Eurovision France, C'est Vous Qui Décidez !

France was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "", written by Barbara Pravi, Lili Poe, and Igit, and performed by Pravi herself. The French participating broadcaster, , organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest. Twelve songs competed in the national final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, eight entries were selected to advance to the second round: seven entries selected a public vote and one entry selected by a ten-member jury panel. In the second round, "" performed by Barbara Pravi was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a ten-member jury panel and a public vote.

As a member of the " Big Five", France automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 20, France placed second out of the 26 participating countries with 499 points.

Background

Prior to the 2021 contest, and its predecessor national broadcasters have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing France sixty-two times since RTF's debut in . They first won the contest in with "" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in , "" performed by Isabelle Aubret in , and "" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in in a four-way tie with the , , and the . Their fifth – and so far latest – victory came in with "" performed by Marie Myriam. France has also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in , Catherine Ferry in , Joëlle Ursull in , and Amina in (who lost out to 's Carola in a tie-break). In the 21st century, France has had less success, only making the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in , Sandrine François finishing fifth in , Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in , Amir finishing sixth in . In , they were set to be represented by the song "Mon alliée (The Best in Me)" performed by Tom Leeb before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country through . The broadcaster confirmed that it would participate in the 2021 contest on 22 June 2020. The French broadcasters had used both national finals and internal selection to choose its entry in the past. In and , the broadcaster selected its entries via the national final . In 2020, opted to internally select its entry, however it announced in June 2020 that the 2021 entry would be selected via a new national final format.

Before Eurovision

("Eurovision France, it's you who decide!") was the national final staged by France 2 to select the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition took place on 30 January 2021 at the France Télévisions studio in Paris, hosted by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini. The show was broadcast on France 2, TV5Monde and TV5 Québec Canada on a time delay as well as online via the broadcaster's official website ''france.tv''. The national final was watched by 2.37 million viewers in France with a market share of 12.3%.

Format

The format of the national final consisted of a live final on 30 January 2021 where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. Twelve entries competed in the first round, from which seven were selected exclusively by public televoting to advance to the second round, the superfinal. A ten-member Francophone and international jury panel then selected a wildcard entry from the remaining five entries to proceed to the superfinal. In the superfinal, the winner was determined by the combination of public televoting (50%) and the ten-member jury panel (50%). The public and the juries each had a total of 420 points to award, with each jury member awarding 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points to their top six entries. Viewers were able to vote via telephone and SMS voting which also accepted international votes, with the public vote awarding 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100 points to their top eight songs.

The jury panel consisted of:

* Amir (jury president) – singer, songwriter, represented
* Chimène Badi – Singer
* Michèle Bernier – Comedian
* – Spanish singer and comedian
* Jean-Paul Gaultier – Fashion designer
* Élodie Gossuin – Television presenter
* Duncan Laurence – Dutch singer, won Eurovision for the
* André Manoukian – Jazz singer and former judge on
* Marie Myriam – Singer, won Eurovision for
* Natasha St-Pier – Canadian singer, represented

Competing entries

opened a submission period on 29 June 2020 in order for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals through an online submission form up until the deadline on 30 September 2020. Songs were required to contain a majority of French language or French regional language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics. At the closing of the deadline, the French broadcaster received 700 submissions. Auditions which featured 20 entries shortlisted from the received submissions took place at the Apollo Theatre in Paris and the twelve entries selected to compete in the national final were announced on 9 December 2020. Between 16 and 27 December 2020, the competing artists and their entries were presented to the public through television specials titled .

Final

The final took place on 30 January 2021. Twelve entries competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top seven entries as determined exclusively by public televoting advanced to the second round, the superfinal. "" performed by LMK was awarded the wildcard by a Francophone and international ten-member jury panel from the remaining five entries to proceed to the superfinal. Immediately after the artists concluded their performances, a number was shown which denoted the amount of jury members who liked the song, however the results were symbolic and did not affect the voting. In the superfinal, the winner, "" performed by Barbara Pravi, was determined by the combination of public televoting and the ten-member jury.

In addition to performing their contest entry, the eight superfinalists performed the Eurovision winning song for , "", originally performed by Celine Dion, together Valentina, who won for France, who also performed her winning song "". Jury member Amir performed a medley of his songs from his three French language albums as the interval act of the show.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the " Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", France automatically qualified to compete in the final on 22 May 2021. In addition to their participation in the final, France was also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. In accordance with the allocation draw conducted on 28 January 2020 and carried over to 2021, France was assigned to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final on 20 May 2021.

In France, the semi-finals were broadcast on with commentary by Laurence Boccolini, while the final was broadcast on with commentary by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini. appointed Carla Lazzari, who represented France in , as its spokesperson to announce the top 12-point score awarded by the French jury during the final.

Final

Following the conclusion of the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final. The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. France was drawn in position 20, following the song from and preceding the song from .

For the live performance, Barbara Pravi performed alone dressed in a two-piece outfit in black and using the same staging and visuals from her national final performance.

France placed second in the final, scoring 499 points: 251 points from the televoting and 248 points from the juries. This was France's best result since 1991.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members. The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.

Points awarded to France

Points awarded by France

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the French jury:
* Géraldine Allouche
* Adrien Kaiser
* Kahina Kimoune
* Gilbert Marcellus
* Loïc Parent

References

External links

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{{Eurovision Song Contest 2021

2021
Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Eurovision
Eurovision