Review: Ieva Zasimauskaite - When We're Old - Lithuania

TellyStats Rating:

7 Day YouTube Views: 338,758
7 Day YouTube Likes: 9,787

Joining this year's first semi-final lineup are Lithuania with a gentle ballad to which Ellie Goulding herself would find herself swaying to sleep.

With a simple, minimalistic piano chord progression and light strings throughout, Ieva whispers her wish for her love to last forever. The song stays at a singular pace throughout with no change in the presentation. It's a pleasant enough song, like a track played during the wedding montage of a cheesy chick-flick. This track is likely to be one of the more minimalist songs this year but it feels like too much has been stripped away and there isn't really much for the audience to latch onto - especially when you consider 42 other songs and the craziness and variety that brings - could Lithuania stand out with it's stripped-back song?

Unfortunately, the song is simply too boring, there really is no build at all - she has a lovely voice and I'm sure on vocals the song will go down well with the juries, however it's a big fail in probably every other category that judges mark on. I began losing interest halfway through the first play and the second and third plays really didn't help to change my mind.

Lithuania is currently 26th in the betting markets and my personal belief is that even that is too high a position. The song feels like a bit of a cop out that certainly shouldn't be above Ireland, Switzerland or the UK in the betting markets. The YouTube stats are surprisingly good though, with Views and Likes above those of France and Norway. Lithuania are unfortunate enough to be in the first semi-final alongside some of this year's big hitters, further, they're in the worst possible running order slot, sandwiched between the Czech Republic and Israel - my feeling is that this shouldn't and won't qualify, despite the support of Lithuania's diaspora.