France in the Eurovision Song Contest

This article deals with the history of France as a participant in the Euro Vision Song Contest.

France was next to Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Italy, one of the countries in the first hour of the Euro Vision Song Contest in 1956. Already with five wins, it is one of the most successful countries in competition.

Regularity of participation

France has been increasing since the first competition in 1956 regularly participate but sat out twice: in 1974 they had already selected the singer Dani with the song La vie à 25 ans, however, drew the participation back on the death of President Georges Pompidou. 1982 renounced France from the outset to participate.

Success in competition

France was able to gain the title five times: 1958 was André Claveau with Dors mon amour very front; Two years later, Jacqueline Boyer won with the Evergreen Tom Pillibi; again two years later Isabelle Aubret with the song Un premier amour; 1969 Frida Boccara shared the victory with three other singers; last won by Marie Myriam L' oiseau et and her song l' enfant a French contribution to the competition. In 1991, the singer Amina was tied for first place with the Swedish Carola. In this case, both had the same number of 12 - point ratings, but Amina received less times 10 points. France came three more times to second place (1957, 1976 and 1990) and seven times on the third place.

France never reached the last place, although it is much less successful since the widespread introduction of the telephone voting in 1998: Single three times they finished in the top ten, namely 2001, 2002 and 2009 On the other hand fall into this period four penultimate and a. third last place.

In 2012 the country achieved the 22th place in the final, however, would have alone been considered televoting, as France 26, and thus would have been last with 0 points. The jury had placed the country at number 13.

List of posts

Color legend: - Victories. - A tie to the last place. - Contributions finals.

Aligned competitions

Although France five times won the competition, he found only three times in France instead: 1959 and 1961 in Cannes and in Paris in 1978. 1959 and 1961 led Jacqueline Joubert through the evening, next to her Katie Boyle is the only presenter who appeared several times. 1978 in Paris, the Euro Vision Song Contest was first hosted by a couple, a tradition which has finally naturalized since 1996.

Languages

France is very faithful to his own language in the competition, so far all posts have at least partially presented in a national language, although this was not always French: In 1992, the contribution Monté la Rivié was partially sung in Creole, in the following year Mama Corsica partly on Corsican. In 1996, the entire contribution Diwanit was Bugale presented in Breton. 2001, the last chorus of Je n'ai que mon âme was sung in English, 2004, the last lines of the article A chaque pas in Spanish. Presented in 2007 Les Picard Fatals her song L' amour à la française on " franglais ", a colorful mixture of French and English. The contribution of 2008 was up on two lines entirely in English. The contribution Sognu 2011 was sung entirely in Corsican. 2014 Moustache contains also a few lines in English and Spanish.

National preliminaries

Little is known of France's preliminary decisions of the 50s. In the years 1959-1961 a preliminary decision took place. Between 1962 and 1975 most of the contributions were selected internally, only 1970 and 1973 found a corresponding program instead. As of 1976, the preliminary decision to finally put down until 1987 every year has been a held - only 1979, the show was never aired because of a strike on television, although it took place. From 1988 to 2004, the respective representatives was again mainly determined internally, 1999 and 2000, however, classical Preliminary awards were held, as well as in 2005 and 2007.

2006, the most extensive national selection took place; it contained, among other things three different talent shows on three different stations. The title, however, was chosen previously internally: the written by Corneille song Nous, c'est vous. But since the victorious singer Viriginie Pouchain was not happy with the song, it was replaced by the final contribution Il était temps.

2014, a public preliminary round took place for the first time since 2007, in which three artists on January 26 presented their contributions and was announced on March 2, the winner in the show Les chansons d' abord.

Commercial success

1960 Jacqueline Boyer Tom Pillibi was the first winner of the competition, which was also placed in the charts throughout Europe. The winning titles from the years 1958, 1962 and 1969 were commercially have had little success, either nationally or internationally. Marie Myriam L' oiseau et l' enfant was very successful in France and became now a kind of folk song. 2006 a children's song version of the title was published, which also placed in the charts. Among the contributions of recent years had only Natasha St - Pier greater success with their contribution, which in 2001 reached number two on the singles chart and held nine weeks in the top 10.

Miscellaneous

• The well-known French singer France Gall Poupée de cire won in 1965, poupée de son not for France but for Luxembourg.
• Marie Myriam often announced in recent years, the French locale points.
• A symbolic moment in the competition took place in 1991, as was originally from Tunisia and France An incoming Amina twelve points from Israel. She personally thanked the Israeli representatives.
• The contribution of Anggun called 2012 very different reactions to television audiences and juries forth: While viewers have chosen the post with a pure televoting, as was common before 2009, with zero points on the last place, Anggun reached in the ratings of the national juries a thirteenth place and so even just the upper half of the table. In the final settlement of 50 % jury and audience votes finally got a 22nd place to book.