Monika Marija withdraws ‘Criminal’, after having 2 songs in Lithuanian final against her will

Lithuanian superstar Monika Marija is top favorite to win the final of Eurovizijos Atranka this Saturday. Her biggest threat, seemed to be her own success. Against her own will, her fans voted two of her songs into the final. So therefore, she decides to pull back one of the songs.

Monika Marija finished in fourth place in the Lithuanian final in 2018, and now she wants to go all the way to win Eurovision Atranka 2019. She took part with two songs this year: “Light On” and “Criminal”. However, after reaching the semi final stage with both songs, the former winner of The Voice of Lithuania figured out that having both songs in the final could harm her chances of winning. Both songs could take away points from each other, and give someone else the victory with another song.

“Who could have thought that my decision would cause such confusion! I thought that one song going to beat another quite fast, but it seems that my listeners are now divided into two camps,” she tells viewers in this video. “I’ll be very grateful to the jury if you don’t give me any points in this semi-final, and I invite the audience to save their money and I sincerely ask you not to vote for me and my song “Criminal”.

It did not go as Monika wanted. Both the jury and the televoters gave ‘Criminal’ enough points and the song advanced to the final. Not with a big lead, as was the case with ‘Light On’ in the first semi (it won both the jury vote and the televote), but still…

Monika Marija favors “Light on” over “Criminal”?

Both ‘Light On’ and ‘Criminal’ are powerballads. However, there are some small differences. ‘Light On’ is an uplifting song of hope, with white flashing screens and additional backing vocalist supporting Monika on stage.

It’s a song about someone young, who knows she is not yet where she needs to be, but asks for some time to make it. “Leave the light on for me. Because I need more time to find who I’m supposed to be.”

On the other hand, the withdrawn song ‘Criminal’ was a bit darker ballad, which Monika sang all alone on stage. In the early stages, she had a big spiderweb in her hair, but after a lot of criticism she dropped that hairpiece for the semi finals.

Jurijus is the main co-competitor for Monika Marija in Lithuania

There appears to be one main co-competitor in the final of Eurovizijos Atranka 2019. Jurijus, who sings the song ‘Run with the lions’ in a high-pitched voice. He won both heat 3 and his semi final with 12 points from the jury vote ánd the televote.

Lithuania would not be Lithuania if there are a couple of anti-acts in the final as well. After booking their best result with such a song in 2006, it remains a popular thing to do at Eurovision. Jurgis DID (frontman of InCulto in 2010) & Erica Jennings (Part of Skamp in 2001) bring the parody-song ‘Sing’, and the group Antikvariniai Kašpirovskio Dantys perform the laughable song ‘Mažulė’.
Another outsider is the duo Henry & Tommy Modric who sing their standing song ‘Neverpart’, which is almost a conversation between both men, of which one of them was a jury member in Eurovizijos Atranka in the past. Their Croatian name is an homage to the famous footballer Luka Modric.

And the place of Monika Marija’s song ‘Criminal’? It has been taken over by Alen Chicco, who was eliminated in the semi finals.