Lithuania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

On 12 November 2010, LRT announced that a final decision about the participation in Düsseldorf is expected to be made by 26 November. Lithuanian Head of Delegation Audrius Girzadas said, that the likelihood for Lithuania to participate in the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest "is 90%".[3] LRT confirmed its participation on 24 November 2010.[4]

Eurovizija 2011 (Eurovision 2011) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition involved a four-week-long process that commenced on 5 February 2011 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 24 February 2011. The four shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Giedrius Masalskis. The shows were broadcast on LRT televizija as well as online via the broadcaster's website lrt.lt. The final was also streamed online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.[5]

The format of the competition involved forty entries competing in four shows. The first three shows were the semi-finals consisting of twelve or fourteen entries each. The top three entries advanced per semi-final, while four wildcards were selected out of the eliminated entries to advance in the competition at the conclusion of the third show: three were selected by LRT and one was selected by online voting through a voting platform on zebra.lt. The fourth show, held on 24 February 2011, was the final where the winner was selected from the remaining thirteen entries over two rounds of voting: the first round selected the top three entries and the second round selected the winner.[6] Monetary prizes were also awarded to both the winning artist. The Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association (LATGA) sponsored a monetary prize of 25,000 LTL, awarded to the winning artist(s) in order to assist in their preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest.[7]

The results of the semi-finals and the first round of the final were determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a jury panel and public televoting. The ranking developed by both streams of voting was converted to points from 1-8, 10 and 12 and assigned based on the number of competing songs in the respective show. During the first three shows, the jury votes were determined by a five-member jury panel with varying members from show to show. In the final, a fourteen-member jury panel voted. The public could submit their votes through telephone and SMS voting. Ties were decided in favour of the entry that received the most votes from the jury. For the second round of the final, the results were determined by the jury panel only.

On 24 November 2010, LRT opened the submissions for artists and songwriters to submit their entries. The submission deadline concluded on 3 January 2011.[4] On 11 January 2011, LRT announced the 43 artists selected for the competition.[8] Among the artists are previous Lithuanian Eurovision contestants Linas Adomaitis, who represented Lithuania in 2004 as part of Linas and Simona, and Sasha Son, who represented the nation in 2009. The final changes to the list of 43 competing acts were made with the withdrawal of 24for7, Asta Pilypaitė and Vilija.

The first semi-final of the competition aired on 5 February 2011 and featured the first set of forty competing entries. The members of the jury consisted of Rosita Čivilytė (singer), Gytis Ivanauskas (choreographer and dancer), Faustas Latėnas (member of LATGA), Darius Užkuraitis (musicologist) and Jonas Vilimas (producer).[9] Three entries advanced to the final, while eleven were eliminated. On 21 February 2011, Urtė Šilagalytė and Martynas Beinaris were announced to have received the LRT and zebra.lt wildcards respectively to advance to the final.[10]

The second semi-final of the competition aired on 12 February 2011 and featured the second set of forty competing entries. The members of the jury consisted of Rosita Čivilytė (singer), Eglė Nepaitė (producer), Teisutis Makačinas (Vice President of LATGA), Darius Užkuraitis (musicologist) and Lukas Pačkauskas (producer, former member of the group Kastaneda).[11] Three entries advanced to the final, while eleven were eliminated. On 21 February 2011, Donny Montell was announced to have received one of the LRT wildcards to advance to the final.[10]

The third semi-final of the competition aired on 19 February 2011 and featured the third set of forty competing entries. The members of the jury consisted of Mindaugas Urbaitis (member of LATGA), Darius Užkuraitis (musicologist), Neda Malunavičiūtė (singer), Laura Remeikienė (singer-songwriter) and Vytautas Juozapaitis (opera singer). Three entries advanced to the final, while eleven were eliminated. On 21 February 2011, Donny Montell & Sasha Son was announced to have received one of the LRT wildcards to advance to the final.[10]

The final of the competition was broadcast live on 24 February 2011 and featured the remaining thirteen entries that qualified from the semi-finals. In the first round, "Floating to You" performed by Linas Adomaitis, "C'est ma vie" performed by Evelina Sašenko and "Break Free" performed by Rūta Ščiogolevaitė advanced to the second round, the superfinal. In the superfinal, "C'est ma vie" performed by Evelina Sašenko was selected as the winner after gaining the most points from the jury vote.[12]