Lithuania: Silvester Belt to Eurovision 2024 with "Luktelk"
After six shows of Eurovizija.LT, Lithuania has decided that Silvester Belt should be the one to go to Eurovision 2024 and represent the nation with the song "Luktelk"
The very first season of Lithuania's new national selection competition for the Eurovision Song Contest – Eurovizija.LT – has just ended with the selection of Silvester Belt and the song "Luktelk" for Eurovision 2024.
"Luktelk" was written by Džesika Šyvokaitė, Elena Jurgaitytė, and Silvestras Beltė.
Overall, 40 songs were performed in a total of six shows, and once all was said and done it became clear that Silvester Belt would be flying to Sweden in May.
Tonight's show was the only one to be broadcast live. Unlike the five previous episodes, the Final was held in Švyturys Arena in the city of Klaipėda. TV hosts Gabrielė Martirosian and Nombeko Augustė Khotseng were again in charge of guiding the audience at home, while Nerijus Trilikauskas stayed with the green room where he'd interact with the 10 finalists.
Once again both the jury and the public had an equal distribution of voting rights, both worth 50%, during the first round of voting. In the Superfinal, the televote had 100% of the voting power. Tonight's Eurovizija.LT jury panel featured 11 members including Monika Linkytė (Lithuania 2023) and Ieva Zasimauskaitė (Lithuania 2018).
Linkytė (Lithuania 2023), Dons (Latvia 2024), and the Lithuanian group Man-go performed as interval acts.
Eurovizija.LT – Final
First round
| Voting | 50% jury 50% public voting |
Superfinal
| Voting | 100% public voting |
Silvester Belt
Silvester Belt (26), whose real name is Silvestras Beltė, is a Lithuanian singer and songwriter.
He was born in Kaunas but graduated in London with a degree in Commercial Music Performance. Once he was back in Lithuania, he competed on, and won, the TV show Aš – superhitas, which led him to fame. He later released his debut single "Noise," and went on to compete on the Lithuanian version of The X Factor.
Silvester describes his music genre as pop, and cites Troye Sivan as his main inspiration.
Eurovizija.LT
Lithuania's Eurovision broadcaster announced a new national selection competition for the country: Eurovizija.LT. The show consisted of five heats and a final round where a winner was announced as Lithuania's representative for Eurovision 2024.
All six shows were hosted by TV hosts Gabrielė Martirosian and Nombeko Augustė Khotseng, and held in LRT's studios in Vilnius, except for the Final, which was held in the Švyturys Arena in Klaipėda.
All five heats were pre-recorded and used a 50% jury/50% public vote to determine who moves on to the Final. The dates for all six shows were as follows:
- 13 January 2024: Heat 1
- 20 January 2024: Heat 2
- 27 January 2024: Heat 3
- 3 February 2024: Heat 4
- 10 February 2024: Heat 5
- 17 February 2024: Final
Lithuania in Eurovision
Lithuania has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest 23 times since its debut in 1994.
In their debut year, 1994, Lithuania finished last. Their best result is from 2006, when LT United performed the iconic song "We Are The Winners (of Eurovision)." Although they didn't win, they finished 6th.
Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, Lithuania has been in Eurovision every year, and qualified for the Grand Final 12 out of 19 times.
With Estonia's victory in 2001 (Everybody) and Latvia's victory in 2002 (I Wanna), Lithuania is the only Baltic country that hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest.
