Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Country	Lithuania
National selection
Selection process	National Final
Selection date(s)	31 December 1998
Selected entrant	Aistė
Selected song	"Strazdas"
Finals performance
Final result	20th, 13 points
Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest

Lithuania returned to the Eurovision Song Contest in 1999, having withdrawn after their debut entry in 1994. Lithuania's second Eurovision entry came from Aistė, who performed "Strazdas" (The song thrush) at the 1999 Contest in Jerusalem, Israel.

National final

For Lithuania's return to Eurovision after five years, the Lithuanian broadcaster Lietuvos radijas ir televizija (LRT) held a national final to select the second Lithuanian entry. The contest was held on 27 December 1998, but was not broadcast on television until 31 December, and was recorded in the capital Vilnius, hosted by Vilija Grigonyte and Vytautas Kernagis. Both televoting and jury voting was used during the show, however only the votes of the jury decided the winner.

The televote results showed that RebelHeart had won with 40%, with Aistė Smilgevičiūtė coming second with 33%. The winner was decided by a jury, with only the top 4 songs being known. The winner of the jury vote was Aistė with "Strazdas", performed in Samogitian, a dialect of Lithuanian.

**National Final - 31 December 1998**
Draw	Artist	Song	Points	Rank
1	Aistė Pilvelytė	"Nubudusi širdis"	-	-
2	B'Avarija	"Nešk mane"	17	4
3	Violeta Riaubiškytė	"Aš dovanoju"	-	-
4	Džeirana Kazlauskaitė	"Viena naktyje"	-	-
5	Aistė Pilvelytė	"Tylos verinys"	-	-
6	Otilija	"Mano žvaigždė"	-	-
7	Rūta Ščiogolevaitė	"Vasaros buvo per daug"	-	-
8	Rene	"Sapnas"	-	-
9	Aistė Smilgevičiūtė	"Strazdas"	57	1
10	B'Avarija	"Pamiršk"	-	-
11	Rosita Čivilytė	"Apie tai"	22	3
12	RebelHeart	"Kelias pas tave"	27	2

At Eurovision

Aistė opened the 1999 contest, performing first in a field of 23, preceding Belgium in the running order. "Strazdas" received 13 points: 1 point from Malta; two points each from Estonia and Croatia; three points from Israel; and 5 points from Cyprus, placing 20th in a field of 23. As such Lithuania was relegated from the 2000 Contest, due to low average scores over the past 5 years.

Voting

Points awarded to Lithuania

Points Awarded to Lithuania
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points

5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Cyprus		Israel	Croatia Estonia	Malta

Points Awarded by Lithuania

12 points	Ireland
10 points	Slovenia
8 points	Iceland
7 points	Poland
6 points	Croatia
5 points	United Kingdom
4 points	Netherlands
3 points	Sweden
2 points	France
1 point	Estonia