Bilal Hassani was one of the first artists chosen to sing in Tel Aviv. Brushed aside by the juries during Destination Eurovision — France’s Eurovision 2019 selection — the “Roi” (King) singer won the public over in a big way, tipping the balance in his favour. For once in its history, France used a coup to put a king in power.
Ever since then, he’s been a staple in the headlines. It’s not always been pleasant. In the aftermath of his win he endured a spate of online attacks. Some of them came from fellow French people of North African descent, who claimed his openness with his sexuality is an offence to his Muslim identity. Elsewhere BDS activists urged him to refuse to travel to or sing in Israel.
But kings rarely bow to pressure. Instead Bilal has turned hate into fuel, living up to the regal air implied by his song title. In this light his entry becomes a personal story of grabbing his crown as naysayers bite and bray. But, as the “Roi” lyrics make clear, that journey started long before Eurovision was even on his radar.
What are the “Roi” lyrics about?
Bilal co-wrote the song with Jean-Karl Lucas, a member of the duo Madame Monsieur, who represented France last year in Lisbon with their song “Mercy”. It speaks about accepting yourself even as others try to change you.
Addressing those who can’t deal with him or his openness, Bilal makes it clear that he is the author of his own journey. “Yes, I invent my life,” he sings. He’ll continue to walk his walk “despite the looks and opinions” of those around him. In short: “You put me in a box, want me to be like you… at the end of the day you cannot change me boo.”
Despite the self-affirmation and his obvious strength, Bilal told The Washington Post that he doesn’t see himself as a warrior. “I was never really drawn to politics, and I never really paid attention to it,” he said. Instead he’s simply living his life on his own terms — an important starting point for royalty and commoners alike.
Roi lyrics / translation — Bilal Hassani
Je suis free, and I know I will always be
Oui, j’invente ma vie
Ne me demandez pas qui je suis
Moi je suis le même depuis tout petit
Et malgré les regards, les avis
Je pleure, je sors et je ris
You put me in a box, want me to be like you
Je suis pas dans les codes, ça dérange beaucoup
At the end of the day, you cannot change me, boo
Alors, laisse-moi m’envoler
I, I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
And I know-oh-oh-ow, even though-oh-oh-oh
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
Toutes ces voix: “Fais comme ci, fais comme ça”
Moi, je les cala pas, you can never remove my crown
Who are we?
When we hurt, when we fight for free
Only God can judge you and me
Ce qu’on est, on ne l’a pas choisi
On choisit
Son travail, sa coiffure, ses amis
Sa routine, parfois l’amour aussi
Ça passe ou ça casse, mais ça regarde qui?
I, I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
And I know-oh-oh-ow, even though-oh-oh-oh
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
Toutes ces voix: “Fais comme ci, fais comme ça”
Moi, je les cala pas, you can never remove my crown
Quand je rêve, je suis un roi
I am free, and I know I will always be
Yes, I invent my life
Don’t ask me who I am
I have been the same since I was a child
And despite the looks and opinions
I cry, I go out and I laugh
You put me in a box, want me to be like you
I don’t follow the codes, and it bothers a lot
At the end of the day, you cannot change me, boo
So let me fly away
I can see my kingdom now
When I dream, I am a king
When I dream, I am a king
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
When I dream, I am a king
And I know-oh-oh-ow, even though-oh-oh-oh
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
All the voices: “Do like this, do like that”
But I ignore this, you can never remove my crown
Who are we?
When we hurt, when we fight for free
Only God can judge you and me
We haven’t chosen who we are
We choose our work, our hairstyle, and friends
Our routine, and sometimes even love
Does it work or does is brake
But who really cares?
I, I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
When I dream, I am a king
When I dream, I am a king
I’m not rich, but I’m shining bright
I can see my kingdom now
When I dream, I am a king
And I know-oh-oh-ow, even though-oh-oh-oh
You try to take me down, you cannot break me, nah, nah
All the voices: ”Do like this, do like that ”
But I ignore it, you can never remove my crown
When I dream, I am a king
Do you like the lyrics of “Roi”? What about its message? Tell us in the comments below!
Go Bilal ! Go France !
roy
the amount of mistakes in the translation…
Worst french entry in ESC history. Top 1000.
We had ‘Moustache’ remember lol.
I liked Moustache 1000 times more. It was fun.
Agree!
I loved the beat in Moustache ! So underrated , I was listening to it only yesterday
Also it connected with me on an emotional level , I too can’t grow decent facial hair
Moustache was great.
You made a mistake, it’s not :
“Je suis free, and I know I will always be
Oui, j’invente ma vie”, but :
“I am me, and I know I will always be,
Je suis free, oui, j’invente ma vie”
édit : there’re some other mistakes, you forgot some lyrics.
Trying to copy Conchita. Meh… Sorry France, but you had better choices to send to Eurovision. There is no need for another gay self-declaration song. Conchita was unique. Message of “Roi” is exactly the same of Conchita’s song. Diversity is appreciated, not copies.
top 40 this one
top 41
Top 26 ?
if not big 5 wouldn’t even qualify.
I let the top 40 to the NL
How many cheaters do we have this year ? first the NL sending an old song and now France changing their song and even forbids 10 seconds of demo instrumental and gets a video removal from the Eurovision Youtube channel wtf.
No one should vote for them .
Do you have any evidence that France asked for the video to be removed?
Ah AH why would the video been removed if not ??? oh yeh , yesterday morning the man in charge of the youtube channel woke up and said oh gosh i want to remove the divas video just for the fun.
It’s not evidence. Blaming the French delegation without evidence is dishonest… Perhaps it is a decision of the Eurovision CM because the video editor did not know that the instrumental version of Roi was not public? Or maybe the decision isn’t even related to Roi?
There are only 2 possibilities:
1) Someone got pissed that they were not considered a Diva and acted out like a Diva getting the video taken down.
2) The recording label / French delegation asked for the video to be removed cause it’s their decision to make something public and not EBU when it concerns their entry .
No, you cannot rule out the possibility that the initiative may come from the Eurovision team itself. I know it is trendy here to hate artists for the slightest little thing, but at least do it with facts.
Yes , the Eurovision team went , oh this video is not good enough , let’s delete it when most of the comments under the video were ‘ love these longer videos’.
The only thing is I’m not sure if the new version was on it cause I didn’t even notice . If it was I’d understand why it was taken down.
Still no evidence… I have written other hypotheses above that are just as valid as the one of the “naughty French delegation that censors Eurovision”.
“was not public”, so you said it and Ivanov is right. Why some countries are above the rules ? All songs should normally be public and finished by the deadline timeline that was march 12. And the EBU should have the right to publish and use the songs that will be competing without any prior consent of the delegations.
Everything that France and Azerbaijan (which also has a revamp but receives much less hatred) have done has been approved by the EBU.
Does the EBU have the right to publish revamps? I don’t know, do you have the contracts in front of you? Do they want to publish them now? Probably not. You can’t blame people without evidence.
No dude , there is no rule stating the song should be public before the deadline. The rule is the song should be submitted before the deadline. If a country wishes they may not release the entry at all before the competition.
There is also a rule stating that the official submitted song must be the one featured in the official CD of the songs competing. So no, as the CD is released several weeks before the competition all songs are normally public before the competition takes place.
I’m not aware of this rule and didn’t find it on the EBU website either. Can you send me a link ?
All delegations must send before the heads of delegation meeting a studio master of the track as its being performed at ESC for the CD compilation. It’s on the submissions rules.
Bonsoir. I didn’t find the submission rules on the EBU website . The website only has an extract of the rules for the Public.
Apparently in one of their videos, the ESC channel used the new version of Roi! Anybody notice it then ? Was it any good?
Or was it as nondescript that I didn’t even notice that the song was playing despite having seen the video twice before it was taken down?
Second option. I wonder will the new Roi be better or even more pretentious.
I don’t think it bodes well that I didn’t even notice it . Lol
You can hear the snippet here :
https://twitter.com/BilalHassaniTV/status/1123625751092375552?s=19
And without the voices (the guy removed them from the snippet) :
https://youtu.be/E6o7v_x7GN8
It’s irrelevant to this article but it has been revealed that Katerine (Greece) will have on stage a double sided tableau vivant, created for her in Tel-Aviv from someone who has worked for Lady Gaga and X-Factor UK. She will have 5 more girls with her on stage (3 vocalists and 2 dancers-actresses) The staging in general will be very theatrical, with pink smoke, much like the videoclip but more mature and bold and will allegedly be reminiscent to a rennaisance painting of Bosch. There will also be some element in the performance linked to the Ancient Greek culture (could… Read more »
Unfortunately my French knowledge is terrible, I would love to see his vlogs. He is a very interesting person, I’m glad to have discovered Bilal 🙂
For me, this year’s French representative leads a very dirty campaign, drawing attention to himself in a totally wrong way. He was hated against all, everyone hated him, no one loved him, he was a victim. #sorrynotsorry
How can anyone hate a 19-year-old artist to the point of holding him responsible for the death threats and insults he receives? Cyberbullying is neither a joke nor the fault of the victim.
Death threats are not ok , condemnable.
But I won’t like every person and I am allowed to say that I don’t like certain things about a person or their personality. That person should take it with a pinch of salt cause I don’t matter to them. If I do , then they would change those aspects of themselves.
Personally, I do not see Eurovision as an opportunity to hate artists. I’ve always been told to respect people for who they are. And that includes not denigrating people on the Internet.
You probably don’t know what it’s like to receive dozens of messages a day from people who hate you because they feel that their desire to criticize is better than your well-being.
I am always told by everyone that I need to change this about me. And I always think yeah it’s their right to voice their opinion and it’s my right to either listen or not listen to them . I don’t support being fake. People need to accept that not everyone will like them. In fact people have a 100% right to criticize me but they can’t ask me to change myself cause of their criticism. The thing that is needed is a change in our attitude towards criticism rather than asking for people to stop criticizing. At the same… Read more »
Victimization always pays @ Eurovision. I wouldn’t be surprised if France was a contender for the victory this year, even though the song is generic AF.
Waiting rehearsal and cry, France had a gem!