France was represented 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 ...

, with the song "Vivre", at the

1983 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1983 was the 28th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in Munich, then West Germany, following the country's victory at the with the song "Ein bißchen Frieden" by Nicole. Despite their first vic ...

, which took place on 23 April in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. Bonnet had previously represented France in the 1970 contest in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Before Eurovision

National final

Broadcaster

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 ...

took over responsibility for French Eurovision participation in 1983, after the country had been absent from the 1982 contest when previous broadcaster

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is par ...

opted out, citing the facile nature of the music on offer in Eurovision as they perceived it. Antenne 2 decided to choose their first entry via a broadcast national final. The national final was held on 20 March 1983, hosted by Jean-Pierre Foucault and 1977 contest winner

Marie Myriam Marie Myriam (born Myriam Lopes, 8 May 1957, Luluabourg, Belgian Congo, (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) is a French singer of Portuguese descent. Career Representing France, she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1977 with '' L'oise ...

. Fourteen songs took part with the winner chosen by a panel of TV viewers who were telephoned and asked to vote on the songs. Other participants included previous and future French representatives

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 ...

(1962 & 1968) and

Joël Prévost Jean-Luc Potaux (born Richard-Jacques Bonay on 16 February 1950), known as Joël Prévost, is a French singer, best known for his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1978. Born in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France, Pr� ...

(1978).

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Bonnet performed first in the running order, preceding

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 ...

. At the close of voting "Vivre" had received 56 points, placing France 8th of the 20 entries. The French jury awarded its 12 points to contest winners

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

.ESC History - France 1983
/ref>

Voting

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 1983

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1983

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 ...