It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series looked at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. This time we’re creating national finals from scratch; continuing with France.
In part three of this series Euan, Angus, and Georgia discuss how they’d create a national final for France.
Do we think that they will return to a national final, and would we want that?
Euan
I think it’s really likely that France Télévisions will go back to a national final in the near future. They’re constantly adapting how they approach Eurovision and there’s not usually a long stretch of time between French national finals. When it comes to whether or not I think they should go back to a national final is tricky. Two of my favourite French entries are Mon alliée and Fulenn both using either format. France, irrespective of how it decides, is consistently one of my favourite countries at Eurovision. I’m just happy they’re there
I’m not aware of what Angus and Georgia are going to write below, but just know I vehemently disagree with everything they’ve ever uttered about France in Eurovision.
Angus
We both like “L’amour à la française” for starters so jot that down, Euan. Anyway, with the contractual bickering between us over: France will return to a national final at some point. It will of course only last for a few years before being retired or at least put on hold, as is seemingly tradition for them by now. Some of the songs that France has selected via NFs have been excellent (’07, ’18, ’21 immediately come to mind), others have been, in my opinion, less impressive. From a competitive standpoint, there have been high highs and low lows for France when they use a national final. Then again, all the things I am saying also apply to France and its internal selections.
So I guess in the end I lean slightly towards wanting France to hold a national final, even if it is just so we get to hear more French music in any and all of its forms.
Georgia
I think France will return to a national final in the very near future. There were rumblings earlier this year that a national final will be back soon. If we don’t see one this year, I would be surprised if we don’t see a national final in 2026 or 2027. Will it last more than maybe 3-4 years? Probably not. But, it’ll be back soon. France’s record in Eurovision is scattered when it uses an internal selection and a national final, so there isn’t an argument in that regard. However, I would like to see a French national final back soon. Mainly because I want France Télévisions to realise that they can send more than just chanson to Eurovision and do well, but I’ll get into that later.
What would our dream national final look like?
Euan
Now what I’m going to say sounds very strange because it did result in their worst result ever, and picked truly the worst song ever to exist in the French language, but they should go for something along the lines that they did for 2014. I did like c’est vous qui décidez, and Destination, but both shows felt ‘bloated’ song wise. I think for France going for a smaller final of three acts gives a much greater focus on the songs.
I wouldn’t just completely lift the selection however, there are changes I’d make. Starting with the fact that the three acts should have absolutely no overlap in style or demography. There should be completely distinct varieties in what the pubic are being presented. And if one such variety is Gojira I certainly wouldn’t say no to that.
Now if you have been familiar with our series before then you’ll know I love a multi-stage format. And for France this would be no different. I think going for something like what Belgium had in 2023 would feed well into a French national final. Three evening semi finals a week or two prior to the final where each act present three songs, with a 100% televote deciding their favourite would further help build excitement for the format.
Angus
The variety of critically acclaimed and (at least in their niche) commercially successful French artists and groups is astounding. From metal bands like Gojira to DJs like Kavinsky or the eclectic discography of Woodkid, France’s music scene has so much more to offer than the chanson-tinged pop they sent most years. I would want a televised selection to celebrate this variety in genre, regardless of how big the chance is that some [insert amusingly named micro-genre here] song actually goes to Eurovision or does well there.
What I am about to propose is going to be an absolutely chaotic and probably unworkable idea, but I think it is worth sharing nevertheless. France Télévisions should have each member of the NF selection committee pick a small number of songs, something like 3 or 5 entries each. First we will have some heats, which will consist of the songs picked by one committee member going up against each-other. This could either be a (semi-)live show set in a small venue where artists get to show their on-stage and on-camera charisma, or more of a ESCZ22 style live-on-tape. A pure televote will decide which song (singular) goes through to the final. If we have 6 people in the selection committee, that gives us space for 2 jury wildcards to add the numbers up to 8 and give us a nice number of songs for the final.
A combined jury and televote, all points distributed fully proportional of course and maybe even with the vote running through an app where people rank the songs jury style instead of just voting for their favourite(s), will then pick the song going to Eurovision in a big live television event. If the right mix of people are selected to be part of the selection committee, we should see a nice variety in the music and types of artists picked to participate in the NF, and each song gets a real moment to shine as well.
Georgia
As formerly the, now one of two Frenchies on the site, my opinion is officially the most accurate in this article, so listen up.
My main qualm with France at Eurovision is that they seem to think sending a chanson-type song is the only thing that will get them success at Eurovision in recent years. Granted, it has gotten them success in 2021 and 2024, but the French music scene is so much more diverse than that. It deserves to be shown on the Eurovision stage.
That’s why I think a French national final needs to be centred around musical diversity. I’m not saying completely ban chanson-type songs because France can do them and do them well. I’m saying that France Télévisions needs to actively encourage and foster artists of all genres in the entire selection process. I agree with Euan and Angus that a smaller, diverse field of artists would be a better strategy, but I am going to propose a different format:
Take a field of seven or eight artists, whose musical styles are largely different (it’s impossible to have artists whose styles are completely separate, but make sure there aren’t more than 1-2 “pop” people or 1-2 “ballads”, that sort of thing). From there, I think it could go one of two ways. In real life, the artists would submit their songs to France Télévisions and the national final would be a one-night event, the fairly standard sort of thing. But, this is my dream national final, so I make the rules. I think it would be really interesting to do something along the lines of Star Academy, a wildly popular TV show in France that sees its participants live together in ‘The Academy’ for two months while they are trained by industry professionals and work on a song, which they then perform in a live show. My idea would be on a smaller scale, maybe a month long rather than two, but I think the idea of announcing the participants, and then having a show that sees them develop their songs before the show itself would benefit interest in Eurovision in France. It allows the public to get to know the artists as people rather than just their songs while building interest and anticipation for the final show itself because you have this month-long build-up to the final itself.
In terms of the national final itself, I would stick with a 50%-50% jury-televote split. I think you need both to ensure the results feel somewhat balanced and because that’s what would be at Eurovision. However, I would keep it to solely French voters for both bodies. While I do get the point about having international involvement in the final because that’s what would happen in the contest, I think it needs to feel like France’s entry, not just the entry for France. The whole point of a build-up to the national final is that it would allow for a closer connection between the French public and the entry, so having international voters sort of eliminates that connection for me.
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’oiseau et l’enfant”, scoring 136 points.France has seen a rebirth in results following a change in direction in 2016. Amir finished in 6th position for France with “J’ai cherché”, followed by 12th, 13th and 16th places respectively.
For 2024, France continued to choose internally, they chose Slimane with his song “Mon amour”. At the close of voting in Malmö, France finished in 4th place, earning 445 points. Of these, 218 points were given by the juries, whilst the televote allocated an extra 227 points to France.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: France Televisions
Tim J