| Simona Jakubėnaitė
An ambitious 19-year-old with a strong musical background, Simona Jakubėnaitė is one of Lithuania’s most talented and promising singers.
On stage since she was just eight-years-old, Simona first had success in 1997 when she won a contest for young Jazz singers in her native city of Panevezys.
Numerous festival appearances and concerts followed, including Stockholm’s Gospel Festival 1993, the Krefeld Gospel Festival 1998 in Germany and a role in an international Lithuanian-Swedish production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's world-famous rock opera, "Jesus Christ Superstar" in 1999. In all, Simona has taken part in more than 15 international music festivals. Pretty impressive for a girl who will turn 20 this autumn.
Her big break came in 2002 when Simona decided to participate in the hugely popular Baltic music talent search TV show, "Fizz Superstar." Simona's performance of a Destiny's Child hit didn't win her first place in the contest, but she did open doors. On the set she met Linas Adomaitis. The pair greatly admired each other and their creative collaboration blossomed, propelling the duo to new levels of musical success.
After two years singing backing vocals in Linas' concerts, last autumn Simona decided to enter Lithuanian Eurovision contest with a duet she sang with Linas. It was the second time she entered the competition; she’d also taken part in the national prelims in 2002.
The duet, 'What's Happened to Your Love?" was well received by Lithuanian music fans and came first in the national Eurovision selection on 14 February, 2004.
"We will do our best not to disappoint our fans and all the people who voted for us,” Simona said on the night with tears of joy in her eyes. “I think getting into the top 10 in the Eurovision final would be a good result.”
With a ‘Linas & Simona’ album in the pipeline and plans for summer concerts in the USA, the singer hasn't got much spare time.
But when she has, the raven-haired singer loves to indulge in her favourite leisure activities like playing tennis, swimming, collecting teddy bears and eating chocolate. And for all you guys out there… no, she doesn't have a boyfriend at the moment. |
