| France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovision Song Contest 2023 | ||||
| Participating broadcaster | France Télévisions | |||
| Country |  France | |||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Announcement date | Artist: 12 January 2023 Song: 19 February 2023 | |||
| Competing entry | ||||
| Song | "Évidemment" | |||
| Artist | La Zarra | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Placement | ||||
| Final result | 16th, 104 points | |||
| Participation chronology | ||||
| ||||
France was represented at theEurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song "Évidemment", written byFatima Zahra Hafdi, Ahmed Saghir,Yannick Rastogi, andZacharie Raymond, and performed by Hafdi herself under her stage nameLa Zarra. The French participating broadcaster,France Télévisions, internally selected its entry for the contest. La Zarra was officially announced byFrance 2 as the French entrant on 12 January 2023, and the song was presented to the public on 19 February 2023, during the France 2 programme20h30 le dimanche.
As a member of the "Big Five", France automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Prior to the 2023 contest,France Télévisions and its predecessor national broadcasters have participated in theEurovision Song Contest representing France sixty-four times sinceRTF's debut inthe inaugural contest.[1] 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. France's fifth victory came in1977 whenMarie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France has also finished second five times, withPaule Desjardins in1957,Catherine Ferry in1976,Joëlle Ursull in1990,Amina in1991 (who lost out toSweden'sCarola in a tie-break), andBarbara Pravi in2021. In the 21st century, France has had less success, only making the top ten five times, withNatasha St-Pier finishing fourth in2001,Sandrine François finishing fifth in2002,Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in2009,Amir finishing sixth in2016, and Pravi finishing second in 2021 with 499 points. In2022, the nation finished in twenty-fourth place with the song "Fulenn" performed byAlvan andAhez.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster,France Télévisions organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country throughFrance 2. The French broadcasters has used both national finals and internal selections to choose its entry in the past. In2021 and2022, the entries were selected via the national finalEurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez !.[2]
Initially,France 2 announced in July 2022 that the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 would be selected via the national finalEurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez![3][4][5] However, on 12 January 2023, it was reported that the national final had been cancelled,[6] and soon later the broadcaster announced that it had internally selectedLa Zarra, a Canadian singer and songwriter of Moroccan descent based in France, as the French entrant for the contest.[7] Her competing song, "Évidemment", written by Ahmed Saghir,Yannick Rastogi,Zacharie Raymond, and La Zarra herself, was presented to the public on 19 February 2023 during a pre-recorded showcase performance, broadcast onFrance 2 during the programme20h30 le dimanche and hosted byLaurent Delahousse.[8] The French Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, commented on the selection:
"From our first meeting, La Zarra won us over! What an honour to welcome this great artist in the Eurovision family! Mysterious, inspiring, charismatic, La Zarra is a woman and a modern artist with a chic French signature! A voice that transports us through time by making us travel to different eras. From Barbara throughBrel orDalida toMarylin Monroe, La Zarra is an iconic artist who will carry the colors of France in Liverpool in May 2023 during the largest song contest in the world."
— Alexandra Redde-Amiel[7]
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big Five", France automatically qualified to compete in the final on 13 May 2023. In addition to its participation in the final, France was also required to broadcast and vote in one of the two semi-finals. This was decided via a draw held during the semi-final allocation draw on 31 January 2023, when it was announced that France would be voting in the first semi-final.[9]
France Télévisions broadcast all three shows live on its channels; the two semi-finals were shown onCulturebox with commentary provided byAndré Manoukian and France's2012 participantAnggun, while the final was aired onFrance 2 with commentary byLaurence Boccolini andStéphane Bern.[10][11][12] The broadcast of the final reached a total of 3.48 million people in France, a 10% increase on viewing figures for the2022 contest and representing a 25.6% market share of television viewers over the age of 4.[13][14]
| Score | Televote | Jury |
|---|---|---|
| 12 points | ||
| 10 points |  Armenia |  Sweden |
| 8 points |  Norway | |
| 7 points | ||
| 6 points | ||
| 5 points | ||
| 4 points |  Iceland |  Serbia |
| 3 points |  Netherlands | |
| 2 points | ||
| 1 point |  Belgium |
|
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The following members comprised the French jury:
| Draw | Country | Televote | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Points | ||
| 01 | Norway | 10 | 1 |
| 02 |  Malta | 12 | |
| 03 | Serbia | 9 | 2 |
| 04 |  Latvia | 8 | 3 |
| 05 |  Portugal | 1 | 12 |
| 06 |  Ireland | 13 | |
| 07 |  Croatia | 11 | |
| 08 |  Switzerland | 5 | 6 |
| 09 |  Israel | 3 | 8 |
| 10 |  Moldova | 2 | 10 |
| 11 | Sweden | 6 | 5 |
| 12 |  Azerbaijan | 15 | |
| 13 |  Czech Republic | 7 | 4 |
| 14 | Netherlands | 14 | |
| 15 |  Finland | 4 | 7 |
| Draw | Country | Jury | Televote | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juror 1 | Juror 2 | Juror 3 | Juror 4 | Juror 5 | Rank | Points | Rank | Points | ||
| 01 |  Austria | 6 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 25 | |
| 02 | Portugal | 3 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 03 | Switzerland | 4 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 16 | |
| 04 |  Poland | 18 | 20 | 16 | 14 | 14 | 20 | 13 | ||
| 05 | Serbia | 19 | 19 | 24 | 17 | 19 | 23 | 21 | ||
| 06 | France | |||||||||
| 07 |  Cyprus | 8 | 21 | 25 | 16 | 15 | 18 | 20 | ||
| 08 |  Spain | 10 | 6 | 22 | 8 | 18 | 11 | 12 | ||
| 09 | Sweden | 1 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 3 |
| 10 |  Albania | 20 | 22 | 21 | 22 | 17 | 24 | 11 | ||
| 11 |  Italy | 7 | 14 | 3 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 7 |
| 12 |  Estonia | 12 | 7 | 20 | 21 | 10 | 14 | 22 | ||
| 13 | Finland | 9 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 6 |
| 14 | Czech Republic | 11 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 4 | 15 | |
| 15 |  Australia | 17 | 23 | 19 | 18 | 5 | 15 | 23 | ||
| 16 | Belgium | 21 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 9 | 2 | |
| 17 | Armenia | 5 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 12 |
| 18 | Moldova | 13 | 24 | 13 | 23 | 20 | 21 | 3 | 8 | |
| 19 |  Ukraine | 14 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| 20 | Norway | 22 | 15 | 11 | 12 | 7 | 13 | 10 | 1 | |
| 21 |  Germany | 25 | 25 | 17 | 25 | 21 | 25 | 14 | ||
| 22 |  Lithuania | 15 | 9 | 12 | 20 | 24 | 17 | 19 | ||
| 23 | Israel | 2 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 10 |
| 24 |  Slovenia | 16 | 16 | 23 | 7 | 23 | 16 | 17 | ||
| 25 | Croatia | 23 | 17 | 14 | 24 | 22 | 22 | 18 | ||
| 26 |  United Kingdom | 24 | 10 | 15 | 13 | 25 | 19 | 24 | ||
