Eurovision 2019 spotlight: France's Bilal Hassani with "Roi"...
Last year, France sent one of their best efforts with the pro-refugee story-song "Mercy". Written and performed by husband and wife team Madame Monsieur about a child born on a boat to a Nigerian couple fleeing violence in their homeland, the track was powerful and beautiful at the same time, and the music video expressed its "we're all in this together" vision amazingly. However, staging trouble in the final, which many worthy acts had in Portugal who refused LED lights, caused the song to be lost in the shuffle, and ended up 12th at the end. However, the song hit #2 on the French Charts and #10 in neighboring Belgium. Now for this year's entry, Madame Monsieur makes a second appearance but in a different role this time...
France - "Roi" from Bilal Hassani
As last year, France chose its entry through the public national final competition Destination Eurovision. Eighteen artists took part in this show, including big names like Emmanuel Moire, who offered his coming out story in song form in "La Promesse". But it was another gay singer who took the prize. Bilal Hassani, still 19 years old, hails from Paris from a Moroccan family. He's participated in France's version of The Voice Kids, even performing a Eurovision song in the audition, "Rise Like A Phoenix" from Conchita Wurst...
Well he didn't get far in the show, but his career took another path, as he used the reach and equalizing force of YouTube to become one of the country's biggest young stars. With numbers rising close to a million subscibers as we speak, Bilal's name recognition was already high entering Destination Eurovision this year. And he did it with a song he co-wrote with Madame Monsieur, "Roi" ("King"). A grand ballad of self-empowerment sung in French and English does recall the sentiment of Wurst's classic but in a more personal level...
Will "Roi" rule at Eurovision? I definitely would not count it out. As I said, Bilal's YouTube fanbase is massive, and they are the type to vote to support their favorites. And the song is quite powerful yet modern at the same time. Of course the issue is going to come down to his voice, which isn't horrid but with this song with so many high notes it required him to be on point. You can't hide these with back-up singers or fancy staging. But to his credit listening to him at a couple of the live promotion event so far, it does seem he is really putting an effort in to improve his voice range, and delivery, and it shows. I hope he gets rewarded for it. As of right now I am not seeing a winner, but definitely a top ten finish. (Rating: 7.5/10)
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France has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest from the beginning of the event in 1956, and been in there every year save two. They have won the annual trophy five times so far, but all of those go way back. In 1958, Parisian singer André Claveau won with "Dors, Mon Amour" ("Sleep, My Love")...
Two years later, singer Jacqueline Boyer, also from Paris, took the prize with "Tom Pillibi", named for a supposed lover who owns the world but is just a liar in the end...
And in keeping their streak of every other year intact, in 1962 Isabelle Aubret from the northern city of Lille won with "Un Premier Amour" ("A First Love")...
France ended the prosperous decade by winning the 1969 show, which in an unplanned freak occurrence ended up in a four-way tie for #1 causing them all to "win". The singer of "Un Jour, Un Enfant" ("One Day, One Child"), was Frida Boccara, who was born in Morocco to Italian parents and was an immigrant to France...
The most recent win from the country came 42 years ago when Marie Myriam, born in what was the African colony of the Belgian Congo (Zaire), who prevailed in 1977 with "L'oiseau et L'enfact" ("The Bird and the Child")...
However, it must be noted that in 1991, France "tied" for first place with "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" ("The Last One Who Spoke Is Right"), but the rules at the time had the entry with the most "12" votes win, which was Sweden; under present rules, Tunisian-born Amina would've taken it...
Besides France entering the contest, the independent micro-state of Monaco had participated in Eurovision sporadically from 1959 all the way to 2006. Most of their entries were from French artists and sung in French, and one even won the event. In 1971, Parisian singer Séverine won with "Un Banc, Un Arbre, Un Rue" ("A bench, a tree, a street") continuing French success in listing things...
As for my personal French favorite, besides the sublime "Mercy" I would go with the supremely "French" "Requiem" from Alma, with finished 12th in 2017...
As for the worst, the country only took last place once, and man, was it deserved, with the excrable "Moustache" from Twin Twin from 2014...
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