France has participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest seven times, debuting in

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

, Norway, at the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the second edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged eight to fifteen. It was held on 20 November 2004, in Håkons Hall, Lillehammer, Norway and lasted 2 hours and 15 ...

. France Télévisions, a member organisation of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

(EBU), is responsible for the selection process of their participation. The first representative to participate for the nation was Thomas Pontier with the song "Si on voulait bien", which finished in sixth place out of eighteen participating entries, achieving a score of seventy-eight points. France did not participate after 2004, and made its return to the contest in , 14 years later. France has won the contest on three occasions: in , with Valentina and the song "

J'imagine "J'imagine" (, ) is a song by French singer Valentina, released as a single on 16 October 2020. The song's lyrics were inspired by the isolation and separation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. "J'imagine" was France's winning entry in the Ju ...

", in , with

Lissandro Lissandro Formica (born 2009), performing under the mononym Lissandro, is a French teenaged singer best known for winning the 2022 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Earlier, in 2020, he had reached the final of the seventh season of the French ve ...

and the song " Oh Maman!", and in , with

Zoé Clauzure Zoé Clauzure (; born 12 February 2010) is a French child singer best known for winning the 2023 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Earlier, in 2020, she had reached the semifinals of the seventh season of the French version of ''The Voice Kids''. ...

and the song " Cœur".

Contest history

France has participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest six times since their debut at the

. Their first entry in the contest was the song "Si on voulait bien" performed by Thomas Pontier. To select the entry, a national final was held at France Televisions studios in Paris. 7,000 children auditioned for the event, and an extra 1,000 were invited to the final. By the end, 11 candidates became the finalists, with Pontier winning the competition with his cover of

Téléphone Téléphone () was a French rock band formed in 1976. Their first, self-titled album was released in 1977; by the end of the decade they were one of the biggest French rock bands around, opening shows for The Rolling Stones in Paris, Quebec, th ...

's song "Un autre monde". His song for Junior Eurovision, "Si on voulait bien", was later released on 7 October along with a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

. Despite placing sixth out of the 18 participants, France Télévisions opted to not participate after 2004, saying there was no motivation to compete and that "too much Eurovision kills Eurovision". Angelina Nava at JESC 2018

On 18 November 2015, it was revealed that the French broadcaster was interested in returning to the contest. However, France 2 announced on 24 June 2015 that they had no plans to return to the contest, though the broadcaster sent a delegation to Bulgaria in order to observe the 2015 edition. On 13 May 2016, executive supervisor

Jon Ola Sand Jon Ola Sand (; born 21 December 1961) is a Norwegian television executive. He was the European Broadcasting Union's Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest from 2011 to 2020. Personal life He is the son of revue writer and actor Bj� ...

announced at a press conference, that the EBU were in contact with broadcasters from several countries including France, so that they would participate in the 2016 contest. Edoardo Grassi, the Head of Delegation for France in the Eurovision Song Contest was one of the jury members at the Maltese national selection for the 2016 Junior Eurovision, and was introduced by the hosts of the show as being the Head of Delegation for France in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The return however did not materialise. On 12 May 2018, it was announced that France would return to the contest in 2018, with the nation represented by Angélina Nava, winner of the fourth season of ''The Voice Kids France'', who was internally selected as the entrant. Her song "Jamais sans toi" was drawn to perform fifteenth on 25 November 2018, following Israel and preceding Macedonia, eventually placing second at the contest with 203 points. For the 2019 contest, France was represented by

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with the song "

Bim bam toi "Bim bam toi" () is a song by French singer Carla Lazzari that served as France's entry to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019, held in Gliwice, Poland, on 24 November 2019. It was released on the MCA label as a single (music), single on 1 ...

". During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which both took place on 18 November 2019, France was drawn to perform second on 24 November 2019, following Australia and preceding Russia. At the conclusion of the event, the entry placed fifth with 169 points. On 8 October 2020, France 2 selected 11-year old Valentina to represent the country at the contest in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, with her song later announced to be called "

". On 29 November 2020, Valentina became the first French entrant to win the contest, giving France their first victory as well as their first win in any Eurovision event since

Eurovision Young Dancers 1989 The Eurovision Young Dancers 1989 was the third edition of the Eurovision Young Dancers held at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, France on 28 June 1989. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster France Régions 3 ...

. On 9 December 2020, it was confirmed by the EBU that France would host the 2021 contest. France opted for an internal selection for the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 19th edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by France Télévisions and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The contest was held on 19 December 2021 at La Seine Musica ...

and was represented by French hip-hop and R&B singer Enzo Hilaire (born 26 November 2008), better known by his stage name Enzo. His selected song was "Tic Tac", which was released at midnight on 22 October. It was written and composed by Alban Lico, and was described as "an invitation to take a break to enjoy simple things far from our hectic and hyperconnected lives", according to France 2. During the opening ceremony and the running order draw, which both took place on 13 December 2021, host country France was drawn to perform thirteenth, following Ukraine and preceding Azerbaijan. At the end of the contest, France received 187 points, placing 3rd out of 19 participating countries. On 28 October 2022,

Lissandro Formica Lissandro Formica (born 2009), performing under the mononym Lissandro, is a French teenaged singer best known for winning the 2022 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Earlier, in 2020, he had reached the final of the seventh season of the French ve ...

was announced as the French entrant at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 with the song " Oh Maman!". After the opening ceremony for the 2022 contest, which took place on 5 December 2022, it was announced that France would perform sixth on 11 December 2022, following Italy and preceding Albania. The entry won the contest accumulating 203 points and placing first of the 16 participating nations. The French head of delegation Alexandra Redde-Amiel and Director General of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte then revealed that the country would host the next edition of the contest in 2023. France Télévisions selected

as the host entry for the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 21st edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster France Télévisions. The contest took place on 26 November 2023 at the P ...

held in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

, France. Her song , written by Noée Francheteau, Julien Comblat and Jérémy Chapron, was revealed soon after the announcement of the chosen artist during a press conference held on 27 September 2023, and has been described by Clauzure as "a positive track, full of hope and light", as well as "the sunny side" of her previous release, both being dedicated to victims of

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

. During the opening ceremony and the running order draw, which both took place on 20 November 2023, host country France was drawn to perform twelfth, following Portugal and preceding Albania. The entry won the contest having gained 228 points, marking the third French victory in the competition, making it the country with the record amount of wins, tied with Georgia. France also became the second country to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row, after

did so in 2018 and 2019.

Participation overview

Commentators and spokespersons

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov. The French broadcaster, France Télévisions, sent their own commentators to the contest in order to provide commentary in the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from France. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2004.

Hostings

Notes

References