Although the official registration of participants in this year’s national selection of Eurovizijos Atranka has already ended and filming has already started, the list of participants has now changed at the last minute.

Because Algirdas Daumantas Ciūnys refused to participate and withdrew from the preselection, we now welcome three more participants: Group “120”, Linas Jakštys and Sasha Song with Dovilė.

Saulius Urbonavičius-Samas, the producer of the group “120”, says that the decision to participate in the selection was made by members of the group. The song is completely Lithuanian, the members of the band have created the text themselves, and the music is done together with Deivydas Zvonkus. The group “120” won Lithuanian X Factor last year and now has a lot of fans behind them.

Another late edition? Sasha Song, who has participated in the selection a few times now and has already represented Lithuania in 2009 Eurovision where he placed 23rd in the grand final and won our inaugural edition of Eurovision’s Next Top Male Model. However, this time he will not be alone and will be joined by singer Dovile and will perform the song “Bad Boy”. Linas Jakštys has also decided to take part in the selection with his song “Criminal Love”.

There’s also been an amendment to an existing act. Jurgis Didžiulis won‘t be going solo. He will be joined by his wife and well known Eurovision star Erica Jennings with their song “SING!”. Last year Erica should have participated with her song “The Truth” but withdrew from the competition saying that the preselection is a rather rigged affair. However, after a year it seems that she changed her mind.

And one more surprise is that fan favorite Monika Marija — who performed Erica’s song last year — will compete with two songs this year.

Her first entry is “Criminal” and now she will add “Light On” as her second song to the Eurovizijos Atranka.

“When we picked a song for Eurovision, I felt that my heart was leaning toward ‘Criminal’, that it was my element. However, it is difficult to make such a decision until you perform on the stage and it is live. After the album’s release concerts, I felt great support and desire from my fans that they want to hear ‘Light On’ on the Eurovision stage, and my listeners are always in the first place,” she says.

The performer herself assures her fans that she feels confident with both songs and that they, though different, but both have strong messages.

“Both songs are just as precious for me because there is a strong history behind them that has changed my life. The essential differences between these songs are in their style and genre. Also, the story of one song is about what happened to me, and the other song’s about what I did to another person.”

Monika Marija says it is very difficult to predict which song will get more support from the people, but is assured that the performances on the Eurovizijos Atranka scene will help viewers see which song is better.

“It seems that my listeners are now divided into two camps, so I am looking forward to the heat filmings and wondering how the songs will be received by the audience after the shows, not only when they hear the audio cuts,” she says.

According to Eurovizijos Atranka producer and head of delegation Audrius Giržadas, such a decision does not contradict the contest rules. And now the total number of participants is 51.

What do you think about the new participants? And which song from Monika Marija is better? Let us know in the comments down below.