Lithuania has picked alternative rock band Katarsis to represent the country in the 69th Eurovision Song Contest with their song Tavo Akys.
Katarsis was selected to represent Lithuania at this year’s Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland, beating 11 other contestants at the national selection EUROVIZIJA.LT final.
This year, like last year, the jury and televoters first jointly picked the three best performances – Katarsis, Lion Ceccah, and Liepa. After they performed their songs again, Katarsis was selected to go to Eurovision based on the public’s votes only.
“The song Tavo Akys is my observation about relationships,” said Lukas Radzevičius, the lead singer of Katarsis, when asked to describe their Eurovision entry.
According to Radzevičius, the band talked jokingly about competing in Lithuania’s Eurovision selection at first but eventually decided to try their luck.
“The song Tavo Akys is the most pompous song in our band’s work, maybe somewhat aggressive compared to the others, but we thought that it would be the right song [for Eurovision], with its alternative character, which may be over the top, but is of a high quality,” the lead singer said.
Lithuania will perform at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in the second semi-final on May 15. The grand final will take place on May 17.
Last year in Malmö, Sweden, Lithuania’s Silvester Belt reached the final with his song Luktelk and finished 14th.
The Eurovision Song Contest has been held annually since 1956. Lithuania debuted at the contest in 1994. The country’s best performance so far was sixth place in 2006.
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