After weeks of teasing, French broadcaster France 2 has finally confirmed that Amir will represent France at Eurovision 2016. The singer, who placed third on The Voice in 2014, will perform his single “J’ai cherché” (“I Have Been Looking For”) in Stockholm. In a bold move for France, the song contains English in its chorus.
“I am so proud and flattered to represent my country, France, at this epic song contest that celebrates all cultures of the large European family”, Amir said in a statement. “I watch the Eurovision Song Contest every year. It was my childhood dream to participate in the show. Trust me, I will give more than I can to make everyone proud of our performance.”
The French announcement was due to be made on 12 March, but after the news was leaked on the daily show Touche pas à mon poste, officials moved their announcement forward.
Speaking with RFM France this morning, he made it clear he’s over-the-moon about his participation. He said that he agreed to participate because Eurovision is the biggest music show in Europe — and one with spectacular production.
Watch a preview of the official “J’ai cherché” video clip
Amir — “J’ai cherché” (France 2016)
Who is Amir Haddad?
Amir was born in 1984 in Paris to a Tunisian father and a Moroccan-Spanish mother, both of whom were Jewish. In 2006 he took part in the Israeli Idol Kokhav Nolad and released his first album in 2011.
In 2013, he took part in the third season of The Voice: La plus belle voix and eventually placed third, with Kendji Girac winning.
https://youtu.be/uhyZvzWfdJM
Following The Voice, Amir was involved in the tribute album Forever Gentlemen, which reached No.3 in the French charts. He has since been working on his first French album, with “J’ai cherché” intended as the first single.
Amir — Our first reaction
Amir Haddad photos
Amir’s song has been remixed and shortened. Here his the official version that will be sung on May :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boYQovCybYQ
My best songs at Eurovision 2016 is from France and Italy.
oh my, I’ve got conflict of interests (Spain and France as my top songs). can we vote for multiple countries this year? I’ve heard rules changed, does it affect tele voting in any way?
Wow the best song from France since Anggun 🙂
This is a massive step up from France’s rather dull efforts.
Its my favorite song to listen to although Iceland and Ukraine are 2nd and 1st on my rankings because they need to be experienced.
Should be top 10 since the chorus is English and that’s most likely going to be the section played in the voting clip.
Bonne chance France de Luxembourg
LOVE IT!!! France is walways one of my favorites (except with that mustache crap thing).
wowowowow
new favorite right here!
UKR, LAT, ITA, FRA, FIN, AUT, CYP, ISL, GER, GBR for me
Honestly, French entries are a lot of times overlooked. The entry last year was nothing short of amazing and deserved a much much higher ranking but because it was not a “eurovision” song, it did poorly. This is a much more radio friendly effort and I think it will pay off big for France. Hope to see them in the top 10.
The more I listen to this song, the more I love it! I can’t stop playing it, it’s been on repeat for the last hour or so. I don’t know why, but it makes me happy! No 1 by miles for me – so far; obviously not all the songs have been revealed / chosen, but at this point I can’t see anything happening to knock ‘J’ai cherche’ off my no 1! (Though I wouldn’t mind it, this would only mean a great show in May!)
This song definitely has winner vibes ! Paris 2017 would be awesome
If Eurovision is a true song contest and not a whole lot of neighbouring countries voting for each other, then Thi song will either win or go very close to winning.
@Racal Oh well, you could look at the televoting in 2011 (11th), 2012 (17th), 2013 (10th) or 2014 (19th). Italy’s best year was 2015, that is why they almost won. Also, it’s a shared opinion that Spain should’ve got top 5 in those years. Literally ask anyone and they would’ve rated Pastora and Ruth higher. Songs do not have an equal chance than one another. Voting patterns and the Big 5 biased are some, yet there are many. Big 5 countries do not get that frequent good results because they are Big 5 countries. People blame the quality of the… Read more »
@oliverisamazing: “The Spanish entries that did make it into the top 10 should’ve made it into the top 5”. Says who? You? This is only your opinion buddy, there are 200 million other people watching the show. And since when is Italy overhyped by the juries? And again, according to whom? You? I could remind you what happened in 2015, but that’d be too easy. 😉 My point is actually that there is no general rule. I believe that good songs and good performances will be rewarded, big 5 or not (and thank god, otherwise no one would be watching… Read more »
Great choice France, very catchy!
@Racal Natasha St-Pier was 15 years ago. If your comparing apples with apples, understand that she was before the inception of the Big 5. Also, aren’t you selecting random songs and making a general rule about them also? What I am saying is that average songs like that, could’ve got higher rankings in the finals if there wasn’t no Big 5. I like J’ai Cherche, but I am not going to recommend him as top 10 material just because everyone hasn’t been liking french entries for the past 5 years. Also, you can’t just write-off an act because their careers… Read more »
I hope this does really well. I’m loving it!
Les Grands 5 semblent vraiement grands cette fois 😮
Chercher, ce qu’il ya de plus beau
chercher, c’est monter si haut
est toucher les ailes des oiseau
chercher,
tellement loin d’ici à la recherche
du
pa-ra-diiiiiiiiiis
Gives me a good feeling when i listen to this. I think its the kind of song that could win actually! :-O I can see a lot of people voting for it (a lot of fans already have it in their top 10 at least). It’s fun and catchy. I can also see the jury liking this.
I’d put France above Germany, Laburnum. UK the weakest, I agree.
Germany the best voice of the bunch, though. I just don’t like the song as much as other people.
Wow France! My top of the big 5:
-Spain
-Germany
-France
-Italy
-Uk (this looks shameful compared to the others)
Felicitations, France! Je l’adore! This goes right into my to 5, behind Italy! Now, let’s see the staging, and it may even more higher! Bonne chance, France! 😀
And Amir/France is stepping up in the betting odds. Nice, for a change.
As of now, I have just a few favorites for ESC: France, Latvia, Cyprus.
From the rest of the unrevealed entries, I may expect 2-3 songs max as good ones, so…it’s a dissapointing year, to be honest.
This was revealed last week.
Love this song <3
Finally! A great song in 2016 and a great song from France! Go Go Gooo!!
I love this, in my top 3 right now, and I’m very proud that he is part Israeli. Well done France.
Well done, France! Finally something to cheer about as far as French entries at ESC go! This should do very well in May!
France really ought to be guaranteed a second half slot after getting 1 & 2 in recent contests
This is very good. WOW. It’s my #7 so far between Ukraine (my #6 and Albania now my #8) but his only competition due to the genre and the general feeling of the song is Ireland’s and this absolutely devoured it alive for me so.. 😛 This year will be very hard… Half way through and we still need to listen to Croatia’s, Malta’s and other songs from countries who are gonna be awesome, including countries like Poland (Margaret, Enyda, and Michal Szpak) which slay but are yet to be officially select their song and I’m already finding it difficult… Read more »
I watched Wiwi’s first reaction video before listening to the song and I gotta say I was a little disappointed after all that hype, but of course this is a catchy song that could do quite well on Eurovision. I think it’s a little too generic to really make an impact though.
Great song France !! Lets see in the final <3 Best of luck… My top 24 from The Netherlands:
1-Spain
2-Norway
3-France *NEW*
4-Belgium
5-Ukraine
6-Denmark
7-UK
8-Finland
9-Italy
10-Iceland
11-Cyprus
12-Slovenia
13-Albania
14-Switzerland
15-Latvia
16-Germany
17-Ireland
18-Austria
19-Belarus
20-Bosnia & Herzegovina
21-Malta
22-Hungary
23-Moldova
24-Georgia
my top 24 right now !!! :
1-Spain 10/10
2-France (new) 9.5/10
3-Iceland 9.5/10
4-Germany 9/10
5-Norway 8.5/10
6-Belgium 7.5/10
7-Switzerland 7.5/10
8-Denmark 7/10
9-Ukraine 7/10
10-Latvia 7/10
11-Finland 7/10
12-Cyprus 7/10
13-Italy 7/10
14-Hungary 7/10
15-Malta 6.5/10
16-Ireland 6.5/10
17-Moldova 6/10
18-UK 6/10
19-Austria 6/10
20-Slovenia 5.5/10
21-Albania 5.5/10
22-Bosnia & Herzegovina 5/10
23-Belarus 3/10
24-Georgia 2.5/10
Well, from all the songs we heard so far this is the one that sounds most like last year’s winner. Which probably means that France has finally decided to give it a go. It also means that France, Italy and Spain all learned the lesson that mr. Bjorkmann intended to give them through the treatment of Il Volo by the juries last year and have finally acquisced to the complete Melfestation of the contest. If it wasn’t for Austria and Bosnia we would probably be talking about the first contest where all the songs are wholly or partially sung in… Read more »
Omg this is already in my Top 5 I love ig
Oh yeah, I love this!! Big 5 have finally come to fight for the top positions.
Wish you the best luck vecinos franceses. Bonne chance!!!
Very good song! Well done France, it isn’t a winner song, but he could get into the top 10. France has almost assured the 12 points from Israel. This could be the first year after a long time that the whole BIG 5 reaches the top 10, who knows!
Ben, c’est bien meuilleur de ce qu’on a presenté les années dernières. Cette chanson a un gros potentiel, j’éspère seulement que la mise en scène sera bonne de la même façon
@oliverisamazing: Actually yes, I do think all these songs were either bad, badly performed live, or both. Amandine Bourgeois and Angunn’s careers are dead in France, not even the French listen to them so you can’t blame the rest of Europe for not liking them either (and Angunn’s Eurovision song was quite bad anyway). Lisa Angell? Dated, depressing and boring (despite being a good vocalist). I was a big fan of “Children of the Universe” and “Amanecer” before the contest, but their live performances were super bad. Not surprised at all by the final results. When the songs and live… Read more »
Wow. A reasonably good entry from France! Have I entered an alternate universe? Bravo et bonne chance! 🙂
My prediciton for France in final from 8 to 12 place .
4 of BIG 5 countries have good song this year, only UK don t have.
I feel constricted because yes, it’s France’s best song in the last decade but for me the song is just a generic pop song :(.
Best song from France since Allez Ola Ole. Period the end.
And yes, Israel will probably be giving him our 12 points….
Well done France. You finally got the staging right last year now this year with the song. Welcome back to the Top 10 😉
I would never compare this bit of fluff with Lisa Angell’s beautiful song from last year. There is no comparison.
Still Amir’s song is fun. I think it will struggle to make Top 10. There are already many better songs & still more songs to be revealed.
After last year’s joke, this is fantastic!
France FINALLY get it!
Here is a rare video of Amir’s audition for Israel’s “HakOchav Ha-ba” (Israeli Next star) recorded in late 2005 or early 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqn7d9EbAs Amir was eliminated at the early stages of the fourth season not without making some news back in June 2006 when during a duo on a live televised show, he suddenly collapsed on stage because he forgot the lyrics. It really aches to watch this, but it’s a very human moment and you can only grow from a moment like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mra75RrPI5Y Although he somehow pulled himself together, he was eventually disqualified from the show. I believe… Read more »
Here is a rare video of Amir’s audition for Israel’s “HakOchav Ha-ba” (Israeli Next star) recorded in late 2005 or early 2006. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mqn7d9EbAs Amir was eliminated at the early stages of the fourth season not without making some news back in June 2006 when during a duo on a live televised show, he suddenly collapsed on stage because he forgot the lyrics. It really aches to watch this, but it’s a very human moment and you can only grow from a moment like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mra75RrPI5Y Although he somehow pulled himself together, he was eventually disqualified from the show. I believe… Read more »
Nice song and great looking guy…I think this combo will work!
I love him! OMG!! so beautiful…and thats before I even start talking about the song!
So catchy, I love the French parts and then the catchy English chorus comes in. Best French song in a very very very long time. Pleasantly surprised. I would like the trumpet part in the chorus to just be a little bit louder, but beggars cannot be choosers, Welcome back France, straight into my Top 10.