September 1 marked the official start of the Eurovision 2017 season and it sent composers and lyricists into overdrive as they polished off their submissions for the coming cycle.
And on Tuesday France became the first of the Big Five countries — you know, the ones who pay all that money to go straight to the final — to start their march toward Kyiv.
France 2 formally opened their call for submissions on Tuesday, asking members of the public to submit their own songs through a portal on the France 2 website. As in past years, officials at France 2 will simultaneously do some digging of their own, exploring potential options with established artists and record labels.
Que le meilleur gagne! La saison 2016/2017 est officiellement ouverte #Eurovision2017 https://t.co/gDUWyh8q43
— Edoardo Grassi (@EdwardoGrassi) September 13, 2016
The French broadcaster is no doubt keen to keep a good thing going, following their remarkable turnaround in 2016 after years of sub-par results.
In 2014, Twin Twin came dead last, despite their funky and thought-provoking song. And in 2015, Lisa Angell failed to light up the scoreboards, though she did win over some of our hearts with her dramatic staging that raised a finger to terrorists.
But just one year later Amir charmed his way to sixth place with “J’ai cherché”. That marked France’s first time in the top ten since 2009 and their best result since 2002.
So no pressure whatsoever on this year’s act then…
We have faith that France will make the right decision again and select an artist that will keep the dust off of France’s musical mantle.
Head of Delegation Edoardo Grassi, 30, took over last year and has proven to be a wunderkind with both ambition and humility — and, most importantly, good taste. As anyone who has ever had colleagues or a job knows, these traits don’t always come hand-in-hand!
He made it clear throughout the 2016 season that he wants France to win Eurovision again soon, so he’ll no doubt be combing through the submissions very carefully indeed.
Are you excited to see who France finds? Let us know in the comments section below!
@William Adams Lee Adams : Thank you for the answer and the precision. 🙂
I never expected to say this but France was overrated this year.
Anyway, good luck! 🙂
Don’t care about big 5, if they go thru semi, then the number of qualified countries must be higher, so for the other countries is no change, but I don’t understand why anybody will want to be in big 5, just everybody hates you. And btw, does anybody know how much money big 5 pay, because I’ve heard is not that much more, and is for sport events anyway. To host ESC is still a burden for the country, not for big 5.
Good luck to Edoardo and Team France! Amir got them off to a successful start, now let’s see if they can keep it going
Slightly worried about this – limiting the pool like this may not result in the same success as Amir.
I would love to see christine and the queens come forward..
Tilted would have made an amazing french entry .. Perfect for eurovision as it would be fantastic live and a true great song..
It’s not really a reaction to this article but I don’t know where else I can put it. It looks like some countries are quite late with their confirmation for Eurovision 2017. The Balkan countries are always late, but countries like Azerbaijan, Italy, Belarus, Czech Republic and Moldova should normally be confirmed by now, am I right?
“Unlike last year, where they specified an upper age limit, France is opening the submission process to everyone, including all y’all octogenarians. ” False !
The age limit (16 to 50 years old) still exists ! 😉 (cf rules)