Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Shortly after the 2008 South Ossetia war in Georgia, the Estonian Minister of Culture suggested a possible boycott of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held in Russia.[4] A similar feeling was felt at the Lithuanian public broadcaster, Lietuvos radijas ir televizija, who supported Georgia in the conflict and believed that "Russia continues to showcase power and ignores international rules."[5] In the end, no Lithuanian boycott occurred.

Lietuvos Dainų Daina (Lithuanian Song of Songs) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The competition involved a six-week-long process that commenced on 10 January 2009 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 14 February 2009. The six shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Audrius Giržadas and Livija Gradauskienė. The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt.

The format of the competition involved thirty-six entries competing in six shows. The first three shows were the quarter-finals consisting of twelve entries each. The top six entries advanced per heat, while LRT selected two wildcards out of the eliminated entries to advance in the competition at the conclusion of the third show. The fourth and fifth shows were the semi-finals consisting of ten entries each and the top five entries advanced per semi-final. The sixth show, held on 14 February 2009, was the final where the winner was selected from the remaining ten entries.[6][7]

The results of each of the six shows were determined by the regional televoting. The public could submit their votes through telephone and SMS voting, with the rankings developed by the votes of the ten regions of Lithuania being converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show.

On 31 October 2008, LRT opened the submissions for Lithuanian artists and songwriters to submit their entries. Songs performed in Lithuanian were preferred. The submission deadline concluded on 3 November 2008.[6][7] On 6 November 2008, LRT announced the 36 artists selected for the competition.[8] Among the artists was previous Lithuanian Eurovision contestants Linas Adomaitis, who represented Lithuania in 2004 as part of Linas and Simona. On 5 January 2009, the final changes to the list of 36 competing acts were made with the addition of Vita Rusaitytė to the list of performers and the withdrawal of the Ruslanas Kirilkinas.[9]

The first quarter-final of the competition aired on 10 January 2009 and featured the first set of thirty-six competing entries.[10][11] Six entries advanced in the competition, while six were eliminated.[12] On 7 February 2009, Jonas Čepulis & Skirmantė were announced to have received one of the wildcards to advance to the semi-finals.[13]

The second quarter-final of the competition aired on 17 January 2009 and featured the second set of thirty-six competing entries.[14] Six entries advanced in the competition, while six were eliminated. After the show, Deivis, who qualified from the second quarter-final, was disqualified as his song "Lietuva" was partly a plagiarism of the song "There She Goes" by The La's. Urtė Šilagalytė, who placed seventh, replaced Deivis.[15] On 5 February 2009, Soliaris, Greta & SEL were announced to have received one of the wildcards to advance to the semi-finals.[16]

The third quarter-final of the competition aired on 24 January 2009 and featured the third set of thirty-six competing entries.[17][18] Six entries advanced in the competition, while six were eliminated. After the show, Rūta Lukoševičiūtė, who qualified from the third quarter-final, was disqualified as her song "Trapus žmogus" was partly a plagiarism of the song "Written in the Skies" performed by Elton John.[15] Saulės kliošas, who placed seventh, replaced Rūta.

The first semi-final of the competition aired on 31 January 2009 and featured ten of the remaining twenty entries that qualified from the quarter-finals. Five entries advanced to the final, while five were eliminated.[15][19]

The second semi-final of the competition aired on 7 February 2009 and featured ten of the remaining twenty entries that qualified from the quarter-finals. Five entries advanced to the final, while five were eliminated.

The final of the competition was broadcast live on 14 February 2009 and featured the remaining ten entries that qualified from the semi-finals. "Pasiklydęs žmogus" performed by Sasha Son was selected as the winner after receiving maximum points from all televoting regions.[1][2][3]

After the first semi-final, the regional televoting system used during the show was commented upon, with the non-qualifying artists finding the results "weird and not right". Alanas, who failed to qualify to the final, said that he found the voting "very bizarre", and that he would like to know how many people voted for him. Augustė, who also failed to qualify, called it "nonsense", commentating on the difference in the number of votes cast in Vilnius in comparison to smaller towns in Lithuania: "I don't understand how can we compare points of Vilnius and of some small city in Lithuania. In Vilnius we need thousands of votes to get 12 points. Meanwhile in a small city a hundred votes can be enough".[20]

Jonas Vilimas, executive producer of Lietuvos Dainų Daina, said that every city has a right to express their opinion, and that this method is more objective. As such the voting method will remain for the rest of the shows.[20]

• In the Final Lithuania came 23rd with 23 points: the public awarded Lithuania 20th place with 38 points and the jury awarded 20th place with 31 points.