French broadcaster France 2 confirmed to esctoday.com that France will participate in the 65th edition Eurovision Song Contest 2020, hosted in Rotterdam.
Details of how an act and song will be released will be revealed in the coming weeks and months. For the last two years, France have used the Destination Eurovision as a national selection format. Last night, France won OGAE Second Chance 2019 with Seemone’s song Tous Les Duex. Given Seemone won the jury vote in Desination Eurovision 2019, it seems like this style of song is the way forward the first top 10 placing since 2016?
France at the Eurovision Song Contest
France was one of the seven countries that debuted in the first contest all the way back in 1956. Since then, France have participated 62 times, winning five times and coming second on four occasions respectively. In the modern contest, France constitutes a fifth of the ‘Big Five’ automatic qualifiers in the Grand Final. Somewhat unsurprisingly, France almost always competes with songs entirely or vast majority in French. Exceptions or deviations include Breton in 1996, Corsican in 2011 respectively (also featuring in 1993), Spanish featuring in 2004 and Antillean Creole in 1992. In recent years, English is often paired with French for a verse, chorus or few sentences. However, Sebastian Telier broke the trend in 2008, with his entry Divine only causing a few phrases of French. This was deemed so controversial it was a point of discussion and outrage for some French politicians.
This year, Bilal Hassani was selected to fly the French tricolour with the song Roi. Bilal’s first rehearsal was a hit with the media in the press centre, creating a huge buzz that France may sneak a sixth victory. However, despite the polls placing the young singer as third favourite to win prior to the final, France placed 16th overall.
What are you expecting from France in 2020?
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