Tonight, Saturday 12th 2019, France 2 will live broadcast the first semi-final of the second edition of Destination Eurovision, a year after the 2018 first semi-final! Lithuania’s second heat has been postponed to next Saturday.
🇫🇷 France— Destination Eurovision
Show: Destination Eurovision — Semi-Final 1
When: 21:00 – 23:55 (CET)
Where to watch: France 2, TV5 Monde Europe, Eurovision France Facebook Livestream (if you live in France, Belgium or Switzerland, you will only be able to access TV5 Monde FBS, which will start broadcasting the show with a delay at 23:30 CET : to watch live, prefer either the direct stream from France 2 or the Facebook official livestream
Unlike last year, the semi-finals of Destination Eurovision will be broadcast live in 2019 (last year, only the final was). Nine acts will compete, for four slots in the final. The show will once again be hosted by French Canadian singer Garou.
Like last year, each artist will first sing a cover of another song, then their own entry, with postcards introducing both performances. An expert panel (André Manoukian, Vitaa, Christophe Willem) will comment on the performances, but will not vote.
The voting itself will take place at the end of the show, and will be split between a televote (50%) and the votes of five international jurors, whose names were announced at the end of the week. The fours acts with the most points will go to the final.
Here is the running order of the night, with the covers each artist will sing
| # | Artist | Cover | Song |
| 1 | Lautner | “J’ai cherché” (Amir) | “J’ai pas le temps” |
| 2 | Battista Acquaviva | “Parla più piano” (Gianni Morandi) | “Passio” |
| 3 | Chimène Badi | “Je ne regrette rien” (Édith Piaf) | “Là-haut” |
| 4 | Aysat | “Dancing Queen” (Abba) | “Comme une grande” |
| 5 | Mazy | “Si seulement je pouvais lui manquer” (Calogero) | “Oulala” |
| 6 | Florina | “L’hymne à l’amour” (Édith Piaf) | “In The Shadow” |
| 7 | Bilal Hassani | “Carmen” (Stromae) | “Roi” |
| 8 | Naestro | “Perfect” (Ed Sheeran & Andrea Bocelli) | “Le brasier” |
| 9 | Sylvàn Areg | “Un homme debout” (Claudio Capéo) | “Le petit Nicolas” |
The covers are quite diverse, from French classics (Édith Piaf), to international hits (Ed Sheeran, Abba) and modern French music (Claudio Capéo, Amir, and Calogero). Interestingly, Sylvàn Areg will cover a song that he cowrote, under his real name Sylvain Hagopian. Battista will sing both the most famous and the less known song, since “Parlà più piano” is the Italian cover of “Speak Softly Love”, The Godfather‘s legendary theme. The cover was made in the 1970’s by Gianni Morandi, who represented Italy at Eurovision in 1970 (with “Occhi di Ragazza”).
Don’t forget to check our original and comprehensive guide of all the artists and songwriters from Destination Eurovision 2019! Also, do check our Twitter account during the show tonight, if you want to know what the French expert jury says of each performance!
What do you think? Who can qualify from this semi-final? Will you watch it? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
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