France was present at the Eurovision Song Contest 1986, held in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

Before Eurovision

L'Eurovision 1986

The French national final to select their entry, ''L'Eurovision 1986'', was held on 22 March 1986 at the SFP Studios in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, and was hosted by

Patrice Laffont Patrice Laffont (born 21 August 1939 in Marseille) is a French television presenter, actor and entertainer. Career During the 1960s Laffont had a passion for acting, where he became a star on stage and screen with his friends Michel Fugain and M ...

, a famous game show host well known for hosting ''

Des chiffres et des lettres ''Des chiffres et des lettres'' (, "numbers and letters") is a French television programme. It was created by Armand Jammot and tests the numeracy skills and vocabulary of two contestants. It is one of the longest-running game shows in the world ...

''. Fourteen songs made it to the national final, which was broadcast by

Antenne 2 France 2 () is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4 and France 5. France Télévisions also participates in Arte and Euronews. Since 3:20 CET on 7 Ap ...

across France and to the

overseas departments The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

. The winner was decided by a sample of television viewers who were telephoned at random and asked their opinion of each song. The winning entry was "Européennes", performed by the quartet

Cocktail A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a combination of spirits, or one or more spirits mixed with other ingredients such as tonic water, fruit juice, flavored syrup, or cream. Cocktails vary widely across ...

and composed by Georges Costa and Michel Costa.

At Eurovision

Before performing at Bergen, Cocktail changed their name to

Cocktail Chic Cocktail Chic were a French female singing group, best known for their participation in the 1986 Eurovision Song Contest. Although the Cocktail Chic name was a one-off for Eurovision, the group, consisting of sisters Dominique Poulain and Catherin ...

. They were the third act on the night of the Contest, following

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

and preceding

. At the close of the voting the song had received 13 points, placing 17th in a field of 20 competing countries. At the time it was the worst placing for France in the Contest's history, and would remain so until 1996.

Voting

References

External links

French National Final 1986
{{Eurovision Song Contest 1986

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...