Lithuania was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song "", written and performed by Monika Liubinaitė under her stage name Monika Liu. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final 2022 (Let's try again! 2022) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2022 contest. The national final took place over six weeks and involved 34 competing entries. The results of each show were determined by the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote. In the final, eight artists and songs remained and "" performed by Monika Liu was selected as the winner.
Lithuania was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 10 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 3, "" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed seventh out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 159 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 14 and placed 14th out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 128 points.
Background
Prior to the 2022 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 21 times since its first entry in 1994. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Lithuania, to this point, has managed to qualify to the final 10 times. In the 2021 contest, "Discoteque" performed by the Roop qualified to the final where the song scored 220 points and placed 8th.
For the 2022 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, LRT has selected all of its entries through a national final procedure: between and , and since . LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 August 2021. On 1 October 2021, the broadcaster announced the organization of , which would be the national final to select its entry for Turin.
Before Eurovision
Pabandom iš naujo! 2022 2022 (Let's try again! 2022) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition involved a six-week-long process that commenced on 8 January 2022 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 12 February 2022. The six shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Ieva Stasiulevičiūtė, Giedrius Masalskis 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.
Format The 2022 competition involved 34 entries and consisted of six shows. The first three shows were the heats consisting of 11 or 12 entries each. The top five entries advanced in the competition from each heat, while the remaining 18 entries participated in the fifth and sixth shows which were the competition's semi-finals where nine entries participated in each show and the top four proceeded to the final. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining eight entries. The broadcaster allocated a budget of around €54,000 to be divided among 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 (LATGA) in order to encourage further development of the song in an aim to achieve international success.
The results of each of the six 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 1 October 2021 for artists and songwriters to submit their entries with the deadline on 25 November 2021. On 3 January 2020, LRT announced the 36 artists selected for the competition from more than 50 submissions received. Among the artists were previous Lithuanian Eurovision contestants Erica Jennings, who represented Lithuania in 2001 as part of Skamp, Vilija Matačiūnaitė, who represented the nation in 2014, Monika Linkytė, who represented the nation in 2015, and Ieva Zasimauskaitė, who represented the nation in 2018. The nine-member jury panel that selected the competing entries consisted of Gytis Oganauskas (LRT deputy director general), Audrius Giržadas (LRT televizija chief producer), Ramūnas Zilnys (LRT pop music editor-in-chief), Darius Užkuraitis (LRT Opus senior music editor), Lina Patskočimaitė (Head of LRT's digital assets department), Rūta Putnikienė (Head of LRT's communication and marketing department), Miglė Savickaitė (LRT public relations representative), Povilas Varvuolis (television director) and Vytautas Bikus (composer).
On 11 January 2022, the final changes to the list of 36 competing acts were made with the withdrawal of the songs "Out of Mind" performed by Alekas for personal reasons and "See You Again" performed by Monika Linkytė due to illness of the singer. Artist Song Songwriter(s) Aldegunda "Holiday" Gailė Asačiovaitė-Main Alekas "Out of Mind" Aaron Sibley "Before You're 6ft Under" Augustė Vedrickaitė, Paulius Vaicekauskas, Robertas Semeniukas Basas Pegasas "" Rokas Smilingis, Clockwork Creep "Grow" Paulius Mscichauskas Cosmic Bride "The Devil Lives in Spain" Natalia Kharetskaya, Bruno Vogel Elonas Pokanevič "Someday" Elonas Pokanevič, Edvardas Mikulis, Rokas Arciševskij Emilija Valiukevičiūtė "Overload" Aurimas Galvelis, Justas Kulikauskas, Emilija Valiukevičiūtė Emilijana "Illuminate" Emilija Katauskaitė, Stoyan Stoyanov, Paul Bester Erica Jennings "Back to Myself" Erica Jennings, Stephen Sims, Deividas Jaroška, Rick Blaskey, Victor Diawara Gabrea "Make It Real" Aurimas Galvelis, Justas Kulikauskas Gabrielė Goštautaitė "Over" Gabrielė Goštautaitė, Robertas Semeniukas Gebrasy "Into Your Arms" Audrius Petrauskas, Faustas Venckus Geleibra "" Evaldas Mikalauskas, Gabrielė Urbonaitė, Justinas Chachlauskas Gintarė Korsakaitė "Fantasy Eyes" Faustas Venckus, Gintarė Korsakaitė, Elena Jurgaitytė, Audrius Petrauskas Ieva Zasimauskaitė "I'll Be There" Ieva Zasimauskaitė, Martin Hausner Joseph June "Deadly" Vytautas Gumbelevičius Justė Kraujelytė "How to Get My Life Back" Justė Kraujelytė, Kasparas Meginis, Edgaras Žaltauskas Justin 3 feat. Nanaart "Something That Is Natural" Justinas Stanislovaitis, Liucija Nanartavičiūtė Lolita Zero "Not Your Mother" Gytis Ivanauskas, Vitas Vaičiulis Mary Mo "Get Up" Marija Monika Dičiūnė, Tomas Dičiūnas, Paulius Vaicekauskas Mėnulio Fazė "Give Me a Sign" Vladas Chockevičius Monika Linkytė "See You Again" Monika Linkytė, Vitalij Puzyriov Monika Liu "" Monika Liubinaitė Moosu X "Love That Hurts" Justas Kulikauskas, Aurimas Galvelis Queens of Roses "Washing Machine" Michael James Down, Will Taylor, Primož Poglajen, Natalie Palmer Rūta Loop "Call Me from the Cold" Edgaras Žaltauskas, Kasparas Meginis, Rūta Žibaitytė Sun Francisco "Dream Again" Giedrė Ivanova, Maksim Ivanov, Snorre Bergerud Titas and Benas "Getting Through This" Audrius Petrauskas, Faustas Venckus Urtė Šilagalytė "Running Chords" Urtė Šilagalytė, Justas Kulikauskas, Aurimas Galvelis Vasha "" Viktoras Olechnovičius, Gabrielė Rutkauskienė, Ieva Lapinskaitė Viktorija Faith "Walk Through the Water" Charlie Akin, Viktorija Faith Viktorija Kajokaitė "Piece of Universe" Viktorija Kajokaitė Vilija "101" Vilija Matačiūnaitė Voldemars Petersons and the Break Hearters "Up" Voldemars Petersons Živilė Gedvilaitė "Lioness" Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Charlie Mason, John Matthews, Paulius Jasiūnas
Jury members The jury panel consisted of five members in the heats and the semi-finals, and seven members in the final. +Jury members by show Jury memberHeatsSemi-finals Final Occupation(s) 1 2 3 1 2Aistė Smilgevičiūtė singerDarius Užkuraitis musicologist, LRT Opus senior music editorGerūta Griniūtė pianist, journalist, television and radio presenterGiedrė Kilčiauskienė singerIeva Narkutė singerLeonas Somovas composer, producer Ramūnas Zilnys music reviewer, presenter, LRT pop music editor-in-chiefStanislavas Stavickis-Stano singer, composer, producerVaidotas Valiukevičius vocalist for the band The RoopVytautas Bikus composer, producer
Shows
Heats The three heats of the competition aired on 8, 15 and 22 January 2022 and featured the 34 competing entries. The top five advanced to the semi-finals from each heat, while the bottom entries were eliminated. + Heat 18 January 2022 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Augustė Vedrickaitė "Before You're 6ft Under" 52 12 317 4 16 2 2 Gabrielė Goštautaitė "Over" 12 2 138 1 3 11 3 Voldemars Petersons and the Break Hearters "Up" 11 1 328 5 6 8 4 Joseph June "Deadly" 39 8 363 7 15 4 5 Aldegunda "Holiday" 14 3 231 2 5 10 6 Viktorija Faith "Walk Through the Water" 18 5 92 0 5 9 7 Elonas Pokanevič "Someday" 11 1 477 10 11 6 8 Sun Francisco "Dream Again" 31 6 257 3 9 7 9 Urtė Šilagalytė "Running Chords" 15 4 824 12 16 3 10 Mary Mo "Get Up" 35 7 400 8 15 5 11 Erica Jennings "Back to Myself" 52 12 338 6 18 1 + Heat 215 January 2022 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Clockwork Creep "Grow" 16 4 359 5 9 7 2 Justė Kraujelytė "How to Get My Life Back" 43 8 691 10 18 2 3 Gabrea "Make It Real" 16 4 283 2 6 9 4 Titas and Benas "Getting Through This" 47 10 291 3 13 3 5 Cosmic Bride "The Devil Lives in Spain" 12 2 93 0 2 11 6 Viktorija Kajokaitė "Piece of Universe" 1 0 332 4 4 10 7 Emilijana "Illuminate" 7 1 748 12 13 6 8 Justin 3 feat. Nanaart "Something That Is Natural" 30 6 258 1 7 8 9 Ieva Zasimauskaitė "I'll Be There" 56 12 554 8 20 1 10 Moosu X "Love that Hurts" 30 6 433 7 13 5 11 Queens of Roses "Washing Machine" 32 7 423 6 13 4 + Heat 322 January 2022 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Basas Pegasas "" 19 4 217 2 6 7 2 Rūta Loop "Call Me from the Cold" 43 8 586 8 16 2 3 Vasha "" 15 3 222 3 6 8 4 Geleibra "" 10 2 216 1 3 11 5 Vilija "101" 44 10 183 0 10 6 6 Emilija Valiukevičiūtė "Overload" 1 0 70 0 0 12 7 Gintarė Korsakaitė "Fantasy Eyes" 23 5 497 6 11 5 8 Živilė Gedvilaitė "Lioness" 4 0 253 4 4 10 9 Monika Liu "" 58 12 2,124 12 24 1 10 Gebrasy "Into Your Arms" 40 7 576 7 14 4 11 Mėnulio Fazė "Give Me a Sign" 6 1 349 5 6 9 12 Lolita Zero "Not Your Mother" 27 6 1,074 10 16 3
Semi-finals
The two semi-finals of the competition aired on 29 January and 5 February 2022 and featured nine competing entries each. The top four entries advanced to the final from each semi-final, while the bottom entries were eliminated.
+ Semi-final 129 January 2022 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Queens of Roses "Washing Machine"2246487114 2 Elonas Pokanevič "Someday"143377259 3 Emilijana "Illuminate"143573698 4 Joseph June "Deadly"3773783105 5 Erica Jennings "Back to Myself"3264744106 6 Justė Kraujelytė "How to Get My Life Back"541279910221 7 Gebrasy "Into Your Arms"46107518183 8 Gintarė Korsakaitė "Fantasy Eyes"2455115107 9 Lolita Zero "Not Your Mother"4282,28112202