"J'ai cherché" (, en, I searched) is a song performed by French-Israeli singer Amir Haddad. The song represented France in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organised by the European Broadcasting ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The song finished 6th overall in the grand final, with 257 points, finishing 3rd with the juries and 9th in the televote, France's best result since 2002. It was written by Haddad along with Johan Errami and

Nazim Khaled Nazim Khaled (born September 3, 1986) is a French singer-songwriter. He has written several successes for different artists like Kendji Girac, Amir, Claudio Capéo and Alma. Biography Khaled was born in Marseille and studied at the Conservat ...

, while Khaled produced the track along with Silvio Lisbonne and Skydancers. The song was released as a digital download on 15 January 2016 through Sash Productions.J'ai cherché - Single by Amir on iTunes
/ref> The song was released as the second single from his second studio album ''

Au cœur de moi ''Au cœur de moi'' (At the core of my heart) is the second studio album and debut major label album by French-Israeli singer Amir Haddad. It was released on 29 April 2016 in France through Warner Music Group. The album includes the singles " Oasi ...

'' (2016).

Eurovision Song Contest

On 29 February 2016, the French broadcaster announced that Haddad would perform the song "J'ai cherché" as the country's

entry. Being a member of the " Big Five", he automatically advanced to the final. He performed the song during the first Semi-final on 10 May 2016. The song finished 6th overall in the grand final, with 257 points, finishing 3rd with the juries and 9th in the televote, France's best result since 2002.

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "J'ai cherché" was first released onto Amir's YouTube channel on 3 March 2016 at a total length of three minutes and thirty-two seconds.Amir - J'ai cherché (Clip officiel) -
YouTube An abridged version of the video was uploaded to the Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel on 13 March 2016 with an alternate lyrics and a total length of 2:59 minutes. It has since received over 18 million views and is one of the most positively received among all of the 2016 participants, and his first version of the song has received over 100 million views on his own channel on YouTube.

Reception

Since its release to French radio in January 2016, the song has received largely positive feedback from the public. Many of these fans were pleased when it was chosen to represent France at Eurovision, leading much of the media covering the contest to believe that this was the first French contest entry in recent memory to be positively backed by its own public. The song has been listened to on radio over 1.2 billion times, earning Amir the first W9 Gold Award on 11 December 2016 for the most listened-to French song on radio. The single was certified platinum in France in October 2016. In August 2022, it was certified Diamond.

Other versions

After the good reception of the song, two different versions of J'ai cherché were released, one in English and one in Spanish. One month after the release of "J'ai cherché", Haddad released the all-English version of the song, titled "Looking for You". On 10 May 2016, in the morning of the very first Semi-final the Spanish version of the song was uploaded to his YouTube channel, titled "Yo Busqué". This last version was made with the help of the Spanish representative of Eurovision that year (2016), Barei, after they both formed a strong friendship in the Eurovision Tour around Europe, where they sang the early version of the song together in the streets of London.Amir y Barei - Yo busqué (J'ai cherché Versión en Español) - Eurovision 201

YouTube Both the English and Spanish versions of the song were released on the special edition of Amir's album ''Au cœur de moi'' on November 11

Track listing

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:J'ai cherche Eurovision songs of France Eurovision songs of 2016 2015 songs 2016 singles Amir Haddad songs Songs written by Nazim Khaled Songs written by Amir Haddad