Can Sweden help Lithuania win the Eurovision Song Contest?

STOCKHOLM - As television producers and music business executives all over Europe prepare for the 61st annual Eurovision Song Contest to be held this year in Stockholm, many eyes are focused on Lithuania. Despite its long list of repeated failures in the past, this small Baltic state of less than three million people is gearing itself for a shot at the grand trophy — and to get there, Lithuania seems to be relying on a lot of assistance from neighbouring Sweden.

Determined to catch up with its Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia who have both won the contest (2002 and 2003), a “five year plan” for Lithuania to win the Eurovision was launched by Vilnius-based executive producer Martynas Tyla.

This plan has reached its fourth year now, but without anything spectacular happening so far. This year it could be different, however. In order to increase Lithuania’s chances this time, Tyla has imported a song from across the Baltic Sea — a Swedish one, called “I’ve been waiting for this night” written by composers Jonas Thander and Beatrice Eriksson. It is a very catchy modern pop-rock song that could possibly win the domestic contest by a landslide and probably get a high placing in the grand final. A sophisticated music video has been produced in a Stockholm environment and the entry could very well be bound for success given the fact that the performer, 28-year-old Donny Montell (Donatas Montvydas), is by far the best performing artist in the Baltic States today.

However, for the first time during the so-called five year plan, Martynas Tyla is not alone in his pursuit to win Eurovision with an imported song from neighbouring Sweden. At the time of writing, at least seven Swedish-composed songs appear on the list of entries in the upcoming Lithuanian Eurovision contest. Some of the Swedish composers behind these songs have impressive resumes. Amongst these are a group of writers featuring Peter and Linda Dahl who wrote one of the most legendary Swedish Eurovision winners of all time entitled “Nar vindarna viskar mitt namn” (artist: Roger Pontare) Their song entitled “A long way from home” is not unlike The Olsen Brothers’ winning song from 2000 entitled “Fly on the wings of love.”

Songs accompanied by strummed rhythm guitars with catchy choruses like these always achieve success in Eurovision because the melodies are often timeless. Another song that comes to mind when one hears “A long way from home” is the Latvian entry to the Eurovision contest in Kiev in 2005. That song, “The war is not over,” featured two clean-cut Latvian lads, Walters and Kaza, singing with rhythm guitars that took them all the way up the list to fifth place. The artist group that will perform “A long way from home” is the Vilnius-based group E.G.O., consisting of four young clean-cut Lithuanian lads with all the necessary criteria to win a Eurovision contest, i.e. good looks, good voices, an appealing presence on television, etc., etc. Although they don’t have the same resources for promotion and production of videos as Donny Montell enjoys, they just could very well be the “dark horse” that challenges him.

Over and above all this, one established Swedish music publisher, Keith Almgren of Sweden Songs, reports that he has supplied as many as five songs that will be performed in this year’s Lithuanian Eurovision contest! These Swedish songs will be performed by some of Lithuania’s well known “Eurovision artists” such as Neringa Siaudikyte, Baiba Skurstene, Aiste Pilvelyte, Ruslanas Kirilkinas, and the group 4 Roses. These artists have all previously participated in the Lithuanian Eurovision contest. Special attention should be focused on Latvian-born Baiba Skurstene, who is one of Lithuania’s best female singers. She could very well be a serious threat to Donny Montell in the contest, depending of course on her Swedish song when matched against Montell’s Swedish song. Aiste Pilvelyte is renowned for having finished in second place a number of times in previous contests. Whether she can challenge Montell and achieve her long awaited victory in the Eurovision Song Contest is doubtful but remains to be seen. One cannot help but compare her to Sweden’s Lena Philipsson, who after several second place finishes over a number of years in the Swedish contest finally won and became the superstar she is today!

It is worth noting that the five original Swedish songs submitted to the Lithuanian Eurovision contest by the publisher Sweden Songs were all allotted to the artists mentioned above by the Lithuanian Television authority, who received them from the Swedish Publisher and/or writers through the internet and not through the auspices of private managers or producers, as is usually the case in most countries. This raises the question of the lack of serious management within the Lithuanian music business. The fact that the Lithuanian Television authority LRTV has chosen these Swedish songs may indicate one of two things: (a) that LRTV executives are tired of all the poor songs submitted to Eurovision by Lithuania in the past or (b) that they have woken up to the fact that Sweden is a world leader in popular music and it’s time to avail of the expertise from across the Baltic Sea. But the truth is that Lithuania does have a lot of competent songwriters who write good songs. What Lithuania doesn’t have, however, are enough good competent managers and producers who have the vision and insight to guide those songwriters up the ladder of success and into forums like the Eurovision Song Contest.

Most managers and producers in Lithuania show little ambition, except to make enough euros to pay next month’s bills, and most artists don’t trust them anyway. This is why most performers and entertainers in Lithuania tend to administer their own business affairs and therefore seldom achieve the backing required for major success. Only those who happen to attach themselves to powerful managers like Martynas Tyla, Devydas Zvonkus, and a few others tend to get the backing and “clout” that is required to make it big in the music business. There are, of course, some exceptions such as the legendary artist SEL and the well established artist Egaras Lubys (formerly known as Amberlife) who both seem to have made it more or less on their own steam. But with the exception of Tyla, who has revolutionized the whole music business in his country, there are very few other managers of producers who can be described as internationally suitable or competent to execute and administer a major victory in something as enormous as the Eurovision Song Contest. It would therefore probably be best for Lithuania if the winning entry was performed and administered under the reliable jurisdiction of Tyla.

In any case it seems as if Lithuania is getting its act together when it comes to its participation in Eurovision. The competition and television programme, which were almost ridiculed some years ago, has suddenly gained increased status amongst Lithuanian television viewers, and one can definitely say that interest for the event has skyrocketed in the last few years. So much so that long established artists such as Ruta Sciogolevaite are jumping on the bandwagon by participating in this year’s contest in order to uplift dwindling popularity amongst fans. However, as stated above, most of the entrants in the domestic contest don’t have managers or producers. Managing their own affairs within Lithuania is one thing, but if any of them were to be faced with a victory in the enormous Eurovision Song Contest they probably wouldn’t know what to do! That’s another reason why, at least for now, it would be better for the country if a person such as Tyla were behind any Lithuanian winner.

So when all is said and done, to anyone with knowledge of how music competitions play out, it is quite obvious that Donny Montell will more than likely win the Lithuanian Eurovision Song Contest and represent his country in the final in Stockholm later this year. The public will be with him, as will the somewhat over enthusiastic jury, so he will be a worthy ambassador that Lithuania can be proud of. But with the presence of so many other Swedish songs, Montell can not just expect an automatic victory like the one he had in the 2012 contest, when he totally pulverised his opponents with the power ballad “Love is blind.” This time he must expect a great deal of competition; whether or not Tyla’s five year plan will reach its climax with a victory in the international contest in Stockholm remains very much to be seen. One thing that seems inevitable now is that the eventual song that gives Lithuania victory in the Eurovision Song Contest could very well turn out to be imported from across the Baltic Sea from the home base of the most popular European music of today — Sweden.