Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023
Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song "Stay" performed by Monika Linkytė. The Lithuanian participating broadcaster, the Lithuanian National Radio and Television, organised the national final Pabandom iš naujo! ''2023'' to select its entry for the contest.
Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2023 and was later selected to perform in position 15. At the end of the show, "Stay" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and hence qualified to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed fourth out of the sixteen participating countries in the semi-final with 110 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 22 and placed eleventh out of the 26 participating countries, scoring a total of 127 points.
Background
Prior to the 2023 contest, the Lithuanian National Radio and Television had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Lithuania 22 times since its first entry in. Its best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in with the song "We Are the Winners", performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals in, Lithuania, to this point, had managed to qualify to the final 11 times. It was by the song "Sentimentai", performed by Monika Liu, who qualified for the final and ended 14th overall with 128 points.As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, LRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, LRT has selected all of its entries through a national final procedure: "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka between and, and Pabandom iš naujo! since. LRT confirmed its participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in 29 July 2022. On 11 October 2022, the broadcaster announced the organization of Pabandom iš naujo!, which would be the national final format to select its entry for Liverpool.
Before Eurovision
Pabandom iš naujo! ''2023''
Pabandom iš naujo! 2023 was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023. The competition involved a five-week-long process that commenced on 21 January 2023 and concluded with a final on 18 February 2023. The six shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Giedrius Masalskis, Augustė Nombeko and Richardas Jonaitis. The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija, LRT Lituanica and LRT Radijas as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt and official YouTube channel.Format
The 2023 competition involved 30 entries and consisted of five shows. The first two shows were the heats consisting of 15 entries each. The top ten entries advanced in the competition from each heat, while the remaining 20 entries participated in the third and fourth shows which were the competition's semi-finals where ten entries participated in each show and the top five proceeded to the final. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining ten entries. The broadcaster allocated up to €1,500 to be divided for each of the competing artists in order to support their preparations for the national final. A monetary prize of €5,000 was also awarded to the winning songwriters by the Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association.The results of each of the five shows were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public televoting. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. The public could vote through telephone and SMS voting. Ties in all shows were decided in favour of the entry that received the most points from the jury.
Competing entries
LRT opened a submission period on 11 October 2022 for artists and songwriters to submit their entries with the deadline on 12 December 2022. On 20 December 2022, LRT announced the 30 artists selected for the competition from more than 60 submissions received. Among the artists was Monika Linkytė who represented Lithuania in. The nine-member jury panel that selected the competing entries consisted of Gytis Oganauskas,,,, Lina Patskočimaitė, Rūta Putnikienė, Miglė Savickaitė, Povilas Varvuolis and .On 23 December 2022, the final changes to the list of 36 competing acts were made with the addition of the band The Pixls following the disqualification of Lina Štalytė due to her song being previously published in 2020.
Key: Withdrawn Replacement entry
| Artist | Song | Songwriter |
| Agnė | "New Start" | Agnė Buškevičiūtė-Tumalavičienė, Vilius Tumalavičius |
| Aistė Pilvelytė | "We're Not Running" | Justine Eltakchi, Aidan O'Connor |
| Alen Chicco | "Do You" | Tomas Alenčikas |
| "Sėdi ir važiuoji" | Martynas Enčius, Karolis Steponavičius | |
| Baiba | "When the Lights Go Out" | Baiba Skurstene, Andrius Kairys |
| Beatrich | "Like a Movie" | Marc Dowding, Beatričė Pundžiūtė |
| Donata | "Dreamer" | Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Janne Hyöty, Christopher Wortley |
| Gabrielius Vagelis | "Šauksmas" | Kim Wennerström, Gabrielius Vagelis |
| Gebrasy | "Saw Your Ghost" | Faustas Venckus, Audrius Petrauskas |
| Il Senso | "Sparnai" | |
| I.T. | "Žinau, tai tu" | Ingrida Toleikytė-Mikalauskienė |
| Joseph June | "Vacuum" | Vytautas Gumbelevičius |
| Justa Rubežiūtė | "When I'll Find" | Algirdas Veževičius, Justinas Stanislovaitis |
| Justė Kraujelytė | "Need More Fun" | Justė Kraujelytė, Edgaras Žaltauskas, Kasparas Meginis |
| Justin 3 Dj AugustYno | "Not Giving Up" | Algirdas Veževičius, Justinas Stanislovaitis |
| Luknė | "Paradise" | Rob Price |
| Mario Junes | "Do What You Do" | Marius Kijauskas, Faustas Venckus |
| Matt Len | "Midnight Train" | Matas Lenktis |
| Melona | "Song of Whispers" | Algirdas Veževičius, Illona Podrabinkína, Justinas Stanislovaitis |
| Monika Linkytė | "Stay" | Monika Linkytė, Krists Indrišonoks |
| MoonBee | "Rumor" | Austėja Pukelytė, Gytis Valickas |
| Multiks | "London" | Paulius Burba |
| Noy | "Destiny's Child" | Nojus Žebrauskas, Viktorija Raibužytė, Rita Dmitrijenko, Dominykas Zalieckas |
| Paulina Paukštaitytė | "Let Me Think About Me" | Paulina Paukštaitytė, Krists Indrišonoks, Jānis Jačmenkins |
| Petunija | "Love of My Life" | Agnė Šiaulytė, Diana Anisko, Morta Grigaliūnaitė, Egidija Mačiulytė |
| Rūta Mur | "So Low" | Rūta Murinaitė |
| The Pixls | "Šaukt" | Mantvydas Sabaitis, Kęstutis Vaitkevičius, The Pixls |
| Viktorija Faith | "If You Ever Miss Me" | Viktorija Faith |
| Voldemars Petersons | "Things" | Voldemars Petersons |
| W.I | "You Can Not" | Viktoras Olechnovičius, Ieva Lapinskaitė |
Jury members
The jury panel consisted of five members in the heats and the semi-finals, and seven members in the final.Shows
Heats
The two heats of the competition were filmed on 17 and 23 January 2023 and aired on 21 and 28 January 2023, featuring 15 entries each. The top ten entries advanced to the semi-finals from each heat, while the bottom five were eliminated.Semi-finals
The two semi-finals of the competition were filmed on 31 January and 7 February 2023 and aired on 4 and 11 February 2023, each featuring ten of the 20 entries that qualified from the heats. The top five entries advanced to the final from each semi-final, while the bottom five were eliminated.Final
The final took place on 18 February 2023 and featured the remaining ten entries that qualified from the semi-finals. The final was the only show in the competition to be broadcast live; all other preceding shows were pre-recorded earlier in the week before their airdates. "So Low" performed by Rūta Mur and "Stay" performed by Monika Linkytė were tied at 22 points each after the combination of the jury vote and the public vote, but since Linkytė received received the most votes from the jury she was declared the winner. In addition to the competing entries, Ukrainian 2023 representative Tvorchi appeared as guests, while Eurovision Song Contest 2019 winner Duncan Laurence and Lithuanian 2022 representative Monika Liu performed as interval acts.At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 31 January 2023, an allocation draw was held, which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, and determined which half of the show they would perform in. Lithuania has been placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 11 May 2023, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.Once all the competing songs for the 2023 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Lithuania was set to perform in position 15, following the entry from and before the entry from.
At the end of the show, Lithuania was announced as a qualifier for the final.
Voting
Points awarded to Lithuania
| Score | Televote |
| 12 points | |
| 10 points | |
| 8 points | |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points | |
| 4 points | |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point |
| Score | Televote | Jury |
| 12 points | ||
| 10 points | ||
| 8 points | ||
| 7 points | ||
| 6 points | ||
| 5 points | ||
| 4 points | ||
| 3 points | ||
| 2 points | ||
| 1 point |
Points awarded by Lithuania
| Score | Televote |
| 12 points | |
| 10 points | |
| 8 points | |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points | |
| 4 points | |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point |
| Score | Televote | Jury |
| 12 points | ||
| 10 points | ||
| 8 points | ||
| 7 points | ||
| 6 points | ||
| 5 points | ||
| 4 points | ||
| 3 points | ||
| 2 points | ||
| 1 point |
Detailed voting results
The following members comprised the Lithuanian jury:- Jonas Nainys
- Julijus Grickevičius
- Vaidotas Valiukevičius
- Eglė Juozapaitienė
- Nombeko Augustė Khotseng