“It’s the most beautiful news.” That’s how Madame Monsieur described the April 20th report that Mercy — the infant born on an SOS Mediterranée rescue boat — has been found alive and well in an Italian refugee camp.
French journalist Eric Valmir of “France Inter” shared the news on Twitter, along with an adorable photo that shows the young Nigerian refugee looking healthy, bright and happy.
It’s important to note that “France Inter” is not connected with the TV channel France 2, the French Eurovision delegation or Madame Monsieur. Clearly touched by the song “Mercy” and the story of his child, they conducted an independent investigation to locate her.
Mercy is a testament to the resilience present in so many refugees who make the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean in search of a better life. Sporting a red jumper with a bear on the front, a pair of blue jeans and black sneakers, she looks a world away from the immense danger she faced not so long ago.
Avec @apuglia nous avons retrouvé #Mercy née sur #Aquarius @SOSMedFrance l'an dernier et qui a inspiré la chanson de @MadameMonsieur qui representera la #France à @Eurovision. Reportage en Sicile dans le camp de réfugiés où elle vit avec sa mère. A venir sur @franceinter pic.twitter.com/3jyOnn7OCq
— Eric Valmir (@ericvalmir) April 20, 2018
Indeed, her apparent health and loving spirit belie the particularly difficult start to her life.
As you’ll recall, Mercy was born on an SOS Mediterranée rescue boat as her family attempted to reach Europe. Madame Monsieur read her story and immediately began putting pen to paper, the result being their Eurovision 2018 song.
SOS Mediterranée is a group which works for the rescue of people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. Their harrowing work comes to life in “Mercy”.
“I was born this morning, my name is Mercy / in the middle of the sea, between two countries, Mercy / it was a long way and mom took it / she had me in the skin, eight and a half months”.
Madame Monsieur Interview
The duo also shine a light on the migrant crisis with their official music video.
Taking an international approach, the video criss-crosses Europe, taking in cities including Rome, Paris, Lisbon and London.
Starting alone, illuminated only by flares, Madame Monsieur are gradually joined by a growing group of migrants of all ages.
Throughout the video, various clips show people on the move and looking forward. The visuals work to amplify the song’s own message of hope and humanity.
Are you as touched by the photo of Mercy as we are? Have you thought about making a donation to SOS Mediterranée to help support their important work? Let us know down below!
Beautiful song with a beautiful story. Merci, France. This is going to do well on May 12th. Spread the humanitarian message of the song.
More than 75% of french people wants to stop immigration. This is all propaganda from a minority.
Most Europe televoters won’t be fooled too.
Source, s’il vous plait?
Maybe. But what if all the diasporas came together to make them winners? They are all immigrants or decendants of those after all.
Regardless of any political messages, can’t we just agree to say that’s a sweet song? Just focusing on the story itself of a baby born, lost at sea. That alone makes me feel strongly about it.
Agree. A beutyfull story.
There’s one thing for sure: 99 % of French want migrants’ death in the Mediterranean Sea to stop
Source: we’re human beings
…and that’s only what the song is about. Stop with your conspiracy theories now…
Yes, everybody whith the heart on the right place want the deach on the Mediterranean to stop regardless if someone think that europe should or should not welcome migrants to europe.
Just take note of this: Mercy and other people like her are not like the evil and opportunistic immigrants staying in your lovely country. Maybe if you consider giving up all that foolish generalization, you will then finally comprehend what the song is about.
There’s a difference between migrants and refugees. Migrants make a choice to leave their countries, whereas refugees are forced out.
Those statistics, therefore, aren’t relevant.
It’s not even relevant at all because the statistic was not even backed up with a credible source to begin with.
What a coincidence that they found her two weeks before the Grand Final!
An average song with a good pr machine.
exactly
Don’t have consteration theorier. Try to think the best of people.
#Consperacy theories.
She looks beautiful. I can see a kind soul in her. Good luck Mercy!!!!
What a beautiful story. I hope that Mercy and her family find a permanent home soon. It’s great they survived. But now it is time to thrive with citizenship and a proper home outside of a camp. Good luck to them.
All my suport to you LOSEAU
I love the song but the treatment of refugees on the Italian French borders by France police is disgusting .
Well, the rest of us need to respect eachother althoug we have diffrent tast and opinions. Support eachither when someone are attaced. We can all be affended and overreact. If I do. Tell me to clam down and I will. We have to understand that fans from countries that are favories are targets. We from Sweden, our artists and songs has often been a target and sometimes swedish fans don’t behave. I try to remins them what esc is all about, and to be humble and respectfull. Often in swedish. This year Israel seem to be the biggest target, but… Read more »
Don’t mind they winning at all
My #2
My #2 as well, climbing 6 spots in my 2nd evaluation. Estonia is still my #1; but quite probably, not for long when this coming weekend I get started on my final evaluation.
There are 8 contenders who still have yet to make music videos.
William recently commented that there will be an upgrade to the comments section coming “soon”. So in the mean time, I would keep on denouncing the bad comments. Call out the fake comments and the insults, otherwise the offenders will just keep on getting away with it. We all have a voice, so let’s use it.
(Alternatively, you may contact Wiwi directly, or there are legal options if you feel you have been harassed.)
In the meantime, until Wiwi does something about it (something I actually doubt will happen, cause every year a few idiots try to ruin all the fun) I guess the best will be to ignore them as much as possible. If they use someone’s nick, just reply something like “previous message is fake”. Maybe if he/she/they does not get attention they will end up bored…
When I read the text in english I becom so tuched. Life is unfair, so many children start their lifes in a struggle. Happy for her and hope her a life whith love.
Love, love, peace, peace
Good luck from Sweden
It didn’t used to be like this. The blog has been actively targeted this year by bad people, and unfortunately this has driven some of the actual fans away from the blog. This could be random, or it could genuinely reflect how nazism is returning to Europe. No idea. But it doesn’t reflect the ESC fanbase, that’s for sure.
It’s just a matter of scale. A web site with no comments probably has little traffic. A web site with lots of traffic will have lots of comments. And the more people commenting obviously means the more nut jobs commenting (it’s just a fact of life). If you check out the Alexa rankings, you’ll see this site is ranked incredibly high for traffic (and well above the official Eurovision site). So it makes sense. But anyway, I bet it’s like two or three nut jobs who just repeatedly comment because they are SAD people.
Many (most?) of the Wiwibloggs’ readers have become teenagers, I’m afraid… it is very clear from the overall immature comments.
And yes, it’s very, very worrying to see that this is Europe’s youth… xenophobic, self-centered, aggressive and lacking respect for others.
I am a Teenager and I’m always trying to be respectful… It’s not something you can blame us Teenagers for! It’s probably something caused by one stupid Person that just creates many E-Mail adresses to write all These troll comments.
Good : )
Isabel — I have the Google Analytics data, and only 7% of our readers are under the age of 18. The vast majority (nearly 65%) are between 18 and 35.
Well, regardless of age of the readears maby younger people are more active to respond on the articles?!
But most young people are real escfans offcoure Weibrout. : )
That makes it even sadder.
I believe most are just trolls. Sad people with no life. Actually, there are so few of them here compared to You Tube, Facebook or IMDb. Wiwibloggs is still predominatly a positive fansite.
PS. Mercy is adorable! 🙂
I love the song from France, their performance… Songwriting is a way of storytelling.
But please leave this little girl alone! It turns me off that they try to make it a real thing.
I think I would have loved the song much more if it was open if this story really happened or just could have happened.
It happened. And it happened thousands of times. And it could happen thousands more. It’s universal and timeless. But this cute baby inspired it all. It’s lovely how they found her.
That’s my point it happens thousand of times, so the story is true even if there were no refugee girl called Mercy, if you know what I mean.
I’m so in love with this song! Madame Monsieur, you are amazing!
It’s becoming increasingly obvious that this blog is being actively targeted by those who wish to bring it down. It’s time to stand up for what the fans believe in. Denounce the trolls as much as you can, and stay strong.
I am not sure if their aim is to bring wiwibloggs down. I think they are just nazis on crack. But yes, more moderation would make the website safer, a more pleasant place for those of us who want to connect with other ESC fans, exchange ideas, opinions and share our passion.
If they were just insults with no aim, I might agree with you. But one by one, the identities of regular bloggers is being abused. That’s definitely a premeditated and targeted assault on us, the way I see it.
Newspapers have full-time staffs of people who moderate comments round the clock. While I think moderation is great too, we have to recognise that that costs a lot of money so is probably unrealistic.
Another alternative would be to switch off the comments section, and make the blog posts only.
I know, right. I wish those racists, Nazis, xenophobes, islamophobes, homophobes and all the other crazy losers would stick with their pathetic hate to their regular media. None of them is a fan and none of them understands art or what the contest stands for. I hope Madame Monsieur or Italy will win and inspire even more people with their beautiful message.
– Madame Monsieur already worked with the association “SOS Méditerranée” before even proposing their song for the selection of “Destination Eurovision”. At no time did they use or betray anyone. SOS Méditerranée could very well oppose this song, they did not do it, they even participated in the very first clip with the faces, well before the version of France 2. – Madame Monsieur was inspired by other stories seen at the information to write the songs of their album, “Mercy” was one of these stories among others, at no time did they intend to to make it a media… Read more »
Thanks VERY good Information
Agree
Thanks Cyxcy for putting things in a rational context. Rationality is what is most needed in this kind of discussion.
Thanks for your post 😉
Madame Monsieur seems to be a good hearted person, whith only good intention.
I didn’t think the song was somthing special first time I heard it. I think you need to listen at it more than one time and that it wholud have better chansen if it would have to quallyfy throug a semi. It is also a grower when you know the text. A good song in my top 10, but I don’t think it will end upp top 10.
Good luck from Sweden
Best comment I’ve read so far. MM will be successful in May and I believe that.
I just heard the Spanish Version of the song and to say the TRUTH i love it.
Bone chance
^Another one to delete.
No comprendo tus insultos a todo el mundo.
Esto lo lee mucha gente y a parte te pueden denunciar.
Este es un sitio donde los Eurofans disfrutan de la musica y TU no se que pretendes.
Ganas algo con Insultar?
I never wrote this , someone is trying to use my name.
Yes, and lots of others.
This news from France is so sweet, love it. Inspiring and moving story.
I think the messages below should be removed. Enough insults please, this has gone a bit too far with the vulgar language used, and it is deeply offensive. No place on this forum thank you. Quite shocking really. Best thing is remove the messages and totally ignore such material. My 12 year old daughter was reading this. This is not right.
^Mods to delete.
It’s pretty obvious that a couple of trolls want to bring Wiwibloggs down so badly. Why? No idea.
Children Under age SHOULD be protected.
This is not a good idea.
France the melody is good but the message is very fake YOU DONT LIKE REFUGEES.
I Love your music and your country but The message is not real.
You’re the organ in their bodies? Then, how do you know it’s fake? I just have to say the country and the artists who wrote the song are two different things.
Ok you.are wrigth
I am.a bit sensible with the thing
Hope french neigbors dont get botherd
I’m pretty sure some right-wings know how to hate for certain reasons without any reasoning. Typical!
Inspiring story & great song! But as somebody who works in the sector, in my view it’s really not great from a child protection perspective to identify this vulnerable child and where she is esp where blog says, “Do you have any further details about the toddler? ” which invites intrusion into her life. This song has such potential to unite Europeans in positivity and humanity. Whilst the human desire to literally reach out to the child in the story is in all of us, I hope this is managed sensitively by everybody involved with advice from professionals. We must… Read more »
I am also a sociale worker and totally agree.Hope the world open his eyes for this unacceptable opportunism and selfishness.
Agree
France sending a song referring to refugees??? its like Russia sending a song referring to gay rights
For the people that replied at my comment. I’m not cynical I just can see the truth. I live in Greece a country that is affected by the refugee crisis and I’m very sensitive about the refugees and the problems that they face. However my opinion is the one that I said before. And about the fact that songs can’t have political messages the (horrible-lol) Greek Eurovision song of 2016 was talking about this crisis in a way that a person wasn’t used
Wow, a discussion about this story.. Unbelievable! People are so self centered and want and need to see the negative in things.. My bottomline is, great song, lovely message, winner potential and this story is just heartwarming, wouldn’t mind going to Paris next year, quality!! How’s that for positivity!!?!
hi robert, i totaly agree with you. this is one of the most heartwarming songs with an adictive melodie and vera well produced. i cross my fingers for a french vivtory this year.
So much hate in the comments… sad
Thanks for U’re analysis… I agree 100 percent…
I like the melody only not the lyrics.
Sickening!
Why can’t a strong woman have a crush on somebody? Or a man?
Is she supposed to like women now?
You are so stupid…
This song is generally empowering people, not just women although the idea started as an empowerment song for women
If you really listen to her in interviews, you should know that since she’s said that it’s for everybody, including men
Bravo France ?. Just in tim! It’s obvious that France uses the story of this little girl to get more votes. And all of a sudden the little girl was found. And I’m sure that she will be at Lisbon too either on stage or green room. If the duo wanted to write a song about the refugees they wouldn’t write about Mercy, they would write about the refugee crisis in general. Or at least they wouldn’t “find”(I’m sure that they knew from the start where she was) her and used her. Shame on you! You use people and stories… Read more »
You are one twisted mind…
Are U serious? So cynic… So sad for U… So pathetic to believe in such things and sharing it on the web… Bad bad Troll.
As a Eurofan you should already know that political messages cannot be included in the songs, that is the reason why Jamal’s decided to talk about her great grand mother (or grand mother, I do not remember), and that is the exact same reason why Madame Monsieur have used the story of this precious little girl to denounce the journey of the refugees and harsh treatment that they receive.
music should be free, it should talk about everything, from sex, to drugs, to love, to politics.
There is one thing music shouldn´t be about though, HATE, which is what i am seeing in this commnet section.
Great comment.
I sincerely hope you right wing nutjobs keep spreading hate here and other platforms. Action always create reaction. Your hate will be fuel to so many people who will pick up the phone and vote to make a statement. This is exactly what happened with Conchita in 2014, this is why France moved from 13 th to 6 th in betting odds. Your negativity is pushing humanity up, up, up.
Are you claiming that “rise like a Phoenix”, “1944”, and “amar Pelos dois” were bad songs? Thrash music?
Music is a tool that we express our feelings, including our desire for change. Music has always played a great role in civil rights movements and helped make the world a better place. Beatles became a worldwide sensation in 1964 with I want to hold your hand in 1964 , simply after assassination of president Kennedy. Edwin Starr song war started a movement that pushed America out of Vietnam. U2 sang about northern Ireland issue, Michael Jackson raised millions for famine in Africa, Sting helped fight against Malaria. I wish I knew by Nina Simone was the anthem for the… Read more »
Which is one of the reasons why I predict France will win the contest this year.
I’m done with people complaining about political songs. When i listen to toy i hear nothing political about it but since somebody put the label “metoo” on it. It’s suddenly politically motivated and if it won it would suddenly be only because of that…
France is climbing up in the bookies odds and is starting to peak at about the right moment ….Netta has peaked too soon ..she is like a slowly deflating balloon
Furthermore , France can definitely do a winning live performance but there is still doubt around Netta on the night
Well i think the strongest point that they can do is the hand calling out movement.
When I first saw it in the final of Destination Eurovision,it gave me goosebumps!
I’m really just hoping that they get an amazing camera pan of the audience doing the hand calling out like they did in France!
This is awesome! I hope Jean-Luc and Emile get to meet her and her mum!
What’s with all the negativity surrounding this story? This is not about politics or canvassing for “pity/sympathy votes”, one day that little girl is going to grow up and learn all about how she inspired a Eurovision song. Émilie and Jean-Karl wanted to use that story to spread a message of humanity and hope, and they’ve done that to great receptions on the pre-party circuit. I can’t wait to see how they will do on the big stage in Lisbon!
Emilie and Jean-Karl has my respect for their intention to do something good for other people.
Love, love, peace, peace from Sweden
I don’t even like children, and yet I’m mesmerized by her curls
Because of that, they will wear expensive clothes fr famouse french designer on eurovision stage in final.
Finally you wrote an article. Btw, they learned the news the same day they released their first album (april 20th).
They known the news*. Not sure if it’s right.
OMG SHE IS ADOOOOOORABLE!!!!!
Is this one of the babies that it’s parents became refugees before or after France bombed Syria?