France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1970 with the song "Marie-Blanche" performed by

Guy Bonnet Guy Bonnet is an author, composer, and singer, born in Avignon, France in 1945. He wrote the lyrics and composed the music for the French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 (performed by Isabelle Aubret). In 1970 he participated in the Eu ...

. The song was chosen through a seven-week televised show titled ''Musicolor''. "Marie-Blanche" came in fourth place out of twelve, and received eight points at the contest.

Before Eurovision

National final

For 1970, after eight years of internal selections, France's national broadcaster,

Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française L'Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF; ) was the national agency charged, between 1964 and 1975, with providing public radio and television in France. All programming, and especially news broadcasts, were under strict control ...

(ORTF), organized a televised national final which lasted seven weeks. A professional jury chose 16 out of the 143 songs submitted to go to the Saturday evening music show titled ''Musicolor'' which would choose the entrant for 1970. ''Musicolor'' consisted of four quarter-finals, two semi-finals, and a final with shows taking place each Saturday. Four songs were performed each week and were voted on by various juries representing the regional stations of ORTF. The juries could qualify one song to go to the next round. By the fifth and sixth Saturdays, the juries had selected four songs to participate in the two semi-finals, with semi consisting of two songs. The winner of each semi-final went to the final round which was held on February 21, 1970 and hosted by Dany Danielle and Sylvain Deschamps. At the final, Guy Bonnet won with "Marie-Blanche" over

Daniel Beretta Daniel Beretta (born 24 December 1946 in Audincourt, Doubs) is a French actor. He has dubbed over Arnold Schwarzenegger in the French versions of all his films since 1987. Biography Daniel Beretta started learning how to play piano at the age of ...

and

Isabelle Aubret Isabelle Aubret (; born Thérèse Coquerelle; 27 July 1938) is a French singer best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1962 with the song "Un premier amour". Early life Thérèse Coquerelle was born in Lille, France, on 27 July ...

's "Olivier, Olivia".

At Eurovision

Guy Bonnet performed "Marie-Blanche" sixth on the night, before the United Kingdom's

Mary Hopkin Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer-songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists ...

with "

Knock Knock, Who's There? "Knock, Knock Who's There?" is a song written and composed by John Carter and Geoff Stephens, released on Apple Records. It was originally sung and recorded by the Welsh singer Mary Hopkin and was the 's entry at the Eurovision Song Contest ...

", and following Belgium's

Jean Vallée Jean Vallée (born Paul Goeders in Verviers on 2 October 1941 – 12 March 2014, Clermont-sur-Berwinne) was a Belgian songwriter and performer. Vallée was appointed Knight of the Order of the Crown by HM Albert II in 1999. Career In 1967 Val ...

with "

Viens l'oublier Belgium was represented by Jean Vallée, with the song "Viens l'oublier", at the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Amsterdam on 21 March. "Viens l'oublier" was chosen at the Belgian national final on 3 February. Before Eurovision ...

". At the close of voting, the song received eight points: three from Ireland, two from Monaco and Yugoslavia, and one from Italy, placing it fourth out of the twelve entrants. Each country had a jury of ten who gave one point to their favorite song.

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1970

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1970

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 ...