"Not a bathroom break entry, but not gonna make it to Saturday's Grand Final either.<!--more-->
Country: Lithuania
Song Title: "Rain of Revolution"
Artist: Fusedmarc
Second Semi-Final: Position #17
Last year's entry: “I’ve Been Waiting for This Night” — Donny Montell (9th Place)
Over the last decade, Lithuania has been good at earning themselves a Saturday performance -- they're seven for ten on that front -- but not good at finishing strong. Even taking last year's top-ten finish into account, their average result over that same span is 18th place. Donny Martell has done his part for his country, twice being responsible not only for Grand Final appearances, but also for the two best results (9th and 14th) since 2006. Can Fusedmarc take their country to a third straight Grand Final, or will they just end up raining on Lithuania's parade?
Bring your galoshes, folks. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot about this entry I appreciate, including the presentation that Ben (not wrongly) characterized as seven different ideas happening at once. It's songs like this that made me fall in love with ESC, and it's song like this that keep me coming back year after year. In this case, though, there's a mismatch between what the percussion and bass are promising, and what this song delivers vocally. If I had a genie that would grant me three Eurovision-related wishes each year, one of this year's changes would be Annie Lennox on vocals. Viktorija Ivanovskaja's voice works well in the first verse, but just doesn't offer the depth or color I want in the chorus and beyond. She just gets overshadowed by everything else that's going on in the presentation.
If she can't stand out on her own stage, I'm not sure how Fusedmarc can win over enough juries and televoters to get into the Grand Final. Lithuania are in the easier semi-final, but they've been at the bottom of basically every metric we use to make decisions since we started keeping track. This isn't a bathroom-break entry((Ahem, Ireland)) -- I'll look forward to seeing what presentation they end up with in the semi-final -- but would be beyond shocked to see them qualify.