Eurovision 2020 saw France return to an internal selection process, where they chose Tom Leeb and his song “The Best In Me”. And now, even though this year’s contest has been cancelled, the French star has released the revamped version of the song, which is now called “Mon Alliée”.
Earlier this year in the middle of February, Tom Leeb stood atop of the Eiffel Tower and unleashed his Eurovision 2020 song “The Best In Me” out into the world. Despite having some notable songwriters behind it, the track initially received rather unfavourable reviews.
After performing a stripped back acoustic version of the song on French radio station RTL, fans hoped that Leeb might consider taking that version of the song to Eurovision instead. Not one to ignore his fans, the French crooner has indeed taken the time to revamp the song.
“Mon Alliée”, which translates to “My Ally”, pairs things back and puts the focus on Tom’s voice as he’s accompanied by a guitar.
Tom Leeb – “Mon Alliée (The Best In Me)”
“Mon Alliée” vs “The Best In Me”: What are the differences?
Before even listening to the revamped song, a notable change is the title of the track. The switch from English to French is interesting, as Leeb was initially criticised by the French Minister of Culture Franck Riester for the use of English in the song.
Not only does “Mon Alliée” have a new French title, but most of the lyrics in the chorus have also now been translated into French.
New Lyrics (“Mon Alliée”)
You, you are the best in me
Au fond de moi j’ai compris
You are, you are, you are
Et tout ce qu’on s’est jamais dit
Revient me hanter jour et nuit
You are, you are, you are
You are the best in me
Original Lyrics (“The Best In Me”)
You, you are the best in me
You’re making it all complete
You are, you are, you are
In every breath I breathe
Forever eternally
You are, you are, you are
You are the best in me
Sonically, “Mon Alliée” significantly strips things back at the beginning. Tom is only accompanied by an acoustic guitar for the first verse of the song. The spotlight is put on the French singer’s luscious gravelly vocals and the emotion behind the song.
String instruments lightly underline the first chorus as the song then continues to build and grow. Like the original, there’s still a climax in the final moments of the track. However, the acoustic guitar melody remains prominent throughout the song, showing that this is intended to be a more down to earth revamp.
The new version of the song also comes with a new music video. Gone is the sparkly Eiffel Tower, and instead we see Leeb strumming his guitar on the stage of an empty theatre. Interspersed amongst this are clips of the woman that Tom is singing about, who also eventually makes her way to the theatre.
There’s a narrative here that helps deliver the emotion of the song to the viewer in a much clearer fashion. While the Eiffel Tower may be an iconic French landmark, the original video did nothing to capture the hearts of the audience – naturally, human beings can emotionally relate to other people a lot more easily than they can with inanimate objects.
Tom Leeb – “The Best In Me” (Original Version)
Despite the revamp of the song, Tom Leeb will not be able to perform “Mon Alliée” at Eurovision 2020 following the contest’s cancellation due to coronavirus precautions. Additionally, the EBU has confirmed that no entries submitted into the 2020 contest will be eligible for the contest next year and countries will need to submit a different song.
Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Leeb and the French delegation taking the time to respond to fans’ criticisms of “The Best In Me” by releasing a new version of the song. The track will still feature on the EBU’s alternate show Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light.
What do you make of “Mon Alliée”? Are you glad Tom Leeb decided to revamp the song? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
I preferred the original. This is half-hearted and overly-safe.
I do like that they had more French than the poorly-used English so if they had done that with the original arrangement, this might’ve been higher up in my ranking.
His live acoustic version is still the best.. Downloaded it illegally haha but I loooove it.. Beautiful.. Original is a bland Disney track that should’ve been in the Quasimodo movie and this version is still too produced for me.. He is a gifted singer though
It’s better, but the song still sounds a bit cheesy and the lyrics are a bit cringe (should be full french). But I’m a fan of Tom, his other songs are better than this one though!
Great article. Merci beaucoup
I oddly like the new folky acoustic turn the song took. I was already happy hearing what the changed lyrics sounded like in the France-only version of the original so that wasn’t a total surprise.
And as stated by someone below, they could have made the lyrics all French in its entirety but it’s a minor quip at this point. At least now, this feels like more of Tom’s song than anything else.
Now it feels a bit less pretentious and artificial, but it’s still quite boring and the lyrics are as basic as they come. I appreciate the effort in revamping the song, but this is only mildly better.
Better, but still huge problems. I thought the abomination of “forever eternally” had gone, but no it creeps in right at the end. There is still the irritating “you are” and “e-ver-y” throughout. I suppose the fact there is more French means I am not distracted by the cliche-ridden English as much. I like the acoustic bits, they should have kept it like that all the way through rather than retain the predictable key changes and bombast at the end. Overall, I appreciate the effort but the age-old saying about polishing a turd unfortunately rings true.
Actually, people have been saying for weeks that the french delegation wasn’t listening to the fans but he recorded this version only two days after the reveal on the Eiffel Tower on the sunday 16th and all the bad criticisms (the tuesday evening), so it was already planned 1 month and a half ago. About the song, it’s better but still meh tbh. On the replacement show on may 16th, he will sing “J’ai cherché” apparently so we will see what he can do on an uptempo song. So maybe they can choose him again next year with an uptempo… Read more »
I think the delegation will reintroduce a kind of public vote next year after what we saw both in ESC fandom and especially in France. Maybe follow Romanian steps? Or if Tom isn’t available (he has got a lot of shootings incoming, especially season 2 of french adaptation of TV serie Doctor Foster), maybe a strong return of Destination Eurovision could be welcome!
Honestly it would be a good idea. Our HoD said that 18 songs to handle was to much and that they preferred to focus on only one artist. I agree that 18 is too much but 10 or even less like 5 or 6 could be perfect but it has to be 5 strong songs and with a strong voting system and not the one from DE2020. They should make the televoting different and give like 120pts to the winner, then 10pts (if there are 10 international juries) in order to not have a scenario à la Bilal with 150… Read more »
Still not great but I prefer the original
Yes ! Much better now. it could go without any english, but…. i like this. finally.
Sounds better but why release it if it is cancelled?
Still horible and dated
It’s not anywhere near my top 10, but I think it’s much better now. It went from 39th to 33rd, so I think that pretty good for a song a lot of people dislike. 🙂
The revamp made it even worse.
He can take a trip down my alley if he likes