In June, France‘s Head of Delegation confirmed that France would use a national final to select its act for Eurovision 2021 — but it wouldn’t be Destination Eurovision. Now HoD Alexandra Redde-Amiel has revealed the name of the new contest: Eurovision France, c’est vous qui décidez.
The name was confirmed in an interview with Redde-Amiel in Pure Médias, in which she discussed France Télévisions’ plans for future productions.
The name of the new national final essentially translates to Eurovision France: You Decide, evoking the former UK national final Eurovision: You Decide and Australia’s Eurovision: Australia Decides.
Redde-Amiel also confirmed that the show will be produced in-house and hosted in a French regional city and she revealed who will host the show:
“It will be a big event evening produced by France TV Studio. The idea is to shed light on Eurovision that evening. We will film this event in a large hall in a regional city and the evening will be hosted by [French Eurovision commentator] Stéphane Bern.”
The HoD was also asked why France 2 was returning to a national final format when they had previously dropped it and internally selected Tom Leeb for 2020. Redde-Amiel explained about the importance of bringing back the national final in the era of the pandemic:
“You have to look at it in context. Tom Leeb had been internally selected. Covid arrived and Eurovision was cancelled. Eurovision is one of our strongest brands. We couldn’t let our audience go another year without it. We talked about it with Tom and we decided to rally the public around this event by creating Eurovision France, c’est vous qui décidez.”
France’s new direction
Back in June, Redde-Amiel also gave a few hints about the show’s format. She confirmed that the national final would involve a public vote, but was less clear about whether the show would also have a jury vote. She said, “The public will get the power of choice. Regarding the jury, everything is still open now.”
She also confirmed that the new national final would have a different format to Destination Eurovision. The old national final show had selected France’s Eurovision act for 2018 and 2019. It involved two semi-finals and a grand final, with all the competing acts internally selected by the broadcaster after liaising with record labels.
Applications for Eurovision France are currently open and will close on September 30.
What do you think? Are you excited about the new French national final? Which acts would you like to see compete? Tell us your thoughts below.
The chose the same title as the UK final, obviously because they couldn’t bother even with the title? I guess they expect similar results as well.
Australia did too, and look where that got them. Some fans want an excuse to hate on everything. The name of the selection isn’t gonna tell you a goddamn thing about the quality of the entries.
I can’t agree more with that, and we begin to know who are these fans, always the same….
My wish for this one is Lara Fabian ??? she should return this time representing France ?
I would love to see:
Yseult
Philippine
Florina
Chimane Badi
Maelle
Slimane
Seemone
Emmy-Liyana
Sara’h
Eli Rose (even though she’s from Canada, I would love to see her representing France)
Deborah Lemoine (but she’s pregnant)
So basically any French act that’s been hyped up by the fandom and sent to an unrealistic online song contest… okay… I’d rather have some variety along with that please!
Ok share your choices with some variety then…..
Which unrealistic online song contest !!!?
I’d like artists we’ve not heard of before. I’d like to discover new talent and then maybe a couple of ex-destination eurovision singers here and there. If you look up “who should represent France in Eurovision” on youtube a lot of those names will appear in almost every video. Discovering new artists is one of the biggest pleasures of being a Eurovision fan, just having the same old names that have been hyped to the moon and back by fans and nothing else would just be a very boring show in my own personal opinion. A lot of my top… Read more »
The article is wrong, she said there will definitely be a jury vote, she just said that she didn’t know the form of it yet and if it will be french or international.
That’s good to hear
Assuming that Tom finished in the bottom five this year, it means that their results have gradually gotten worse each year since Amir. Three different selection processes in three different years is not the right way to improve your result at Eurovision. Even more importantly than 2021’s result, France have to come away with a selection process they’re happy with moving forward.
Assuming nothing, nobody can know how Tom would have been placed even “the esc experts” can’t know.
There is not a right way or a magical formula to improve the results or to succeed in the esc, the esc is not predictable, that’s why it’s so much interesting, the top 10 is surprising each years.
My wishlist, Suzane, Emmy-lyanna, Lisandro, Indila, the Divaz, Nassi, Corentin Grevost, MB14, Seemone, Maelle, Gabriella, Aysat, Louis Delort, Maximilien Philippe, Hoshi, Lautner, Chris (Christine and the queen), Claudio Capeo, a come back of Jessy Matador Amir Alma Madame Monsieur is still possible too I’d love to see them compete in the NF with new songs. I’d love to see Bilal too cause his new songs are amazing especially the last one but it would be unfair again for the others and for those who don’t have a big active fanbase.
I need Igit!
Malo too
I would LOVE to see Christine and the Queens at Eurovision!
Joe has taste 😉
In my biggest dreams, I want to see : Maëlle, Yseult, Suzanne, Kendji, Indila, Vitaa, Slimane, Vianney, Camille Lellouche, Keen’v, Louane, Marina Kaye, Jessie Will, Barbara Pravi, 3 Cafés Gourmands, Amel Bent, Hoshi, Phillipine, Soprano, Black M, Boulevard des Airs, Clara Luciani, Zaz, as well as Emmy Lyana, Seemone, Silvan Areg, Gabriella, June the Girl, Florina, Igit, The divaz, Sweem, Aysat and so many others, the choice is wide!
Seemone got robbed. I’d also love to see them do what they did in the ‘90s and explore the sounds of their former and current territories. A Caribbean tune like “Monte la rivie” or something North African like “C’est le dernier…” would sound AMAZING.
Oh yes, “C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison” made an impression because it was innovative and precursor. It brings new sounds to the contest, and that was one of the goals with Destination Eurovision, especially in 2019 (Comme une grande, Por aqui, Passio) : to explore diversity and gather all influences of the french music scene in a “grand public” TV show, and it also seem to be the case for this new national selection “Eurovision France” according to the team.
I honestly think that could be the key to France matching Sweden, considering the last two times they barely missed that sixth victory were with songs that sounded like that (I mean, if we’re being technical here, France should’ve won in 1991 by current rules. They finished level!).
I heard about it but I don’t know really well the rules, on what criteria would France have been the winner in 1991 based on today’s rules?
The rules now state that the country that scored with the most countries overall breaks the tie. 18 countries voted for France, 17 voted for Sweden.
Oh ok, indeed it makes sense that it seems fairer.
If it follows the step of Australia with their amazing national final I’m happy with that.
Sounds promising!