Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

The national final took place over eight weeks and involved 12 artists and 12 songs competing in two different competitive streams.

[1] 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.

LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 4 June 2014 and announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Vienna.

[3] The eight shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Simona Nainė and Arūnas Valinskas.

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.

[6] On 31 October 2014, LRT opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for songwriters to submit their songs.

[9][10] The 12 potential Eurovision songs selected from 168 submissions received were announced for listening and voting on 13 January 2015.

The members of the Lithuanian jury consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer), Rosita Čivilytė (singer), Gediminas Zujus (producer) and Vytautas Lukočius (conductor).

Vaidas Baumila and Monika Linkytė performed together as a duet at the request of Vytautas Bikus, one of the songwriters of "This Time".

The members of the Lithuanian panel consisted of Ramūnas Zilnys (music reviewer) and Rosita Civilytė (singer).

The international panel consisted of Ralfs Eilands (Latvian singer), Eric Lehmann (President of OGAE Luxembourg) and René Romkes (organiser of the annual Eurovision in Concert event in the Netherlands).

The concert featured guests Leon Somov and Justė Arlauskaitė, Rosita Čivilytė and Jurgis Brūzga, and raised €20,843 from the public donations.

[30] In late March, Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila filmed the official music video for "This Time" at the Qpolo bar in Vilnius.

[33] Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "This Time" as the Lithuanian Eurovision entry.

[34] On 18 April, the duet performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley.

[35] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top 10 countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

[37] On 26 January 2015, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in.

The LED screens displayed bright colourful rays in shades of red, blue, yellow and orange.

[42][43][45] Vaidas Baumila's bluish-grey costume was designed by Andrius Sergejenko, while Monika Linkytė's blue, pink and white dress was designed by Kristina Kalinauskaitė along with citizens of Lithuania, who were able to cut-out petals featured on the dress in the colour of their choice at special booths set up in Klaipėda, Panevėžys and Vilnius in April 2015.

[48] At the end of the show, Lithuania was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently.

Vaidas Baumila and Monika Linkytė during a press meet and greet
Monika Linkytė and Vaidas Baumila during a rehearsal before the second semi-final