: Show 5
• 11/02: Show 6
• 18/02: Show 7
• 25/02: Show 8
• 04/03: Show 9
• 11/03: Show 10 (Grand Final)