Following her first rehearsal, our Rory got a chance to catch up with France’s La Zarra to discuss her Liverpool experience so far.
Watch our interview with La Zarra right here:
During their interview, Rory and La Zarra talked about how her rehearsals went, the inspiration behind her regal outfits and her pride in representing not only France, but also Canada. She also tells us whether she believes she has sung ‘la grande France’, as well as revealing her secret love for Spongebob SquarePants!
La Zarra’s Eurovision Journey so far
La Zarra was internally selected to represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 by France Télévisions back in January. It was later revealed that La Zarra will sing “Évidemment” at the contest. La Zarra will perform in the Grand Final at Eurovision 2023, bypassing the semi-finals as France are part of the Big 5.
In the run-up to her performance at the Contest, La Zarra performed at Pre-Party ES in Madrid. She was also due to perform at Eurovision in Concert in Amsterdam and the London Eurovision Party, but pulled out ahead of these pre-parties.
On Thursday, La Zarra performed on the Eurovision stage for her first rehearsal. You can find out more about her first rehearsal, and our thoughts on that here.
Who is La Zarra?
Fatima Zahra Hafdi, otherwise known as La Zarra is a 25 year-old singer originally from Montreal, a French speaking providence in Canada. Up until getting involved in music, Fatima was a hairdresser. La Zarra started releasing music back in 2020 with her first single “À l’ammoniaque/Mon dieu”. In 2022, La Zarra released her first album “Traîtrise”, from this comes her most successful song in France so far which is “Tu t’en iras”, which charted at #75, and has amassed over 22 millions streams on Spotify.
“Évidemment” – La Zarra’s Eurovision entry was written by Ahmed Saghir, Yannick Rastogi and Zacharie Raymond, as well as input from Fatima herself.
France’s Eurovision journey
France is a powerhouse in Eurovision, debuting in the first Contest in 1956. Their first entries finished in second place, but no scores were ever published. Since then, France has gone on to win the Contest five times. The most recent win came in 1977, with Marie Myriam’s “L’enfant et l’oiseau”, scoring 136 points.
Recently, France had slumped in results but a change in direction in 2016 has seen a boost in results. Amir finished in 6th position for France with “J’ai charché”, followed by 12th, 13th and 16th places respectively. In 2022, France sent Breton artists Alvan and Ahez with their song “Fulenn”. At the close of voting, France finished in 24th place, earning 17 points.
What do you think of our interview with La Zarra? Do you think she could win? Where would you like France to finish this year? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow “That Eurovision Site” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok as we cover the rehearsals of Eurovision 2023!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
