France: Eurovision 2021 act to be determined via ” Eurovision France, c’est vous qui decidez”
France has decided to switch to a national final for Eurovision 2021, with ” Eurovision France, c’est vous qui decidez” to be the show that will determine the French hopeful.
leaving behind the “Déstination Eurovision” format , this year the French broadcaster selected internally Tom Leeb to represent the country in the contest that was eventually cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. This year France Télévisions is swtiching back to a national selection in order to select its hopeful for the next Eurovision Song Contest. Namely the national selection show ” Eurovision France, c’est vous qui decidez” (Eurovision France; It’s you who decides) will determine next year’s representative.
Head of delegation Alexandra Redde-Amiel says about this change:
A great prime-time event produced by France Télévision, with the idea of putting Eurovision in the foreground. The event will be shot in a large concert hall in one of the French capitals and will be presented by Stéphane Bern.
Stéphane Bern is a well-known face in France: writer and radio speaker, he commented on all editions of Eurovision from 2015 onwards, including Eurovision 2010 and the special event Europe Shine A Light. In addition he also commented on the last two editions of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which saw the return of France after fourteen years of absence.
Explaining further more the reasons that led to this decision Alexandra Redde-Amiel stated:
We want the public to decide the next representative, so as not to leave the audience for another year without choice. We also talked about it with Tom and we think it is better to start Eurovision France, c’est vous qui decidez .
France in Eurovision
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. 2018 was the first time France held a nationa final since 2014. National final 2018 winners were the duo Madame Monsieur who represented France in Lisbon with their entry “Mercy” which finished 13th.
In 2019 Bilal Hassani won the second edition of Destination Eurovision 2019 and flew the flag in Tel Aviv with his entry Roi which came 16th in the Grand final.
In 2020 France Televisions decided to go internal by selecting Tom Leeb to represent the country in Rotterdam last May. Unfortunately his ESC 2020 journey never reached its destination as the covid-19 outbreak caused the cancellation of this year’s edition.
