Lithuania participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Love Is Blind" written by Brandon Stone and Jodie Rose. The song was performed by Donny Montell. The Lithuanian broadcaster Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) organised the national final "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) in order to select the Lithuanian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. The national final took place over five weeks and involved 36 competing entries. In the final, fourteen entries remained and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote selected the top three to qualify to the superfinal. In the superfinal, a jury vote entirely selected "Love Is Blind" performed by Donny Montell as the winner.
Lithuania was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2012. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 18, "Love Is Blind" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May. It was later revealed that Lithuania placed third out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 104 points. In the final, Lithuania performed in position 26 and placed fourteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 70 points.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Lithuania had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twelve times since its first entry in 1994. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "We Are the Winners" performed by LT United. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Lithuania, to this point, has managed to qualify to the final four times. In the 2011 contest, "C'est ma vie" performed by Evelina Sašenko qualified to the final where the song scored 63 points and placed 19th.
For the 2012 contest, the Lithuanian national broadcaster, Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), broadcast the event within Lithuania and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. Other than the internal selection of their debut entry in 1994, Lithuania has selected their entry consistently through a national final procedure. LRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 11 September 2011 and announced the organization of "Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka, which would be the national final to select Lithuania's entry for Baku.
Before Eurovision
"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka
"Eurovizijos" dainų konkurso nacionalinė atranka (Eurovision Song Contest national selection) was the national final format developed by LRT in order to select Lithuania's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition involved a five-week-long process that commenced on 4 February 2012 and concluded with a winning song and artist on 3 March 2012. The five shows took place at the LRT studios in Vilnius and were hosted by Liepa Rimkevičienė and Darius Užkuraitis. The shows were broadcast on LTV, LTV World and Lietuvos Radijas 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.
Format
The 2012 competition involved 36 entries and consisted of five shows. The first four shows were the semi-finals consisting of nine entries each. The top three entries proceeded to the final from each semi-final, while two wildcard acts were also selected for the final out of the remaining non-qualifying acts from the semi-finals. The two wildcards were selected by the public through two separate voting platforms, one on the Balsuok! mobile application and one on the website of the mineral water brand Akvilė. Viewers using the Balsuok! app during the four shows were able to select the "for" or "against" option for each entry, and the song that received the most "for" votes received the Balsuok! wildcard. In the final, the winner was selected from the remaining fourteen entries over two rounds of voting. The first round results selected the top three entries, while the second round determined the winner. Monetary prizes were also awarded to the top three artists. The winner received 15,000 LTL, while the second place received 10,000 LTL and the third place received 5,000 LTL. The winning artist(s) were awarded an additional 10,000 LTL sponsored by Akvilė in order to assist in their preparation for the Eurovision Song Contest.