🇫🇷 Xtra Insider 2020: We Review France!

Welcome to Xtra Insider, our new series which will give you an insight into how well each country was statistically likely to do this year, as well as what the team at ESCXTRA think of your favourite entries into (what would have been) this year’s contest! Today, we analyze and review France!

Yes, this year’s contest has been cancelled…but that doesn’t mean we can’t love the songs! In this series, we’ll review each and every entry that would have taken part in this year’s Eurovision. On top of this, we’re introducing a new analysis section in which we take a look into each country’s history and how likely they would have been to do well this year. Our honest and brutal reviews and analysis will keep you entertained throughout what would’ve been the Eurovision season! We will also each give points using the usual Eurovision points system (12, 10, then 8 down to 1), and create an ESCXTRA leaderboard of the entries!

Today, we’ll be giving analysis and reviews of the French entry, Mon alliée (The Best in Me), from Lisa, Nathan P, Rigmo, Sami, Vincent and Wiv. Let’s get started!

France’s history at Eurovision

A member of the Big 5 and one of the seven countries that participated at the very first Eurovision, France’s history spans over 62 participations. Over the years, they only missed out on participation on two occasions, in 1974 and in 1982. In total, they won the contest a total of five times: in 1958, 1960, 1962, 1969 and 1977. Additionally, the country enjoyed additional podium finishes with four second places and seven third places. However, since the beginning on the new millennium France has been unable to keep up its previous success, ending in the top 10 a total of four times since 2000: in 2001, 2002, 2009 and most recently with Amir’s “J’ai cherché”. Their worst result to date is Twin Twin’s “Moustache” that in 2014 finished at the bottom with only 2 points. That said, since 2016, France’s songs have often been fan favourites, such as “Merci” in 2018.

This year’s entry

For the two previous years France used a multi-week televised selection show “Destination Eurovision” to choose their entrant. This year, however, France opted to return to internal selection, choosing 31-year old Tom Leeb as their representative. In Rotterdam, he was due to sing the power ballad “The Best in Me”. The song was co-authored by Leeb himself together with Léa Ivanne and Eurovision alumni John Lundvik of Sweden and Amir Haddad of France.

How does this kind of song tend to do in the contest?

France has done relatively well with powerful songs, such as Patricia Kaas in 2009 and Madame Monsieur in 2018 but also with more upbeat songs such as Jessy Matador in 2010 and Amir in 2016. This song has what it takes to be a jury favourite, with the powerful instrumentation and message, like Tamara’s “Proud” last year. Although it may have struggled to gather televoting points, as France has done for the past few years.

The Reviews

Lisa

This is not the best in France by a long stretch. However the revamp did give this more depth and character in the melody, however there’s no getting over the fact that John Lundvik has basically given Tom ‘Bigger Than Us’ 2.0, but in French. Though I still prefer this to the other male ballads this contest. That’s because of how melodic vocals sound in French. If it was fully in English I wouldn’t be as keen.

Nathan P

This song to me is in the same league as the Estonian song, i.e. it’s bad. I can’t belive that the French broadcaster watched the UK entry flop to last place last year and thought “You know what, we want a slice of that!” It’s bland and dated. Why do songs like this still make it to the contest? Aren’t we a bit past that know by a good 8-10 years. If this came any higher than bottom 3 I would have been very surprised. What happened in your Eurovision meatings France 2?! What happened?!

Rigmo

Which corner of Siegel’s drawer did this come from? It’s like someone serving you a plate of dry, unseasoned, weeks-past-their-expiration-date chicken breasts and expecting you not to throw up. This will be gone from my memory by the end of this sente…yup, GONE!

Sami

I’m bit ashamed to admit it, but I don’t hate this as much as people make me feel like I should. It has a nice melody and Tom has good vocals.

Vincent

I was honestly flabbergasted when I discovered who had written our entry this year. Swedes can do great songs but Lundvik’s last attempt for another country finished last… And indeed, when I listened to the song, I felt the distinct similarity with the 2019 British entry. “The Best in Me” lacks personnality. And that’s very unfair to Tom, who has charisma and who should be able to sing something far better.

Wiv

I LOVE his voice, and I love songs in French. Not so sure when they add random bits in English… This entry is of course quite aesthetically pleasing, and I tend to like it better when I watch the video than when I just listen to it. Meaning I don’t like it as much as I could. I suspect this would have become my “Eurovision Stockholm syndrome” entry this year. Now we’ll never know.