France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021
France will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with the song "Voilà" performed by Barbara Pravi. Their entry was selected through the national selection Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez!, organised by the French broadcaster France Télévisions in collaboration with the television channel France 2.
| Eurovision Song Contest 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  France | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez! | |||
| Selection date(s) | 30 January 2021 | |||
| Selected entrant | Barbara Pravi | |||
| Selected song | "Voilà" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Barbara Pravi Lili Poe Igit | |||
| France in the Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
As a member of the "Big 5", France will automatically qualify to compete in the final of the contest.
Background
Prior to the 2021 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty-two times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956. France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. Since 2000, France has managed to place within the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001, Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002, Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in 2009 and Amir finishing sixth in 2016.
The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 2. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. Between 2015 and 2017, the broadcaster had opted to internally select the French entry. In 2018 and 2019, the broadcaster introduced the multi-artist competition format Destination Eurovision to select the French entry. In June 2020, France Télévisions announced that a new national final format would take place to select the French entry for the 2021 contest.
Before Eurovision
Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez!
Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez was the national final organised by France 2 to select France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition took place on 30 January 2021, produced at the France Télévisions studios Paris and was hosted by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini. The show was broadcast on France 2, online via the broadcaster's official website france.tv as well as on TV5Monde and TV5 Québec Canada on a time delay.
Competing entries
France 2 opened a submission period on 29 June 2020 in order for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals through an online submission form up until the deadline on 30 September 2020. Songs were required to contain a majority of French language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics.[1] At the closing of the deadline, the French broadcaster received 700 submissions. A selection committee reviewed the received submissions, shortlisted twenty entries for an audition round which took place at the Apollo Théâtre in Paris and selected twelve to compete in the national final.[2][3] The competing artists and songs were announced on 9 December 2020.[4]
| Artist | Song | Language | Composer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Juin Le Duo | "Peux-tu me dire?" | French, English | Julien Guillemin, Manon Pècheur, Jan Orsi |
| Ali | "Paris me dit (Yalla ya helo!)" | French | Hyphen Hyphen |
| Amui | "Maeva" | French, Tahitian | Ken Carlterm, Serena F. Carlter, Edwiga Taerea |
| Andriamad | "Alléluia" | French, English | Andriamad |
| Barbara Pravi | "Voilà" | French | Barbara Pravi, Lili Poe, Igit |
| Casanova | "Tutti" | French, Corsican | Yoann Casanova, Théo Grasset, Jérôme Brulant |
| Céphaz | "On a mangé le soleil" | French | Antoine Essertier, Elise Rieslinger |
| Juliette Moraine | "Pourvu qu'on m'aime" | French | Juliette Moraine, Rémi Portat |
| LMK | "Magique" | French, English | Eve-Line Lamarca, High P |
| Philippine | "Bah non" | French | Philippine Zadéo, Caméléon |
| PONY X | "Amour fou" | French, English | Spoolman, SquirL, Clarence |
| Terence James | "Je t'emmènerai danser" | French | Terence James, Ben Mazué |
Final
The final took place on 30 January 2021. Twelve entries competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top seven entries were determined exclusively by public televoting to advance to the second round, the superfinal. An additional entry was determined from the remaining five entries by a ten-member jury panel to advance. The jury panel consisted of Amir (jury president, singer, songwriter, represented France in the 2016 contest), Chimène Badi (singer), Michèle Bernier (comedian), Agustín Galiana (Spanish singer and comedian), Jean-Paul Gaultier (fashion designer), Élodie Gossuin (television presenter), Duncan Laurence (Dutch singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019), André Manoukian (jazz singer and former judge on Nouvelle Star), Marie Myriam (singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977) and Natasha St-Pier (singer, represented France in the 2001 contest). In the superfinal, the winner, "Voilà" performed by Barbara Pravi, was determined by the combination of public televoting (50%) and the jury panel (50%).[5]
The show opened with a medley of Eurovision songs with the 12 contestants and members of the jury. During the first round of voting, Amir performed a medley of his songs from his three French-language albums. Valentina, winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020, performed a two-song medley of her winning song "J'imagine" and Celine Dion's winning song from 1988 "Ne partez pas sans moi" with the 8 superfinalists during the final round of voting.
Televote qualifier Jury qualifier
| Final – 30 January 2021 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Result |
| 1 | Andriamad | "Alléluia" | Eliminated |
| 2 | Juliette Moraine | "Pourvu qu'on m'aime" | Advanced |
| 3 | Céphaz | "On a mangé le soleil" | Advanced |
| 4 | Amui | "Maeva" | Advanced |
| 5 | Philippine | "Bah non" | Eliminated |
| 6 | Terence James | "Je t'emmènerai danser" | Eliminated |
| 7 | Barbara Pravi | "Voilà" | Advanced |
| 8 | PONY X | "Amour fou" | Advanced |
| 9 | Casanova | "Tutti" | Advanced |
| 10 | LMK | "Magique" | Advanced |
| 11 | Ali | "Paris me dit (Yalla ya helo!)" | Eliminated |
| 12 | 21 Juin Le Duo | "Peux-tu me dire?" | Advanced |
| Superfinal – 30 January 2021 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place |
| 1 | Juliette Moraine | "Pourvu qu'on m'aime" | 76 | 60 | 136 | 2 |
| 2 | Céphaz | "On a mangé le soleil" | 52 | 30 | 82 | 5 |
| 3 | Amui | "Maeva" | 8 | 70 | 78 | 6 |
| 4 | Barbara Pravi | "Voilà" | 104 | 100 | 204 | 1 |
| 5 | PONY X | "Amour fou" | 74 | 50 | 124 | 3 |
| 6 | Casanova | "Tutti" | 22 | 80 | 102 | 4 |
| 7 | LMK | "Magique" | 66 | 10 | 76 | 7 |
| 8 | 21 Juin Le Duo | "Peux-tu me dire?" | 18 | 20 | 38 | 8 |
| Detailed Jury Votes | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song | M. Myriam | J. P. Gaultier | É. Gossuin | D. Laurence | C. Badi | M. Bernier | A. Manoukian | N. St-Pier | A. Galiana | Amir | Total |
| 1 | "Pourvu qu'on m'aime" | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 76 |
| 2 | "On a mangé le soleil" | 8 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 52 | |
| 3 | "Maeva" | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | |||||||
| 4 | "Voilà" | 2 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 104 |
| 5 | "Amour fou" | 12 | 12 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 74 |
| 6 | "Tutti" | 4 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 22 | |||||
| 7 | "Magique" | 10 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 66 | |
| 8 | "Peux-tu me dire?" | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 18 | ||||||
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is scheduled to take place at Rotterdam Ahoy in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and will consist of two semi-finals held on 18 and 20 May, and the grand final on 22 May 2021.[6] As France is a member of the Big 5, their entry for 2021 will directly qualify to the final, along with Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and host country the Netherlands.[7] The top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the grand final.
References
- "Sélection France 2021". eurovision-france.fr (in French). 29 June 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- Gallagher, Robyn (22 November 2020). "France TV confirms new national final 'Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez!' for January". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
- "FRANCE 2021 : Les 12 Finalistes d'Eurovision France". eurovision-fr.net (in French). 9 December 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
- "France has started their new selection process for Eurovision 2021". eurovision.tv. 9 December 2020.
- W, Pauly (8 January 2021). "Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez : conférence de presse". l'Eurovision au Quotidien (in French). Retrieved 8 January 2020.
- "Rotterdam 2021 - Eurovision Song Contest". EBU. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
- "Rules - Eurovision Song Contest". EBU. Archived from the original on 8 April 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2020.