The word is out: Tom Leeb will represent France at Eurovision 2020. As we reported last night, France Télévisions has ditched its national selection show Destination Eurovision in favour of a closed-door process that resulted in the 30-year-old stunner securing the spot in Rotterdam.
And now Alexandra Redde-Amiel, France Télévisions’ Director of Entertainment and the new French Head of Delegation, has staged a small press conference with French media. She flagged several key points in their selection process and gave us a tantalising tease of what we can expect from the rising star.
France’s Eurovision 2020 song was selected before Tom Leeb was
Much has been made of the fact that Tom’s father is one of France’s most well-known comedians. However, as 20minutes.fr reports, it was the song that came first and not the singer.
“We received more than one hundred songs written for France,” Alexandra told about ten journalists at the intimate event. “We convened several listening committees and it was love at first sight for one of them. Our criteria featured three main points: universality, emotion and the capacity of the song to make the audience ‘live an experience’.”
Apparently the song was the overwhelming favourite of the committee. France TV Distribution’s Music Director Xavier Bonnetain said it really broke up the monotony of listening to songs one after the other.
“When we have a listening committee, we review more or less thirty songs. It becomes hard to digest. We are sure about this specific song because we listened to it in the middle of every other song and we forgot the previous ones and the five that followed. It’s a sign. We thought that on the day of the Grand Final this song could impress, leading people to forget the other songs around it.”
Having a song is one thing — you also need a performer to bring it to life. After deciding on the number, the France 2 team had to pair it with someone who could give it life.
“It’s been pretty quick,” Alexandre said. “In our team, we follow talents. Among them was one who matched what was needed to give the song its full reach.” That was, of course, Tom, who she described as modern, universal, charismatic and attractive. His pop folk universe is interesting to the French broadcaster, as they think it adds something fresh to the original song submission.
The French HoD almost sounds mystical when discussing how the artist and song came into contact.
“It was magical — planets aligned. We’re pretty confident in this project for Rotterdam. We bring a modern artist and song, and we’re more determined than ever to get closer to the podium.”
The death of Destination Eurovision has, in the eyes of many fans, taken away the excitement of the big reveal — that moment when you experience your country’s Eurovision artist being named in real time. Well France 2 hope to address that with a special song reveal.
“We want to create excitement on our airwaves,” France’s HoD says. She’s promised an “innovative plan” and something “exceptional.”
What’s your thought about France going back to internal selection? Do you think this will deliver some impressive results?
Well this is funny to read now ?
Unrelated but funny news: Maria Christian, who had represented Ireland at Eurovision in 1985, is participating in the new season of “The Voice” in France this year. And her coach will be … Lara Fabian, who had represented Luxembourg at Eurovision in 1988.
https://www.tf1.fr/tf1/the-voice/videos/nok-the-voice-2020-maria-chante-danny-boy-un-chant-irlandais-63364812.html?fbclid=IwAR0LV51m8nAG2_zWupDgkaDT4-AGlAGCTTIpSIK725LCIadPLthcHwrF81U
Trying their luck with another Amir by the looks of it. Hope his song will be as good as he looks and the way France TV’s been hyping him to be.
I don’t get the hate in the comments. They say that they wanna get « closer to the top3 ». Which every country wants. And of course it’s the HoD so she wont diss the entry, it shows that they’re super motivated and that they take the contest seriously! I’m quite curious now 🙂 hope it wont disappoint
I’m sorry but when you hype up an entry with those kinds of words, you’re only setting it up to fail. Why don’t they just let the music speak for itself?
The only fail they’re setting up is with fans expectations. The general public does not give a crap about the words of a HoD
Maybe the reason that you forgot the songs that came before it and the five immediately after it was because your submissions weren’t particularly good?
In case, you didn’t know, countries tend to send pretty good songs to Eurovision. 😉
The higher they climb…
Countries who REALLY take ESC serious 2020 which i love: Malta,Spain, France,Serbia,Sweden, Norway,Belgium,Croatia,Switzerland and more. Looking good:)
I’ll just wait for the song.
Seems like he prefers to sing in English? But the French will never allow him, they will see it as a humiliation with an all English song…
The more they are teasing it, the more i am worried about the song..
There’s a thing called “humility” that the French greatly lack… Also, he really shouldn’t hype a song like this before it’s even released: he has no idea how the public will react to it and the French selection committee has shown multiple times they have no idea what works well.
You’re not commenting the words from Tom Leeb, nor those of “every french people” or the President, but just those from Alexandra Redde-Amiel, our head of delegation., she just gives her opinion, and she’s free to do it.
When the Dutch team says that their song is win-worthy, no one finds something to say. When the French team teases their act, it’s arrogance, lack of humility etc.
There’s a big distinction between saying your song is “win-worthy” (which is basically praising your own song) and saying your song will “make you forget the other entries” (which is indeed arrogant and degrading for other contestants). One of them is oriented towards you and your strengths, the other is oriented towards others and their (alleged) weakness (alleged because that person has no idea what they’re up against). There’s your difference. 😉
Learn to read. Wiwibloggs title is misleading. They never said their entry would make forget others at Eurovision, they said it made them forget the other songs amongst the FRENCH SUBMISSIONS
“We thought that on the day of the Grand Final this song could impress, leading people to forget the other songs around it.”
That is a direct quote from the article above.
I don’t have a dog in this fight, but I thought it was prudent to point out that according to Wiwi they DID actually say that.
Words out of my mouth, thank you! Also, you know a comment is going to be constructive when it starts with “Learn to read”. 😉
Hum… they better be sure of their choice to say that! Still I want to see France winning the competition again because I want to see at which point French people are double-tongued. A lot are spitting on the contest, saying it’s complete bullsh*t but would it be the case after a victory? Sure not! And it’s the same for my country (Belgium) even if critics have slowed in the recent years.
I’ll admit: when I saw the article headline, I thought, “Suuuurrreee it is.” But there’s an actual rationale for their excitement there. I want France to succeed, obviously, so I hope this is the song that gets them out of their rut.
hahaha the French being arrogant, Tom is the worst entry to date for france
How do you know that if you haven’t heard the song? Now do the thing where you apologize because you were too impulsive and say you aren’t going to post again when we all know you’re going to do it again.
You are right Joe, but same reasoning applies to this guy: how does he know we will forget the other entries if 1) he hasn’t heard the other entries and 2) he has no idea if the public will actually like their song or not. That was a stupid comment from the French.
The French are not responsible for what this person said…
My apologies: when I said “The French” I meant the French delegation (just like if a French singer had won Eurovision, I would have said “The French won”). 🙂
Why aren’t they blocking this troll?
Your opinions are ALWAYS the opposite of everyone else. We know that you are only trolling.
Maybe 100% French lyrics and combination of ballad and up-tempo?
At least France is motivated and shows some effort unlike a few years ago where they didn’t care. It is an approach that should be praised, every country should show some motivation and aspire to be the best rather than having “we are just here for the fun” approach.
That said, that is a very ambitious goal that might backfire if the song isn’t that spectacular. But I hope for the best..
Can’t fault their attitude and approach to the contest.
My 12 points of heart will go to him for sure
Sum up of the complaints I saw: -People are complaining that it’s another male. What ? -People are complaining that he was chosen because he’s the son of a famous French comedian. We’re all sons and daughters of someone. That doesn’t mean he can’t be picked and life was, is and will never fair. -People are complaining that the song won’t be in French ? We don’t have the song. -People are saying he is good-looking. We’ll he won’t be helped by that is the song’s so-so or not good. -People are complaining that the song sucks because of his… Read more »
Well you know, damned if you do,damned if you don’t..
I found your comment interesting, thank you. The draw for us as Big V don’t give us any advantages, it’s just to know in which semi we’ll vote. I think they should do the draw allocation process on March to reduce this strategical approach that some countries may have. Maybe we won’t have to wait early March to have suddenly so many internal songs dropping. Though nothing will change.
I thought one think : he would definitely form a couple goal with Monika Marija if she’s selected for Lithuania isn’t it? Lol I just think about that and I find it brillant XD
Well he really needs a killer entry to satisfy all the hype that’s being built.
Be humble, France.
Oh, so you think they should say “we’ve chosen the worst entry we could, paired it with an awful singer, and we’re aiming for a bottom 5”?
Don’t be stupid, Zen.
France getting overconfident already! Their main priority should be aiming for a Top 5 finish, something the French haven’t achieved in 18 years. Another mid-table finish would just be another disappointment, especially if the hype machine kicks in again
Really? He’ll have to perform naked then! I’m sure that’ll make us forget the other entries!
Sorry for the second post but I just found more information :
– Our head of delegation said “it was for us the song that could bring us as close as possible to victory. Failure is not an option. Whether we win or not, we have to give our all in everything we do. I want to have no regrets.”
– The song has an addictive rating.
– We don’t know if there’ll be english lyrics but the possibility isn’t cancelled.
https://m.programme-tv.net/news/tv/247427-eurovision-2020-comment-tom-leeb-a-t-il-ete-choisi-pour-representer-la-france
We’ll see about that..
If the song is in English, then what would be the point?
because Tom dislikes most french music
BREAKING NEWS. Some more news have been released :
– The song will be released in february.
– At least a part of the song should be written in french.
– France 2 is planning a huge promotion campaign to promote the song and the artist all over Europe.
– The song will talk to everyone, from Lisbon to Baku.
https://www.telepro.be/people/le-chanteur-tom-leeb-representera-la-france-leurovision.html
Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst
France definitely sounds very confident (too confident ?) about it
The more you say it is exceptional, the more disappointing it can be …
Well at least it shows they’re motivated. Better than a few years ago when they did not give a crap. Fans will be fans and will be disappointed or overhyping no matter what.
Yes, but I don’t think that we’ve reached the “too much” point. They just said they’re confident in their project and want to get closer to the top 3 for this year. They’re not like “we have th song that will make us win, we’re already planning Paris 2021 in Bercy”.
A song can standing out in a country’s selection, and be totally forgotten at the eurovision, so we will see 😉
But is not every year FTV are confident about their choice, so like them, and until the song is out, i’m confident to finaly see my country in top 5 (last time was in 2002 !!).