French TV accepting submissions for Lisbon

France 2 is already starting to prepare for Eurovision Song Contest in Portugal 2018! They are now searching for their entry for Lisbon. What are the criteria for submission?

France 2 has set up criteria for the submissions. Singers, songwriters and composers are invited to submit their entries in an open selection process. In May France 2 announced that they are working with Endemol, a Dutch based media company, to launch „Mission Eurovision“. This means that they will have a televised national selection, which is confirmed by the French Head of Delegation, Edoardo Grassi.

The criteria for submitting entries for “Mission Eurovision” are as follows:

• The song can´t be released before September 1, 2017.

• It must not have been commercially released, in any form.

• No more than six performer can take part in the act.

• The number of songwriters are limited to 4 people.

• At least 70% of the lyrics have to be in French.

• Authors/composers must register, or already be registered, with  SACEM, which is the French association of songwriters.

Is a national selection the way to go?

The last time France chose a song through a national selection process was in 2014. The winner of the selection was then picked by the public via an online vote and jury voting. They picked the cheerful song Moustache with the artist Twin Twin. They finished last out of the 26th finalists, receiving a total of 2 points, one each from Sweden and Finland. This was France´s only last place ever since the start of Eurovision.

Is mixing a bit of English the key to success?

In the last two years however, France has done quite well with internally selected songs and artists. Both these entries were in French with few lines of English. Amir finished 6th in 2016 and Alma with the song “Requiem” finished in 12th place this year in Kyiv.  Will France´s 2018 act do better than these two entries?

Amir gave France their best result since 2002, with his “J´ai cherché.
Do you think changing their selection method is a good idea for France? Does selection method really matter? Check out this article where we look into this question.