“I felt really bad.” The words of Destination Eurovision singer Florina Perez on Instagram.
On Sunday evening the “In the Shadow” singer finally posted on the app again — some 24 hours after a difficult result in Paris.
A fan favourite from the moment her song snippet was released, Florina faced the indignity of coming dead last with the professional jury on Saturday, receiving the dreaded nil points.
It left much of the fandom shook. But their shock pales in comparison to the ordeal their queen has faced.
“Hello to everyone, I am sorry to not have talked to you earlier,” she says on Insta. “I felt really bad but want to thank you for your support and your votes… it was unbelievable. I wanted to make you proud and represent the colours of my country.”
“To be the only contestant to receive zero points from the international juries is something I can’t understand. Right now, I’d just like to know why the response was this negative.
“For the next few days I will take some time off social media and stay with my family. I’ll get back on track and recover even if it’s not always easy and become stronger. I want to thank Vidaa, Christophe Willem and André Manoukian for putting me in your top four and giving something back to me, it means a lot to me. I love you.”
Florina’s message has been received with great sympathy, with fans and even fellow contestants encouraging her to keep singing.
Semi-Final 1 winner Bilal Hassani wrote: “You were splendid, wonderful Florina.”
“It was unfair and I give you all the courage to move forward — keep shining bright!”
Naestro was similarly effusive.
“You did your part perfectly, you didn’t let yourself down….in life I never lose — either I win or I learn. Never forget this phrase!”
Why do you think the juries snubbed Florina? What advice do you have for her moving forward? Do you think taking a break from social media is a good idea? Let us know down below!
The song was nice but sounded derivative of Diamonds and Chandelier. Between that and her vocal challenges, it would be hard to imagine her representing France.
Honestly, she sang terribly wrong during the contest. She couldn’t handle the tone of it’s own song. During her presentation cutscene she confesced to have never followed any music lesson to know how to sing properly. On that point one of her team member say that she have an “intuitive voice”. The problem is, in my opinion, you cannot be part of such a contest if you don’t know how to sing, and to reach that goal, you have to know basic technics. Lastly, there were a lot of similarity between her song and Chandelier of Sya and maybe the… Read more »
Worry not legend, the French public wanted you to qualify.
It was the lyrics and the voice. It didn’t work. It wasn’t a mature enough song (“shadow of the world” would never be a lyric in a chart-topper. It wasn’t her necessarily, obviously her voice could’ve used some work, but overall it was her song. Good production and a good outline but those lyrics didn’t deserve to qualify.
is 1944 a chart-topper?
Lol did you just compare “1944” to this generic “Diamonds” rip-off sung by an amateur singer??? Dude!! xD
I’m not going to say she deserved the final, but she didn’t deserve 0 points. The professional jury made a big mistake there, cruel and really hard to justify. Florina: take a break, rest and return in the near future with more energy.
Not her best performance, but those 0 points from the jury had to be staged. That’s the only explanation I find. The voting makes almost impossible to not get a single point. Staged.
The song is a bit bland and her vocals were pretty bad. Having said that, I still think 0 points was a bit harsh.
Poor little girl. Maybe she can now take singing -lessons.?
I honearly think it is not her but the song. I never understood the hype. It was dull as it can get. For me her performance was ok. There is room for improvement, but probably she is suffering from levina syndrome, nobody hated the performance and nobody cared enough for the song to vote.
She had a bad night, it happens even to much more experienced performers. If it was tough to get zero points from the juries, it was also great to get so many from the televote, so I guess she should focus on that. In the end, much more people showed support than hate. But she probably had received rude comments on her social networks and I believe taking a break from them and getting surrounded by her loved ones is indeed the best way to recharge her batteries. I wish her better luck next time. I hope she tries again.
Tip: The best way to find out why the jury feedback was so negative is to ask them. As for what went down on social media… from what I saw, there were some harsh critiques of the song and of the vocals on the night, but there was also plenty of praise from those who liked the song as well. It’s almost always about balance with an audience for music. A reaction can be 50/50 between like/dislike. It’s rare to be a smash hit with everyone. When it happens on the night, it’s electric, sure, but it doesn’t always happen.… Read more »
Well said. Hopefully she’ll be able to learn from the experience and take the good from the bad, once she’s feeling a little better.
Girl needs to suck it up. You go into a competition to be judged and you may not get the result you think you’ll get but that’s the chances you take. Not to mention that being in the music industry is one giant competition so grow that thick skin if you want to survive.
And in reality that song was never going to qualify to the final.
Maybe… Fear? The juries could have smelled a strong contestant and think they shouldn’t give her a chance at all. (Like Björkman last year…)
a little bit dramatic, don’t you think? i mean, someone’s gotta come last
I listened to the video and its moreso the fact that she received 0 points from the jury what upset her. I mean I can kind of understand why she’d feel that way. She went from being a top favourite to receiving NO POINTS from the jury. Its an understandable feeling.
This is why I cannot abide juries.
If you’re there to vote for the quality of the song and ignore the quality of the live vocal performance (Ie. the Australia situation), then you have to give Florina some points.
If you’re there to vote for the quality of the singing on the night then how can you have Florina last and Aysat second?
They are just so inconsistent and ruin the “contest” element.
way too harsh
It was a shame because it was a good song but come on she butchered them high notes, was just painful to listen too. If it’s clear you can’t hit the notes either don’t try them or cover them up as best u can like Greece and Azerbaijan did in previous contests lol
It’s true she messed up the high notes at the end. She probably shouldn’t have attempted them at the end like that. That said she was certainly not the only candidate who flubbed some notes.
The only candidates who truly had perfect vocals throughout their whole songs were Mazy and Chimene.
really? Mazy kinda butchered half of the notes. Sylvan sounded alright, but he talked his way through.
Her song sounded fine to me anyway.
Silvan spoke 3/4 of the time and the 1/4 of the time he sang you could hear the recorded vocals more clearly than his own. I like his song and the staging as well but his vocals are nothing to rave about tbh.
Destination Eurovision (most especially their juries) is starting to get a reputation where in they are robbing female artists with a good song and a good amount of vocals. See Lucie’s “My World” from last year for example (zero in jury votes and televotes). Florina is somewhat lucky that some televoters appreciate her song and voice yet the juries on the other hand are bringing her down this year. Who knows who they’ll victimize in the second semi final because it is gradually getting obvious due to a pattern they are making.
Taking a break from social media is always a good idea, because sometimes there are very rude comments and you are shocked of the stupitidy. Critic is very good if it is adressed in the *right language* – a problem you also see on YouTube and on some ESC fanpages. I left a German one exactly because of that, couldn’t read the rude language there anymore, simply not our level here 😀
I feel bad for her, but if this is her reaction to a poor semifinal performance at Destination Eurovision, I suspect girl never would have made it through the Eurovision gauntlet.
I highly doubt if this song went to ESC it would finish below the top 10, especially considering how unusually weak this year is starting off. Not saying it will continue but by now we normally have a few good songs.
We litterally have 1 song and a few national finals and you say this is a bad year. ESC is more than 6 countries. Negativity you bring ruins the whole spirit of Eurovision
That’s an easy one: Terrible live vocals. No one hates Florina and even though the entire thing was a bit embarrassing, there’s always the chance to learn from one’s mistakes and improve. And yeah, it was not entirely her fault, the sound throughout all performances wasn’t good. But she and Battista suffered the most…
One of my favourites after Gabriella and Badi. The key notes were off but last time I saw vocals were only 1 part of the performance alongside staging and the song lyrics. In my opinion the juries from other countries have their own interest to make sure that their countries have less competition at ESC so I would not be surprise if they place some stronger songs on the lower end. International jury is never a great idea.
The international juries gave her about as much as she would’ve gotten at Eurovision. #predictable
Omg you are a fortune teller. Why did you not say so before? Who gives Italy their 12 points at ESC2019? Please do not keep just for yourself?
No. I just have eyes and ears that I occasionally use to make an educated prediction. It’s not rocket science. Just like I can already guess that English ain’t your strong suit, my dear.
Aw… so you know nothing. Shame.
Eurovision is gonna be weak this year, even weaker than junior ESC. So Florina might have been around 15th-19th with ”In The Shadows”.
She wasn’t the best, but zero points is cruel. And always remember: the professional jury is not really a group of professionals.
Well, I am sad for her too. I really liked the song. But her performance was absolutely catastrophic. One flat note after another. I can’t recall how many times I cringed. What I don’t understand is how she did that well with the televoting. o.o
I wasn’t surprised that she didn’t qualify and scored poorly because she kinda reminds me of June the Girl from last year — an early fan favourite who couldn’t translate live and flopped. The only weird part is how she was a qualifier with the French jury but got 0 points from the international jury. That just doesn’t make sense, taste isn’t that drastically different depending on what country you’re from.
Perhaps the sound in the studio wasn’t that bad. Because my ears were bleeding during that performance.
Call me old fashioned but I like singers to actually be in key.
Bye, Floprina. You won’t be missed.
No need for that ridiculous carry on. If you can’t be understanding about this situation then don’t comment at all. You don’t need to post unnecessary negative bs
You’re probably one of those petty listeners who would instantly generalize a person’s entire ability to sing if they don’t get to reach a key in a particular part of a song alone. And it’s not old-fashioned as you are being ridiculous about it Funnily enough, Florina was more tolerable compared to Bilal’s tired vocals throughout her performance.
“On key”
She’s so classy and beautiful.
I must say she looked so broken after the results.
I hope she takes the time she needs because she truly didn’t deserve that result. I’m shocked. I expected 4th place qualification at LEAST.
They’ve not only lost Florina this year, I doubt she’ll ever return.