She flew the flag for France in Kyiv on Saturday and gave the land of pain au chocolat a respectable twelfth place finish on the big night. But despite placing tenth with the public, and earning a respectable haul of 135 points, Alma couldn’t conceal her feelings from the French media.
Talking to Yahoo France, she revealed that she was in tears when she came off stage and found the jury voting very stressful as she failed to pick up points as results came in.
In another interview with Télé 7 the day after the final, the French star revealed she feels like she’s let down her team and her nation.
“I received a lot of messages telling me people were proud I was representing France. I would have liked to place higher so that I could meet those expectations. The result is an immense disappointment.”
To that we have only thing to say: No more tears baby girl, chanter you slayed.
It’s difficult to forget how far France has come in the past two years and that 2017 marks the second year France has placed in the top 10 of televoting. It’s a long way from Anggun’s nil points in the televote at the 2012 contest in Azerbaijan.
And after initial disappointment, it appears the chanteuse herself is looking on the bright side too.
Speaking to Europe 1 today, she described the result and her Eurovision experience as, “the beginning of another story.”
Her focus now is her debut LP Ma Peau Aime and she told Paris Match she’s not afraid of her Eurovision result impacting her future. “I had an incredible opportunity to perform in front of 200 million viewers and it’s up to me to do something about it.”
It isn’t only the French media singing the star’s praises. France’s most recent Eurovision winner Marie Myriam is a firm supporter: “I think she deserved much better. But there is always a somewhat mysterious side, inexplicable in the result of a contest. Not to mention the talent of the opponents, and there were some … But I’m not worried about her. Eurovision is no longer like my days. It has become a real springboard. And, as for Amir, I predicted a great success for him.”
Alma gave France its second best result of the decade in Kyiv. What do you think of her result? Did she deserve to do better? Let us know in the comments below!
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.@almaofficiel a enflammé la scène de l'Euroclub lors de la #wiwijam ? Thanks for having us guys! @wiwibloggs pic.twitter.com/nsViCoX8GZ
— Eurovision France ?? (@EurovisionF2) May 10, 2017
Well… I’ll be among those people saying to Alma “we told you so”: The revamp hurt the song in a similar way like Italy. By the time I was watching the final, I had kind of adapted to the English chorus, actually; the more evident problem was the speed of the song. For some reason they increased the tempo for the revamp, although I don’t see why – because in contrast to Italy’s song, “Requiem” was already perfectly within the boundaries of the 3 minute-rule. Now Alma had to rush through the lines and was almost over-powered by those additional… Read more »
Well , here in Bulgaria we all tought that this was the-best song of the night , we really love roamantic and classy French songs (who knew right? :D) and only France knows how to produce them. Its just that Europe is not mature enough to appritiate how good that song was. The staging didnt really matter to us , it wasnt nothing crazy , over-the-top or out-of-line with the song and we gaved her 12 points from televote. We really hope that France will make more songs like that so we here can enjoy them 🙂 Cuz in Bulgaria… Read more »
Flash news: Luisa and Salvador Sobral caught being arrogant with other contestants by brutally paying tribute to another song: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUCZ9sQl_yY/
Seriously, who the hell do they think they are?! … 😉
Never mind, I posted that under the wrong article, lol. I’ll see myself out…
I thought France would have done much better. I predicted a 4th position behind Portugal, Bulgaria and Italy.
But I think being the song after Belgium, Sweden and Bulgaria didn’t help.
In any other position away from the favourites would have helped…..although this didn’t help for the UK.
12th place is not bad at all.
The girl stood on an empty stage. Eurovision artists should stop presenting their performance as if it was a videoclip. Offer an in-concert performance with energetic backing vocals who are visible. This was so very boring.
Seriously? I think a 12th position is amazing. Honestly, I was expecting a much lower position for France this year. I like the song, but there were more stronger entries. I find that UK should have placed higher
Awwww so sad. She was underrated but 12th place is great, and top 10 in televoting is amazing 😀
This year was the strongest Eurovision year ever, so there is nothing to be ashamed of.
Strongest year ever? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA this was one of the weakest of the decade.
exactly. This year’s contest was embarrassing to watch. It destroyed the PR build in few last years. And the presenters and staging just took the whole show to amateurish school competition.
It was not the best but definitely better than 2010/2011/ 2012 in terms of songs. I would say the level was equivalent to 2015.
I think that Alma is very sad because in our country, the general public (not the people who follow us like Eurovision all year, but those who only judge the final by zaping on), these people criticize very much Eurovision and our representative every year. Even Amir, last year, before going to the contest, took insults in the figure, especially on social networks. Strangely after his good score in the contest, everyone began to love him! Poor Alma with her twelfth place was much mocked. It’s absolutely shameful and revolting, I ‘m ashamed for the people of my country who… Read more »
Thank you CyxCy for your well written and interesting comment. I am terribly sorry to hear that Alma has been mocked on French social media, despite having the next best French result in ESC during a decade. She was 12th of 42 contestants and 10th among the televotes. I have commented on the result earlier on this page and think it had the potential to be among top 5 if not some mistakes had been done with the revamp and staging. However, I am glad to see that there are cultivated persons like you in France who fully recognize Alma’s… Read more »
Thanks for this interesting comment! Just one thing: “in France we don’t have this culture of “show” with dancers, special effects and glitter”.
I don’t think any country in Europe has that kind of culture in their national music scene, it seems to be something that Eurovision emulates! 🙂
The song had potential. Some of it was wasted. The revamp wasn’t all that convincing and the staging didn’t really fit the atmosphere of the song. But hey, they tried, they experimented. Practice makes perfect. 🙂 12th is still a very respectable placing. Good job, Alma!
She finished 12th – not too bad at all. There would be many countries who would like to have finished 12th. But every year we talk about the same things – same old same old. This year was a really tough year – so many good songs the best I can remember. And there are always hard luck stories – Norway being a prime example. There is a winner – its done and dusted – let’s look forward to next year.
Alma’s performance could’ve been stronger. 12th place is nothing to be ashamed of.
Indeed. I liked France’s entry this year. More than last year’s.
I’m sorry that Alma feels that way, but she’s still one of the most memorable acts of this year. I think the French should be proud of her and I’m sure if they keep sending quality acts like this, victory will come soon!
I personally thought she was going? to do better and felt she should have. I think the staging is what got her. Also I think they need to change how the voting is done. 100 percent? televoting in the semis and 60 percent telly and 40 percent jury in the final.?
Requiem was my FAVOURITE song this year – I even like it better than Amir’s song (which was also very good)! Imo she deserved a top 5 finish, but that isn’t my choice of course.
Chin up Alma!!! Ta chanson était la meilleure!
Oui Oui! Her album is great too!
Thank you for some other fantastic post. The place else could anybody get that type of info in such a perfect method of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the search for such info.
EBU must changes rules for 2018 to increase members of juries from 5 to 16. Its not fair to 205 people gave to Australia 171, The Netherlands 135, Austria 93, Denmark 69, and milions people by televote gave to that countries,, 0 points to Austria, 2 points for Australia, 15 points to The Netherlands It s not fair 5 juries member eqaual with millions of people in same countries. If we have in future only 5 members of juries in 1 countries decrease their power to 33 % of votes 1/3 of votes, and televote to decide 66 % of… Read more »
Guess what, it takes more than statistical anomaly for the jury-televote disparity to be this big, so adding more jury members is unlikely to help. Apart from some geopolitical bias, they are working as they are intended to be doing (that is, rewarding good song-writing and vocal performances).
Maybe she was disappointed with the juries who, you know, are in charge of judging the musicality of the performance. Maybe it is just me, but perhaps she values the quality of her song rather than how entertaining it is (hence, the televote). And seeing that juries sort of have a low opinion of her song may be disappointed her.
12th is not a bad ranking, Alma. Cheer up! You did well and made France proud! Congratulations!
I don’t think she is THAT disappointed though, she said 12th was a honorable place and she was very happy to be top 10 with the televote. As a Frenchman, I’m very proud of her : she gave her best and it’s the second year in a row that we’re on the left hand side of the scoreboard 🙂 and, except maybe Australia, I think all the acts that ended up top 11 were better than Alma. On another aspect, the fact that France was 12th in 2010 with… “Allez Ola Olé” (a song that makes the English lyrics in… Read more »
Allez Ola Ole has been your best entry in ages.
It got over 150 televoting points. #1 In France
Really catchy and enjoyable
Well to me France did this to themselves.
How can you change a song into half english while the original french version was what made the song awesome?
How can you completely cut out strings and other stuff from the song.
The song from France was ruined by producers and that is what costed them alot of points.
I bet the original version would have made it to top 10
I completely agree! They made a wonderful song, with a distinct French feeling, into..well, something less :)). The revamp certainly wasn’t bad, but it lacked the original’s charm and ‘je ne sais quoi’. And that dark staging… It was professional, and the best staging France ever had, but still… However, it is a good result for France!
I totally agree with this statement… It is arrogant to thing that inserting some english words, will get you more points… I thought Alma performed better in her video, but there was something really wrong with her performance on stage, she appeared lost and minuscule… Personally I would have placed her on 20th position… Song is not bad, Alma is lovely, but her dress was distracting, and I think France will need to do better to win. Just look at what the Portuguese where able to accomplish with a simple song full of emotions… and no english… Just be yourself,… Read more »
As a French person I must say I am glad of What She did this year. She is beautiful sings very well and I really liked the song. The huge mistake was of course to add english lyrics to the song Because it didnt work and the lyrics themselves were so silly that it transformed the song into something very childish in opposition with the very dark staging. I thought the staging looked beautiful especially at the end but this is true they could have added dancers on stage or scream. The fact that she came last in the running… Read more »
performing last didn’t help at all (see UK 2014) but she did great in televoting.
I don’t get the juries voting for Australia, Romania and not France
Performing last usually helps. The UK 2014 performance was horrid, but usually the song singing last is very advantaged in the televote (see 2004, 2007, 2008 for example… those songs didn’t do very well in the semis).
Hopefully this year teaches them a lesson. Yes you can win without slapping some nonsense English into your song.
Well, it was busy in the top 10 but results would have been better if she’d sticked to the first, Original version in 100% French and had used more of the vertical dancing from the video in the backdrop.
With the old system, Amir was 5th and Alma 9th, so it’s pretty good for France to achieve that after finish bottom 5 the last 5 years before Amir:)
She got 19 televote points less than bookies’ favorite Amir and would’ve been 9th with the old system. Also, she won the Bulgarian televote. Her result is more than respectable. And her album ‘Ma peau aime’ is fantastic.
It depends on anyone’s individual point of view. 12th is actually a decent place and apparently Alma wished for more while the Croatian Act was happy about ending up on 13th spot.
(Another thing: I can’t help but find it funny that the Spanish Eurovision fans are mad for getting 5points when they wanted 0 xD )
Macedonia gave her 5-6 points with the juries and 5-6 in the televote.
I voted and I am glad we contributed to a better results.
She was great and has a super amazing future ahead.
She looks like a star
Oh, come on, the song is nothing special and the staging was vertigo-inducing. Alma wouldn’t feel so disappointed if the French delegation hadn’t built her hopes so high. I mean, you don’t deserve a top 5 place just because you are France. The jury are biased? Yes, they have always been, and it wasn’t a problem for France when they put Amir in third place (ninth with televoters).
12th is not that bad, considering the fact that France doesn’t receive much support from its closest neighbours, unlike other countries. I think the staging didn’t help, the Eiffel Tower has been overused, Europeans want to see something different. Plus the song was not like WOW and Alma is not the greatest singer of all times either. I think her final position is honorable, considering the song.
At least she received 12 points from a country in the televote- Bulgaria. She actually received the most of her points from Bulgaria. That says it all about diaspora and bloc voting.
Wouldn’t that be like a reverse diaspora though? As a Western European country France doesn’t benefit from a diaspora.
The French diaspora in Bulgaria? hmmmm, there’s absolutely no French diaspora in Bulgaria. The only countries where you can find a French “diaspora”, if you can call it a disapora, are the UK, Germany, Switzerland and to a smaller extent Belgium.
Actually, the french are the second largest foreign community in Belgium. Moreover, half the country is french speaking. So she could have gotten more out of the televoting than 3pts. Having a diaspora apparently is 1 thing. Get them out to vote is another.
It’s pretty clear why she got those Bulgarian points, because all the Bulgarian viewers were still watching having just seen their own act perform.
Absokutely, and I also think that they liked the Indila style of the song, Indila being quite famous in Bulgaria…
she could have song only in French. English parts totally ruined the song
She got only 45 points from the jury. That’s even less than Greece (a bland song, out of key). There are quite some juries who obviously don’t know what they’re doing. I think the criteria of a jury member need to be revised…
She deserved better!
Agree!! Some juries are questionable, plus what about the bloc voting? some still do it. If EBU want Eurovision to be taken seriously by a wider audience (as what they mentioned), then they should really really revise the whole juries.
Alma and Requiem had the potential to do much better than this in the final. Nazim Khaled’s song is a masterpiece including the beautiful French lyrics. Alma is in my opinion one of the most talented, charismatic and amicable artists ever in the ESC. She combines musical talent with a sentimental voice, beautiful looks and impeccable elegance. Her debut album “Ma peau aime” is of high quality and I believe and hope to see much more from her in the future. Her performance in the final was not her best; it felt a bit on auto pilot, but it is… Read more »
I feel the biggest tragedy this year was that stage. So many acts just got swallowed up by that stage. A few acts found ways to deal with it, but for the most part, it hurt more acts than it helped.
France’s staging made little sense to me. Alma should hold her head high, though. Her song slays. It is still one of my most played tracks from the Eurovision CD.
I totally agree with DickeFix… there were distraction which damaged the interpretation of the song. Sadly… sometimes too many chefs get involved to spoil a song and its interpretation… It would have been best to stick to the original video, I did like the tango on the wall… oh well next time, there is always a next time to improve.
I can only say AMEN!
You’re totally right
Alma you were great!!!!! You’re still one of my favourites this year along with Italy. You slayed and was awesome. You came 10th with the televote, it was the juries that put you down. The staging and everything was great. There’s no need to cry :(. Eurovision is just a stepping stone onto a brighter future!! Just keep working hard!!
You have won our hearts, Alma! This is the most important thing. You’re a huge star in Armenia. You have stormed the iTunes and people listen to your song. 12 points from Armenia. I voted for you, Blanche and Lucir from the UK.
I had her in my Top Ten, but I did not have her in my Top Five. Like Crno I Belo for Macedonia back in 2012, I think she got unfairly under-recognized, but she was never in contention for the top of the scoreboard.
In this contest, “getting 12th when you deserved 8th” happens all the time. Similarly, the UK got 15th when they deserved 11th-or-so, to me. It happens.
I had France and Italy in my top 5 and Portugal in my top 10.
Juries placing this 19th proved again they are useless.
They are only there to lift Australia, Sweden or Malta every year.
To make qualify another Nordic country, Denmark.
But they hated Finland and it was 10th to qualify.
They couldn’t be more useless.
Finland is definitely the “odd Nordic out” when it comes to Nordic Bloc Voting. Especially with the juries. Finland tends to “send what they want”, classy or trashy or intense or weird or whatever, and they tend to receive far less Nordic Bloc Vote than they provide.
Finland 2013, in particular, was a perfectly delightful, perfectly trashy little act, and the rest of the Nordic juries dropped it like a hot potato. And Finland this year was just robbed.
“They are only there to lift Australia, Sweden or Malta every year.”
Last year Sweden was 9th in jury vote, 6th in televote.
Yes. Amazing Frans is the only exception. He was too good for stupid juries.
2011 and 2012 also had televotes giving more points to Sweden than jury did. 2010 Sweden missed out on qualifying because of the jury. 2014 there was only a 10 point difference.
Which leaves us with 2013, 2015 and 2017, or 3 out of 8, this decade. 3 out of 5 if you discount 2010-2012. Still not a very strong pattern.
I think she did great and the result was about right.
Girl you were 12th out of 42 countries. Would you rather finish be Spain and finish 26th with zero jury points?
I think it was the staging that killed it. It lacked the dynamic of the song, it weakened the song. The song was a tune that deserved a better staging.
Still France should be proud. Two years ago they could only dream of getting 12th.
if they keep it up they might even win one day soon.
Really? I thought they did a great job with the staging, and they also had the best camera work of the whole contest.
I don’t really have an explanation for this one, to me she was top 10, maybe even top 5 material. No idea why the juries ranked her so low…
I agree with Denis. The song was better than staging. This one is on you monsieur grassi
There were parts of the France staging that I liked. The end, with the “Paris map” and the whirling wonder, were quite beautiful … but the “random floating buildings” stretches weren’t helping anything. That said, the Kyiv 2017 Stage was not helping. It was mostly “vast LED canvas Waaaaaay back there” with absolutely nothing in front of it, since the “rising horns” in the front rarely got incorporated into anything. If a country didn’t bring their own staging material (Azerbaijan, Romania), or demand camera close-ups (Armenia, Portugal), or fill the space with dancers (Israel), the vast open space was an… Read more »
It just ate whole acts. So many of them felt small on that massive stage. Also, what was with all the “glamour shots” (pictures of the artist in the background) this year?
Was this stage and bigger than past years? Sweden and Austria stages didn’t feel this big.
Some other stages have been quite big and wide, but they “broke up the space”. Russia 2009 was truly gigantic, but the “center stage” fixtures were always the focus. Azerbaijan 2012 went asymmetrical-blocky, Sweden 2013 had the adjustable “bells” and hanging “lamps” defining the environment, and Denmark 2014 had the “edge-on Borg cube” fore-grounding and enveloping the stage in front of an otherwise-gigantic LED wall. Ukraine 2017 wasn’t the worst staging I’ve seen, but it was distinctly “meh”. The two “horns” only got consistently used for intro-flag-color segments. Unless an act used the tiny front-stage, forcing the “horns” fimly into… Read more »
The background was good but also so huge, that Alma looked like an ant on stage, if there were dancers or something else on stage, it would’ve been way better
I think France remembers what happened with the staging from 2012 and has been wary of having too much activity on stage since then. That being said, the dancers from the music video would’ve been wonderful.
What good the juries did this year?
They are only there to guarantee good results to Sweden and Australia.
It’s so ridiculous.
The Netherlands was probably the only song that they saved and should have been saved.
I am very grateful to juries to make Austria 16th instead of last. I still cannot grasp why the public didn’t respond. On the other hand, juries damaged a lot of qualify entries. I guess it’s a double blade sword.
I think the competition is just SO fierce these days. With the exception of the Spanish entry, every song was strong imho, including in the semis. It takes something really extra special to win ESC now.
I agree. I like my top 40 (one of the bottom 3 is Spain and other two didn’t reach finals) and each had something worthy of a high score. Ireland, Malta and Georgia had beautiful ballads that didn’t even qualify. Finland was certainly winning-worthy. In the finals I voted Italy, UK, Austria, Belgium and Norway, but I considered several more, including France. Alma was amazing! While I totally get her disapointment, being 12th in a competition THIS strong is a great accomplishment.
Alma has nothing to worry about. Her debut album is great and she has a bright future ahead. I’m so happy I met her through this year’s Eurovision and will be following her career.
I would like to qoute Mans Zelmerlow; “Reqiuem is probably the best song of the competition. Alma has a fantastic voice, She is very beautiful and feels very easy on stage. But I think there´s something missing in the number (…) something to make it more dynamic”. // I agree. Often it doesn’t take more. What a shame on the absouletly prettiest song!
She did well considering she had to follow Belgium, Sweden, AND Bulgaria! There could have easily been attention fatigue at that time–plus the juries’ votes were rather odd this year, at least in my opinion. The countries I thought that would have done well with the juries (Finland, Armenia, Hungary), didn’t.
France is slowly becoming a force to be reckoned with–proof that even the Western countries can internally choose pretty well. Alma will do well coming out of this!
I understand there’s dissapointment. But no need to worry and feel bad girl! You slayed! And I’m sure you made France proud! Even I (who am not French) was proud you represented this beautiful country I love! I’m happy to support finally such good acts the last 2 years. You may have deserved better but who cares. You gained so much from this experience! 12th place overall for a country like France is very respectable. And two years in a row top 10 with the televote (Amir was 9th I think). This is huge improvement! Alma definetely didn’t let down… Read more »
Alma after the emotions will come the reason. You finished 10th of 26 countries, yes the juries placed you 19th of 26 acts (which is quite sad) but I think you conquer many hearts. Look of what happened since Amir, in just 2 years you two gave joy to people that voted for you. It’s a huge change compared to our past. For me I don’t consider at all your place a bad thing. Cheer up and go promote your first album which is a gem for me. Ma peau aime <3
10th of 26 countries with the televote. ‘^^
Actually out of 42, not 26. Not to mention, this year’s contest was really strong.
I think France was penalized to sing last. I was actually getting quite bored towards the end of the show and didn’t really concentrate on France song . I knew the song inside out but guess for a first timer it wouldn’t have been considered highly. I’m sorry some of it was sung in English. That also spoiled it!!! French is such a romantic and
Beautiful language
Yes terrible having to sing last. Sweden and Bulgaria also lost many points because of bad draw
Singing last is an advantage. The song that goes last usually gets several small televote points (1 to 4) that wouldn’t be achieved otherwise.
I think the biggest losers of the draw were Israel, Poland and Austria.
She was great! I voted for her from Spain hoping to see her in top 5 positions. It was a really catchy song and really nice staging. One of the most underrated songs by juries in the last years. At least the audience gave her a top 10 ranking. I will continue listening this song again and again. Viva Alma!
If Australia wasn’t unexplainably worshipped by the juries and finished low like it should have done, then at least Alma would have gotten 11th! 🙁
But nevertheless 12th isn’t bad by any means and France can be proud of another quality entry, and another quality singer.