France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017

France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The French broadcaster France Télévisions, in collaboration with their television channel France 2, internally selected the song "Requiem" performed by Alma and written by Nazim Khaled to be the French entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine.

Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Country France
National selection
Selection processInternal Selection
Selection date(s)9 February 2017
Selected entrantAlma
Selected song"Requiem"
Selected songwriter(s)Nazim Khaled
Finals performance
Final result12th, 135 points
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2016 • 2017 • 2018►

Background
Main article: France in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2017 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.[1] France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. Since 2000, France has managed to place within the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001, Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002, Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in 2009 and Amir finishing sixth in 2016.

The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 2.[2] The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. The 2014 French entry was selected via a national final that featured three competing acts. Since 2015, the broadcaster has opted to internally select the French entry, a procedure that was continued in order to select the 2017 entry.[3]

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

France 2 opened an online submission form on 13 September 2016 that called for submissions from artists and songwriters for the internal selection of the French Eurovision Song Contest 2017 entry.[3] The submission period remained open until 30 November 2016. Francophone performers between 16 and 50 years of age and of any nationality were eligible for consideration, while songs were required to contain at least 80% French language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics.[3] Songwriters and artists could either apply individually or together; artists that applied individually might have been matched with a song or a song that had been submitted without an attached artist. Between 30 November 2016 and 10 March 2017, the artistic committee of France Télévisions reviewed the received submissions and selected an artist and song to represent France in Kiev.[3] At the end of the submission period, it was revealed that around 300 songs had been received.[4]

On 9 February, France 2 announced that the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 would be "Requiem" performed by Alma.[5]

Promotion

Alma made appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Requiem" as the French Eurovision entry. On 25 February 2017, Alma performed "Requiem" at the Ukrainian national final.[6] She also participated at the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris in London, United Kingdom; the Eurovision in Concert at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Israel Calling at the Ha'teatron in Tel Aviv, and the Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party at the La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.[7]

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017.[8] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) were 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. In addition to their participation in the final, France was also required to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final.

For the very first time, the final of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in all cinemas in the CGR Cinemas across the country. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.[9] On 25 January 2016, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. France was set to perform last in position 26, following the entry from Bulgaria.

Points awarded to France
Points awarded to France (final)
Televote
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
Jury
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by France

Jury members

The following five members comprised the French jury:[10]

  • Antoine Gouiffes-Yan – Chairperson – marketing director
  • Sonia Boraso (Enea) – singer
  • Julien Gonçalves – music journalist
  • Steven Bellery – music expert
  • Hédia Charni – culture and music journalist, television host
Split voting results from France (Semi-final 2)
Draw Country Jury Televote
A. Gouiffes-Yan Enea J. Gonçalves S. Bellery H. Charni Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Serbia491311610165
02 Austria8853107413
03 Macedonia1581513811
04 Malta21121435618
05 Romania1610471411112
06 Netherlands1346186512
07 Hungary1414119131447
08 Denmark91232119215
09 Ireland101617131216101
10 San Marino17181818181817
11 Croatia1813156151592
12 Norway6112898314
13  Switzerland126712161274
14 Belarus33144421083
15 Bulgaria1171574738
16 Lithuania15171616171716
17 Estonia715101751356
18 Israel529102112210
Split voting results from France (final)
Draw Country Jury Televote
A. Gouiffes-Yan Enea J. Gonçalves S. Bellery H. Charni Average Rank Points Rank Points
01 Israel21357155683
02 Poland221021201921101
03 Belarus14222510141916
04 Austria1314139510124
05 Armenia96221961356
06 Netherlands111121207414
07 Moldova20242012102047
08 Hungary12201016121492
09 Italy6533721065
10 Denmark211964111225
11 Portugal17152112112
12 Azerbaijan2521196222217
13 Croatia18232317212412
14 Australia17912889220
15 Greece15181622232315
16 Spain19171514131819
17 Norway43141534723
18 United Kingdom82423168322
19 Cyprus1615171841513
20 Romania23169131717210
21 Germany341824241621
22 Ukraine24252425252518
23 Belgium10882191138
24 Sweden51211213811
25 Bulgaria71711186574
26 France
gollark: This is weird.
gollark: It did best when I made the payoffs a bit positive.
gollark: * grudger
gollark: Interesting, devil is still best.
gollark: I did.

References
  1. "France Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  2. Granger, Anthony (16 May 2016). "France: 2017 Eurovision participation confirmed". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  3. "Conditions générales applicables à l'appel à participation Eurovision Song Contest France 2017". france2.fr (in French). France 2. 13 September 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
  4. Barké, Sébastien (1 December 2016). "Eurovision Kiev 2017 : combien de chansons ont-elles été soumises à France 2 ?". Télé-Loisirs (in French). Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  5. Jordan, Paul (9 February 2017). "Alma's Requiem for France in 2017". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  6. "Ukraine: Alma & Kasia Mos To Perform at Vidbir Final". Eurovoix.com. Eurovoix.com. 22 February 2016. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  7. Rico, Vicente (22 February 2016). "Francia y su Alma, ¡Nuevos invitados a la Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party!" [Francia and their Alma, New guests at the Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party] (in Spanish). Eurovision-Spain.com. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  8. Jordan, Paul (9 September 2016). "Kyiv to host Eurovision 2017!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  9. Jordan, Paul (21 January 2016). "Semi-Final Allocation Draw on Monday, pots revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 25 January 2016.
  10. Jordan, Paul (29 April 2017). "Who will be the expert jurors for Eurovision 2017?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
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