France in the Eurovision Song Contest

France
Member station	France 2 (France Télévisions) Former members 1956–64: RTF 1965–74: ORTF 1975–81: TF1 France Télévisions 1983–92: Antenne 2 1993–98: France 2 1999–2014: France 3
National selection events	National final 1957–1959 1961 1970 1973 1976–1981 1983–1987 1999–2000 2005–2007 2014 2018 Internal selection 1960 1962–1969 1971–1972 1975 1988–1998 2001 2004 2008–2013 2015–2017
Participation summary
Appearances	60
First appearance	1956
Best result	1st: 1958, 1960, 1962, 1969, 1977
Worst result	Last: 2014
External links
French broadcaster page
France's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

France has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 60 times since its debut at the very first contest in 1956. France is one of only seven countries to be present at the first contest, and has been absent from only two contests in its history, missing the 1974 and 1982 contests. France has won the contest five times, and along with Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom is one of the "Big Five" who are automatically allowed to participate in the final because they are the five biggest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

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.

After reaching the top five in 24 contests in the 20th century, France has had less success in the 21st century, only making the top five twice, with Natasha St-Pier fourth in 2001 and Sandrine François fifth in 2002. France finished last for the first time in 2014, when Twin Twin received only two points. France have failed to reach the top 10 in 13 of the last 15 contests, the exceptions being Patricia Kaas, who was eighth in 2009, and Amir, who was sixth in 2016.

Organisation

Several French broadcasters have been used to present Eurovision in the country, formerly RTF (1956–64), ORTF (1965–74) and TF1 (1975–81). Since 1983, France Télévisions has been responsible for France's participation in the contest, with the final being broadcast on France 2 (1983–98) and France 3 (1999–2014), and the semi-final which France votes in broadcast on France 4 (2005–10, 2016) and later France Ô (2011–15). The first semi-final in 2004 was not broadcast. From 2015, France 2 resumed the responsibility of organising an entry and broadcasting the final and from 2016, both semi-finals will be broadcast by France 4. The change is an attempt to secure better ratings and results in forthcoming contests. Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year, by France Inter from 1971 to 1998 and since 2001, France Bleu (also 1976). In 1982, RTL Radio transmitted the contest due to the country's absence that year.

France has often changed the selection process used in order to find the country's entry for the contest, either a national final or internal selection (occasionally a combination of both formats) has been held by the broadcaster at the time.

Contest history

France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second four times and coming third seven times. France was ranked first in number of victories (either alone or tied with other countries) without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. Moreover, Amina was close to victory with the song "Le Dernier qui a parlé..." in 1991, when she finished in joint first place (with the same number of points as Sweden). Therefore, the 'countback' rule applied, but both countries had an equal number of twelve points (four lots), but the victory went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-point scores. Today, with the new rules, France would have won the competition, because they received points from more countries than Sweden. One year before, France was also close to winning with Joëlle Ursull performing Serge Gainsbourg's song "White and Black Blues". The song finished in equal second place with Ireland's entry.

However, in recent years, the French results have been somewhat disappointing. Since 1998, when the televoting was invented, France has almost always been in the bottom-10 countries in the final, coming 18th (2003 and 2008), 19th (1999), 22nd (2006, 2007 and 2012), 23rd (2000, 2005 and 2013), 24th (1998) and 25th (2015). France finished in last place, for the first time in their Eurovision history, in 2014 with only 2 points.

Yet, France have had some good results during the 21st century. In 2001, Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came 4th for France with her song "Je n'ai que mon âme", being the favourite to win the contest by fans and odds. This good result was carried into the 2002 contest, when Sandrine François came 5th with "Il faut du temps" and received the Marcel Bezençon international press award for the best entry of that year. Finally, the positive experience with Sébastien Tellier in 2008 created considerable interest among the French show business for the contest, which resulted in the fact that Eurovision is seen now in the French media as a great advertising campaign and it has been decided that big names will represent France in the future. With these ambitions, the French superstar Patricia Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. Kaas is one of the most successful French-speaking singers in the world and she has sold over 16 million records worldwide.^[1] She ended in 8th place. Kaas received the Marcel Bezençon artistic award, which was voted on by previous winners and presented to the best artist. In the 2016 Contest in Stockholm, Sweden, Amir with his song, "J'ai cherché", ended in 6th place and broke the record by scoring the most points in France's Eurovision history, by scoring 257 points in the final.

Absences

Since their debut in 1956 France has only missed two contests, in 1974 and 1982. In 1974, after selecting a singer and song to represent them at the contest, France withdrew after the President of France Georges Pompidou died in the week of the contest.^[2] If they had participated in the contest, France would have been represented by Dani with the song "La vie à vingt-cinq ans".

In November 1981, TF1 declined to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for 1982, with the head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, saying, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. Eurovision is a monument to inanity [sometimes translated as "drivel"]."^[3] Antenne 2 took over the job due to public reaction of TF1's withdraw, hosting a national final to select their entry as well, from the 1983 contest.

France and the "Big Five"

Since 1999, four particular countries have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final, regardless of their positions on the scoreboard in previous Contests.^[4] They earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU. These countries are the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Spain. Due to their untouchable status in the Contest, these countries became known as the "Big Four". Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus becoming part of a "Big Five".^[5][6]

Contestants

Table key

NOTE: The full results for the first contest in 1956 are unknown, only the winner was announced. The official Eurovision site lists all the other songs as being placed second.

Voting history

As of 2017, France's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  United Kingdom 192 2  Portugal 180 3  Spain 170 4  Israel 169 5  Italy 156

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Portugal 242 2  Israel 216 3  United Kingdom 192 4  Turkey 190 5  Belgium 174

Most points received Rank Country Points 1   Switzerland 181 2  Netherlands 162 3  Norway 159 4  Belgium 157 5  Germany 155

Hostings

Other awards

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Press Award

Artistic Award (Voted by previous winners)

Composer Award

OGAE Eurovision Song Contest Poll

Commentators and spokespersons

Since their debut in 1956 French television have sent their best television presenters and entertainers including Pierre Tchernia, Léon Zitrone, Robert Beauvais, Olivier Minne, Michel Drucker, Patrick Sabatier and Laurent Boyer. Every year until 1979 Monaco shared the French commentary.

Photogallery

• 
  André Claveau in Hilversum (1958)
• 
  Guy Mardel in Naples (1965)
• 
  Dan Ar Braz in Oslo (1996)
• 
  Jonatan Cerrada in Istanbul (2004)
• 
  Les Fatals Picards in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Sébastien Tellier in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Patricia Kaas in Moscow (2009)
• 
  Jessy Matador in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Amaury Vassili in Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Anggun in Baku (2012)
• 
  Amandine Bourgeois at Malmö (2013)
• 
  Twin Twin at Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Lisa Angell at Vienna (2015)
• 
  Amir at Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Alma at Kyiv (2017)

See also

• France in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• France in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• France in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

References

External links

• French Eurovision site
• French website
• Points to and from France eurovisioncovers.co.uk