When We're Old / Ieva Zasimauskaitė / Lithuania | Review

Ieva Zasimauskaitė

Thus far, Lithuania has only managed two Top 10 finishes out of eighteen attempts, so it’s easy to make light of their chances amid the hoopla of Eurovision selections. Of course, it would be bonkers to reject them out of hand as they have a tendency to edge their way into the Grand Final at the expense of some other highly favoured entries. Their odds are pretty lengthy this time around as well, but can Ieva Zasimauskaitė's When We're Old continue the country's sequence of qualifiers?

A few Eurovision experts attribute Lithuania’s regular appearance in the Grand Final as a consequence of diaspora voting. This is certainly undeniable – they constantly chalk up a respectable points tally from the UK and Ireland where there is quite a sizable Lithuanian presence.

The UK and Ireland will vote in Lithuania’s semi-final once again this year - so no change there - but I wonder if When We're Old will have enough clout to really make an impression? It's not that it is a weak song; it's a quite moving ballad with some emotionally charged lyrics and proposed staging. Ieva's vocals cope very well but the song itself is inescapably low-key. So I ask myself if many - having watched the full lineup of songs - will feel that it justifies their vote?

For that reason, I consider Lithuania's effort to be either a borderline qualifier or to end up somewhere in the last quarter of the finals board.

Image by Ilya Mauter [CC BY-SA 4.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Lithuania 

Artist: Ieva Zasimauskaitė

Song: When We're Old 

Semi-Final 1 | First Half