Lithuania sends Jurijus with ‘Run With The Lions’
Lithuania was one of the biggest surprises in last year’s Eurovision Song Contest. While not a lot of people expected Ieva Zasimauskaité to even make it to the final, she did and finished in a respectable 12th place with her ballad ‘When We’re Old’.  This year, Monika Marija was the favourite to win the national final with her power ballad ‘Light On’ (after she already withdrew her other song which made it to the final too). She however finished as a runner-up while pop singer Jurijus took the victory with his track ‘Run With The Lions’. Will he be able to surprise in Tel Aviv in May too?

Let me start by saying that the Lithuanian entry sounds surprisingly timid for a song with the title ‘Run With The Lions’. It is not like they did not try to make it bigger, but it just does not go off as much as it could have. There is drum-like sound effects that should add some drama, but fall flat. The build-up to the chorus is there, but the chorus itself does not deliver. There is a catchy melody in there, but it is quite monotone and repetitive when it comes around a second and third time. ‘Run With The Lions’ tries to be an uplifting, modern pop record, but ends up being a pleasant, but forgettable middle of the road song. It is nowhere near offensively bad, but does not evoke any emotional reaction, at least with me.

Does Jurijus at least manage to sell his song well? For the most part, he does. His vocals were strong throughout most of his national final performance and he gets to show off his broad range. Jurijus is easy on the eye and knows how to work a camera. Although he gives a decent performance, there is nothing happening on stage that will make ‘Run With The Lions’ a more memorable entry. If that does not change in May, I think Lithuania will have a hard time qualifying for the final.

Review on semi-final performance:
Lithuania brought the charming Jurijus to the stage with the unfortunately quite forgettable tune ‘Run With The Lions’. The song lacks a build up and the chorus does not really stick with the fierce competition going on. Jurijus delivered decent vocals and flirted with the camera as much as he could, but there was nothing much going on with his performance that could possibly distract from the fact that ‘Run With The Lions’ is one of the weaker songs in the competition. Although I thought It should not come as a surprise that Lithuania did not qualify for Saturday’s final, he only missed qualification by a single point. Televoters voted him in 8th place, but juries placed him 17th, which caused him to get the hated 11th spot.

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