Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Lithuania's Jurijus with "Run With The Lions"...

It's time for my daily Eurovision spotlight. I'm running down the running order of the second semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest being held in Tel Aviv in a couple weeks. You can catch up with the rest of the series so far by clicking here. This time out its the Baltic country that has never won, but has been in the finals more often...

The former Soviet Republic of Lithuania has had a bumpy ride at Eurovision, making the finals often but not really scoring the big wins like Estonia and Latvia had done in the early 2000s. In fact, their best showing was a joke (more on that later). They've been more serious recently, and last year had one of the best efforts in years with the delicate "When We're Old" by Ieva Zasimauskaitė. With a simple staging the love song became grand, and she ended up in 12th place and deserved more. With a national final that sported 49 acts competing, will the country be able to repeat?

Lithuania - "Run With The Lions" from Jurijus

Jurijus Veklenko, from the coastal city of Klaipėda, was a backup singer in Eurovision 2015 for Monika Linkyte and Vaidas Baumila's "This Time", which had him kiss another man during the performance. Two years later, he actually provided the vocals for drag act Lolita Zero at the national finals (or Eurovizijos) with "Get Frighten", but that didn't go over as well. Well this year Jurijus gets to use his countertenor under his own name with the pop ballad "Run With The Lions". Written by Ashley Hicklin from Britain, Eric Lumiere from L.A., and producer Pele Loriano from Switzerland, this song may be one of the most straightforward pop songs in the competition, with no bells and whistles (except for his occasional high tone), but no cheesiness either...

While Jurijus' voice is such a pleasant listen, the song may be so middle-of-the-road that it may get lost in the "big" numbers in the second semis. I mean, he's going right before Sergey Lazarev, which I wouldn't envy. And the subdued melody of the song may not convey the title as much as they had hoped. He does have the luck of having Ireland, Latvia, the UK, and Norway voting in the semi, which have been consistent votes. While I would be happy if he made the final, I wouldn't miss this if he didn't, to be quite fair. Now mind you, he's one of the singer I plan on following musically after the contest, since it seems a more better fit for solitary listening. (Rating: 6/10)

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Lithuania has been taking part in Eurovision since 1994, but only took part twice in the 1990s. They have reached the top ten in the finals twice, with their best finish actually a joke entry about how poorly they have been doing. Made up of TV and music celebrities from the country, LT United somehow took their inside joke to 6th place in 2006 with "We Are The Winners" despite the boos. But honestly this is the worst song ever ever ever, and that's counting Ireland's turkey puppet...

As for my personal favorite from the country, that would be Donny Montell's second try in 2016 with "Waiting For This Night", which came in ninth in the finals...

But the country didn't disappoint when they went bad, as in the case above, but also this, "Eastern European Funk" from InCulto that didn't make it through the semis in 2010. But actually, if you listen to the lyrics, this is actually a smart take on the EU prejudice towards the "eastern European" members...