| France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 1999 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | France Télévision | |||
| Country |  France | |||
| Selection process | Eurovision 1999: la sélection | |||
| Selection date | 2 March 1999 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Je veux donner ma voix" | |||
| Artist | Nayah | |||
| Songwriters |
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| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 19th, 14 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
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France was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "Je veux donner ma voix", written by Pascal Graczyk, René Colombies, Gilles Arcens, and Luigi Rutigliano, and performed byNayah. The French participating broadcaster,France Télévision, selected its entry for the contest through the national finalEurovision 1999: la sélection organized byFrance 3.
Twelve songs competed in the national final on 2 March 1999 where "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.
As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 10, France placed nineteenth out of the 23 participating countries with 14 points.
Prior to the 1999 Contest,France Télévision and its predecessor national broadcasters, had participated in theEurovision Song Contest representing France forty-one times sinceRTF's debut in1956. They first won the contest in1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed byAndré Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed byJacqueline Boyer in1960, "Un premier amour" performed byIsabelle Aubret in1962, and "Un jour, un enfant" performed byFrida Boccara, who won in1969 in a four-way tie with theNetherlands,Spain, and theUnited Kingdom. Their fifth – and so far latest – victory came in1977 with "L'oiseau et l'enfant" performed byMarie Myriam. They have also finished second four times, with "La Belle Amour" byPaule Desjardins in1957, "Un, deux, trois" byCatherine Ferry in1976, "White and Black Blues" byJoëlle Ursull in1990, and "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" byAmina in1991, who lost out toSweden's "Fångad av en stormvind" byCarola in a tie-break. In1998, they finished in twenty-fourth place with the song "Où aller" performed byMarie Line.[1]
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster,France Télévision organised the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcast the event in the country. For 1999, the broadcaster opted to delegate the selection of its entry toFrance 3; since1993,France 2 had been responsible of selecting the entry and broadcasting the contest in France, however, they were unable to broadcast the 1999 contest due to its date conflicting with theFrench Rugby League Championship. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose its entry in the past. From1988 to1998, the broadcaster opted to internally select its entry. The 1999 French entry was selected via a national final which featured several competing acts, marking the first time since1987 that a national final was organised to select the French entry.[citation needed]
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France 3 organised the national finalEurovision 1999: la sélection to its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. The broadcaster received 600 submissions for the competition and a two-member selection committee consisting of Monique Le Marcis (RTL Head of Musical Programming) and Catherine Régnier (M6 music programmer) selected twelve entries to compete in the national final. Songs in Arabic (Israhn),Basque (Kukumiku),Breton (Alex) and Hebrew (Anath) were also featured in addition to French.[2]
Fourteen entries competed in the national final which consisted of a live final that took place on 2 March 1999 at theL'Olympia inParis, hosted byJulien Lepers andKaren Cheryl and broadcast on France 3. The twelve finalists performed their entries together with an orchestra conducted by Réné Coll and the winner, "Je veux donner ma voix" performed byNayah, was determined by the combination of public voting via telephone andMinitel (50%) and a ten-member jury panel (50%).[3] The rankings of each half were used to calculate the result; hence, the song with the lowest total won. There was a tie for first place between Ginie Line and Nayah; however, Nayah won as she received the most votes from the public.[2] The national final was watched by 4.996 million viewers in France with a market share of 20.6%.[4]
The jury panel consisted of:[2]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Total | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Points | Votes | Points | |||||
| 1 | Alex | "Les droits de l'âme" | 58 | 7 | 4,497 | 2 | 9 | 4 |
| 2 | Karine Trécy | "Euroland" | 44 | 11 | 482 | 11 | 22 | 12 |
| 3 | Caractère | "Douce" | 90 | 2 | 1,438 | 7 | 9 | 5 |
| 4 | Nathalie Marine | "C'est souvent ça l'amour" | 66 | 6 | 1,680 | 6 | 12 | 6 |
| 5 | Pedro Alves | "Plus jamais, Never More" | 89 | 3 | 3,725 | 3 | 6 | 3 |
| 6 | Anath | "Go Ahead" | 58 | 7 | 1,186 | 8 | 15 | 7 |
| 7 | Kukumiku | "Irradaka" | 48 | 10 | 1,084 | 9 | 19 | 10 |
| 8 | Ginie Line | "La même histoire" | 94 | 1 | 3,457 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| 9 | Mo and La Gazo | "Gazoline" | 72 | 5 | 378 | 12 | 17 | 9 |
| 10 | Nayah | "Je veux donner ma voix" | 85 | 4 | 11,521 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 11 | Israhn | "Ihtidael" | 50 | 9 | 862 | 10 | 19 | 11 |
| 12 | Uni.T | "Euro Song" | 26 | 12 | 2,153 | 5 | 17 | 8 |
The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at theInternational Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, on 29 May 1999. According to theEurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation, the seventeen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest. As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 10, following the entry fromDenmark and before the entry from theNetherlands.[5][6] France finished in nineteenth place with 14 points.[7]
In France, the contest was broadcast onFrance 3 as well as on a 3 hour and 5 minute delay viaTV5 with commentary byJulien Lepers.[8] The French spokesperson, who announced the results of the French televote during the show, wasMarie Myriam who won the contest for France in1977. The France 3 broadcast reached 4.2 million viewers within France, representing a 27.9% market share.[9]
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Portugal in the contest.
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