France 2019: All you need to know about Bilal Hassani and his entry “Roi”
After two semi-finals at “Destination Eurovision 2019” with a total of 18 participants, Bilal Hassani beat seven other acts during the final and emerged as the winner, finishing in the 5th place with the international jury but as the clear winner in the televote (35.7%).
A few words about Bilal Hassani
Bilal Hassani, born in 1999 in Paris of Moroccan origin, is a French singer, songwriter and Youtuber. His monther got the French citizenship while his father lives in Sigapore. He has an older brother named, Taha.
He rose to fame in 2015 when he participated in the second season of “The Voice Kids” with the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 winner song “Rise Like a Phoenix” by Conchita Wurst and joined the team of Patrick Fiori, the French participant in Eurovision in 1993.
In order to reach out to a wider audience he used the Youtube to promote his work and his personality, turning out in an active youtuber. On January 6, 2017, he uploads his song “Wanna Be” which scored thousand of views. Up to date the video has reached almost 2 million views. His second song, entitled “Follow me“ comes out little bit later, on April 14. On June 23 just a day before Paris Pride he speak openly about his sexual orientation while on November 10 he releases the single “House Down“.
Next year he uploaded his 4th song entitled “Shadows“. It’s the first videoclip of his where he appears with a female wig. Since then he appears in several performances and videos with different style and colored wigs. Since December 2018 Bilal has been targeted with racial and homophovic attacks. When threats started against him the Urgence Homophobie and Stop Homophobie organizations joined forces and took legal action against those who made the offensive actions. Up to January 27, 2019 the two organizations spotted more than 1500 comments of hatred on Twitter .
The entry “Roi”
The song is written by Bilal himself in collaboration with last year’s French representatives Madame Monsieur. The songs speak of the need to respect diversity and the right of each person to choose who he wants to be without being offended by others for its choices. A clear call for freedom and diversity among people.
As part of the Big 5, he will represent France with his song “Roi” at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest’s Grand Final on May 18, but will be voting in the first semi final alongside with Israel and Spain.
Bilal Hassani – Roi
Music: Bilal Hassani, Madame Monsieur & Medeline
Lyric : Bilal Hassani & Madame Monsieur
Je suis free, oui, j’invente ma vie
Ne me demandez pas qui je suis
Moi je suis le même depuis tout petit
Et malgré les regards, les avis
Je pleure, je sors et je ris
Je suis pas dans les codes, ça dérange beaucoup
At the end of the day, you cannot change me, boo
Alors, laisse-moi m’envoler
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
Toutes ces voix: “Fais comme ci, fais comme ça”
When we hurt, when we fight for free
Only God can judge you and me
Ce qu’on est, on ne l’a pas choisi
On choisit
Son travail, sa coiffure, ses amis
Sa routine, parfois l’amour aussi
Ça passe ou ça casse, mais ça regarde qui?
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
Toutes ces voix: “Fais comme ci, fais comme ça”
Moi, je les cala pas, you can never remove my crown
The Eurovision Story so far
France is one of the seven countries that had its first participation back in 1956. Since then the country has won the contest 5 times. Last time was in 1977, with Marie Myriam and her song L’oiseau et l’enfant. The last two years, however, seems to be an increasing interest for the contest .
Destination Eurovision was used for the first time as the country’s national selection format in 2018, including two recorded semi final shows and a live grand final. Last year was the first time France held a nationa final since 2014. Last year’s winners was the duo Madame Monsieur who represented France in Lisbon with their entry “Mercy” which finished 13th.
