Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Lithuania is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Sólo quiero más", written by Aurimas Galvelis and Tomas Alenčikas, and performed by Alenčikas under his stage name Lion Ceccah. The Lithuanian participating broadcaster, Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT), organised the national final Eurovizija.LT to select its entry for the contest.

Before to 2026, Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Lithuania twenty-five times since its debut in 1994. Its best placing was achieved in 2006, with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United, which finished in sixth place in the final. Since the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, LRT has managed to qualify for the final fourteen times. It was represented in 2025 by the song "Tavo akys", performed by alternative rock band Katarsis, who qualified for the final and finished 16th overall with 96 points.^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, LRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. LRT has used a national final to select all of its Eurovision entries, with the exception of its debut entry in 1994. Between 2020 and 2023, the national final format Pabandom iš naujo! was used to select its entry. In 2024, LRT introduced a new format, titled Eurovizija.LT. LRT confirmed its intention to participate in the 2026 contest in July 2025;^[2] the following month, the broadcaster started accepting applications for Eurovizija.LT 2026.^[3]

Eurovizija.LT 2026 was the national final format organized by LRT to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. It was held between 24 January and 27 February 2026 and is hosted by Gabrielė Martirosian, Eglė Kernagytė-Dambrauskė and Rimvydas Černiauskas. The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija and LRT Lituanica, as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt and official LRT YouTube channel.

The competition saw 40 entries compete across five semi-finals, held between 24 January and 21 February 2026, and a final on 27 February 2026.^[3] A 50/50 combination of jury and public vote determined the ranking in each phase, with the top two entries from each semi-final (out of the eight total) qualifying for the final; the third-place entry advanced to a wildcard round, where only the audience determined one additional finalist. In case of a tie in any of the previous stages, the public ranking would take precedence. The scoring system was the same as used at the Eurovision Song Contest: the top ten entries from both the jury vote and the televote are assigned scores of 1–8, 10, and 12 points.^[4] In the semi-finals, viewers could vote via SMS and on the balsuok.lrt.lt voting platform, while in the final, SMS voting was scrapped.

Performances for the semi-finals were pre-recorded, while they were delivered live in the final.

On 18 August 2025, LRT opened a submission platform for interested artists, lasting until 11 November 2025. Each applicant could only submit one entry. Performers were required to be citizens of the European Union who have a permanent residence permit in Lithuania, while songwriters could be of any nationality, though citizens of countries "hostile to Lithuania" were not allowed to submit entries.^[4] The selected artists are able to withdraw until 10 December 2025 and will have to submit the final version of the song to the organizers by 23 December 2025.^[4]

On 25 November 2025, the list of the 40 participating artists and songs was released by LRT.^[5] Among the selected competing artists was Aistė Pilvelytė, who is participating in the Lithuanian national selection for the 14th time. Black Biceps, Il Senso, Lion Ceccah, Gabija Lokytė (as part of VB Gang), Lolita Zero, Noy and Shwr (formerly known as Shower) also have all competed in previous editions of the Lithuanian national selection and advanced to their respective finals.^[6] Paulè also represented Lithuania at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011 as Paulina Skrabytė.

The jury in the semi-finals consisted of five people, with more jury members participating in the final.

The five semi-finals of the competition were filmed on 14, 20 and 27 January, 2 and 3 February 2026 at LRT's studios in Vilnius, and were being aired on 24 and 31 January, 7, 14, and 21 February 2026. In each semi-final, 8 of the 40 competing acts performed, with the top two entries progressing to the final, while the third-place finisher advanced to a wildcard round.^[4]

  Qualifier   Wildcard round qualifier

After the fifth semi-final, an online wildcard round was organized, in which all contestants who finished third in the semi-finals participated.^[18] After a 25-hour voting window, Nøra Blu, who received the most votes, became an additional finalist. The results were announced during the LRT televizija morning show Labas rytas, Lietuva ("Good morning, Lithuania") on 23 February 2026.^[19]

The live final of the competition took place on 27 February 2026 at the Twinsbet Arena in Vilnius.^[20] In addition to the performances of the competing entries Katarsis performed their 2025 Lithuanian Eurovision entry "Tavo akys" as the opening act, while Aidan performed the 2026 Maltese Eurovision entry "Bella" and Evgenya Redko performed a medley of her songs as the interval acts. "Sólo quiero más" performed by Lion Ceccah was selected as the winner by a combination of jury (50%) and public votes (50%). Unlike in the last two years, no superfinal was held and in the event of a tie, the public vote was to take precedence.^[4] In contrast the semi-finals, the public voting was conducted exclusively online via the balsuok.lrt.lt voting platform.^[21]

Following Atikin's qualification to the final, public controversy emerged regarding the lyrics of his song "Deganti žemelė" and the artist's past professional connections with Russia. Critics pointed to a specific phrase in the song which, according to political commentators, could be interpreted as reflecting narratives associated with Russia's position on the war in Ukraine. The debate intensified on social media, where some users called for the performer's removal from the competition. Additional scrutiny arose due to Atikin's previous musical activities in Russia prior to 2022, including collaborations with Russian artists and performances held in the country.^[24] In response, Atikin stated that the song conveys themes of peace, love, and hope and denied supporting the Russian aggression against Ukraine, emphasizing that his earlier professional ties were non-political and occurred before the full-scale invasion.^[25] During the final, Atikin's performance was met with booing by the audience.

During the fourth semi-final, the results presentation was interrupted. Following an approximately eight-minute commercial break, it was stated that the SMS votes had been recalculated after violations of the voting rules were detected.^[26] LRT did not specify which participant or participants were involved in the mentioned violations or how this affected the results.^[27]

In the wildcard round, each voter was allowed to vote only once; however, cases of system abuse were reported during the voting period. At the end of the voting window, available data indicated that Grete had received 48% of the votes, while Nøra Blu had obtained 36%.^[28] Following the removal of invalid votes, the final results showed Nøra Blu as the winner with 50% of the vote. A significant share of votes cast for Grete, including some later deemed invalid, was associated with social media campaigns encouraging users to vote against Nøra Blu after controversial comments about other contestants were made by the song's songwriter, Raigardas Tautkus.^[29]

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.^[30] Lithuania was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final.^[31]