Morten Thomassen from Norway started reported on the final positions of the 37 entries in the 2023 Eurovision song contest. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.

This is a blog entry and represents only writer Morten Thomassen’s own views.

Every year there are some countries that do much worse than expected and vice versa some countries that get a much better position than expected before the competition took place.

I would say that our Lithuanian friend Monika Linkyte falls under the latter category, she already had an 18th place from her participation back in 2015 and very few would have thought that she would do better than that.

Well, she put all predictions to shame and got a great 11th place with the song “Stay” and was only 2 points short of a top-10 place, so being called Monika and singing for Lithuania is not completely gone.

The jury is obviously a bit weak for vocal-strong traditional ballads since they gave up a whopping 81 points to this song, while the public was a bit more reserved with their 46 points.

As previously mentioned, we got a big ballad that requires its own vocalist and the latter was an easy match for Monika, who had good control on that side of the matter.

In addition, we are treated to a performance without too many frills and I love the fact that she brings her important choristers on stage and lets them shine too, because the powerful vocals we hear definitely do not belong to her alone.

Also as previously mentioned, this is a relatively traditional and not overly exciting ballad of which there are quite a few by the dozen.

Such songs can only be saved by a good vocalist and that is exactly what happens and then it fits quite well with a position slightly above the middle of the results list.

Our Lithuanian friends have had a few good years in terms of results now and as they are the only Baltic country yet to win I reckon they will want to send the tune that could soon take the ESC scalp once and for all.

Featured image – Corinne Cumming – EBU