After joining forces and winning Eurovision France, c’est vous qui décidez 2022, Alvan & Ahez are now set to sing the first Eurovision song completely in the Breton language since 1996. They’ll bring “Fulenn” to the Eurovision 2022 grand final for France – already pre-qualified as a member of the big five.
Scroll down to read the lyrics of “Fulenn”
France in Eurovision 2022: Alvan & Ahez – “Fulenn”
Alexis Morvan-Rosius, aka Alvan, is a singer and instrumentalist from Rennes who has been active since 2016. Meanwhile, Ahez are a kan ha diskan vocal trio hailing from Carhaix, which consists of friends Marine Lavigne, Sterenn Diridollou and Sterenn Le Guillou. The three met in a Diwan high school, Breton-teaching institutions, taking their band name Ahez from a regional mythological figure.
This mutual collaboration between the two is extremely recent: the four musicians met in a bar in Rennes literally last summer.
“I met Marine one evening at L’Artiste Assoiffé and she told me about her musical project in Breton. This idea had been floating around in my head for a long time. I even had an ongoing production in my computer,” comments Alvan. “My manager had seen an advertisement for the national selection and told us about it. We thought ‘why not?’, but we didn’t think we’d be selected at all.”
What do the “Fulenn” lyrics mean?
“We do not claim to embody traditional Breton music. For me, tradition is the opposite of purism. It is more the transmission of knowledge, a past that must be anchored in the present. Otherwise, tradition ends up in the museum and dies,” Marine Lavigne from Ahez states. The ensemble quickly gained praise for combining Celtic music with a modern EDM thumping beat.
“Fulenn” is completely sung in Breton, the only Celtic language in mainland Europe, most closely related to those found in the British Isles. The song title translates to “Sparkle” but can also mean “pretty girl”.
The song tells the tale of a woman, untethered and free, who goes dancing under the moonlight in the forest, uncaring of what anyone would think, doing what she wants. It’s a testament of independence: “A feminine shadow twirls in the light of a torch. She dances with the devil, so what?”
“Fulenn” lyrics – Alvan & Ahez (France Eurovision 2022)
Music and lyrics by: Marine Lavigne, Alvan Morvan Rosius
Original Breton textTan de’i ! Lalalalalalaleno lalelalo Dispont ‘kreiz an digoadenn e tañs ar fulenn
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English translationLet’s go Lalalalalalaleno lalelalalo Lalalalalalaleno lalelalalo Fearless in the middle of the clearing dances the spark |
Are you feeling the mystical energy of the “Fulenn” lyrics? Do you think Alvan & Ahez could bring France a victory at Eurovision 2022? Let us know in the comments down below!
Brittany is known for those lawless French fisherman. I read that they don’t like the name Great Britain as that makes them little Britain. If true that’s funny I guess.
Also “noz”, “skeud” and “unvan”! A common Indo-European root shines through!
I somehow knew the word “fulenn” was related to fire in some way.
He found Måns Zelmerlöw
This has a lot of potential and it’s a really cool song… but the live performances thus far have been very lackluster
Not really “very luckluster”. The national final performance was very good.
Have watched their clip again after not looking at it for a few weeks. Did not help. Still see old school Eurovision fire, heavy breathing and amateur level local theatre.
Thank you! Exactly my thoughts! This feels more like Eurovision 2004 than ‘Tii’ from the very same year did. And honestly, this would have crashed out in 2004 and so it should have in 2022, if it wasn’t for the big 5 rule.
I loved ‘Tii’, ‘Voda’ and ‘Shum’, so I should at least like this as well. Yet, I can’t. ‘Fulenn’ doesn’t even get close to those three. It feels absolutely amateurish, unfinished and at the same time very pretentious. It’s incomprehensible how this could become the direct successor to ‘Voilà’.
Word
Potentially top 3 with the televote. I think France will do well this year (and I love it!)
This song… is not to my taste. Best of luck to the group anyhow.
(I shall probably just repeat this comment for the Wiwi jury, it saves time.)
There are no “Amen” songs to counter the devil-worshipping this year XD
Jokes aside this shows a bunch of promise especially in the studio version, still waiting for all the elements to integrate well in the stage; the pre-party performances have been letdowns so far. But France did stellar with Barbara last year, so who knows? Bonne chance/Chañs vat in Turin!
“She dances with the devil, so what?”… Kind of an allegory of France and its elections outcome, unfortunately.
Gosh, now that you mention it, this whole song could be about Marine and the RN. (Fortunately it isn’t, but, ouf, interpretations.)
DAMN he is HOT! I don’t even care about the song…
I don’t know who is hotter, him or Tom Leeb..
My current #1 just now. Brilliant concept. I hope the keep the staging and camera similar to NF
I’d love the UK to send a song in Gaelic like this!
Also – the last singers to sing in Breton with Dan ar Braz were actually Scottish and Welsh ! Elaine Morgan and Karen Matheson of Capercaillie.
I love “Greenwaves”, a song Karen Matheson did with Secret Garden.
Love the song – great mix of traditional and modern and my favourite this year. Go n-éirí libh in Turin! Just wish we in Ireland could bring something of a similar nature to Eurovision. Referring to Jonas’s point below: the term ‘British Isles’ refers to the geographic Islands and is not meant as a political term. However it is rarely used in Ireland, particularly in the Republic of Ireland and certainly not by our politicians. I would never use the term and find it quite offensive – however, I’m sure our Breton cousins certainly do not mean it to be… Read more »
Thank you for answering my question. It just seems so outdated to me, especially considering that people in the republic are celebrating a hundred years of independence this year. Maybe it’s too small a thing for me to have even mentioned, but seeing as this article is about Celtic pride…
Thank you for mentioning it and indeed for noticing it in the first place. It is indeed very outdated!
Any Irish people reading this, is Ireland part of the British Isles?
I do not think so.
Wikipedia says yes. ”British Isles” are consisting of Great Britain, Ireland, The Isle of Man, Inner and Outer Herbides, The Northern Isles, and around 6000 smaller islands. ”The Great Britain” is the largest of them, and is home to England, Scotland, and Wales. The second biggest island is Ireland, and its people are called Irish (both residents of The Republic of Ireland, and the residents of The United Kingdom / Northern Ireland).
Yeah, I saw what Wikipedia said, I’d just like to know how many Irish people agree with that. I imagine not many.
The term is typically avoided in Ireland, and it is a sensitive subject as Irish people do not like being confused or conflated with ‘British’ anything, although will begrudgingly concede that is the traditional name for the collective islands. Still, it is best avoided out of respect. I think in the context of the article though it was a way of including the Celtic languages in Britain (Welsh and Cornish) which I believe are closer to the Breton language than the Gaelic languages. In fact, as a native Irish speaker I’m surprised how little crossover there is between the languages,… Read more »
Some Irish bigots may have a problem, just like they have with the British flag. I doubt most do though considering your overall cultural connection to Britain. Jonas is showing ignorance and based on elsewhere here he seems anti-english.
Probably televoting winner like Norway 2019
I have three uptempo songs among my top favorites – Estonia, Norway, and France. I agree about how cool, unique, and hypnotic France is this year!
Yeah, sometimes it’s hard to decide. I’d say that the verses are more mid-tempo, and the chorus is more uptempo. But then again, I really might be off as there were cases of songs whose tempo would sound faster or slower to me due to instrumentation.
I live in the North of Spain and… due to our culture, this music speaks to me, a lot. I find it to be one of the most interesting songs this year, and although some people find it difficult to connect with, it would break my heart if it ended in a low position due to the live performance. I hope they can work on that to deliver something amazing on the final!
“Exotic” well I don’t agree on that, and it is not enough to use a rare language. The performance must still be good. This is a mess.
the melody, their voices, the lyrics
the lyrics are really nice, set the scene well and are full of a lot of alliterations
This entry is one that I really don’t understand, it is like a school concert going bad. I am sorry for my second home country. I loved last year, but this is simply bad. I really don’t t understand what people like in it.
This entry is probably the best France have sent in YEARS. I love it
Cyprus: I excel at Devil Worshiping
France: Hold my Baguette.
In all serious I am very glad France is sending this and I do think there is a chance they’ll come top 5 again : )
Good idea, terrible execution on stage. In Amsterdam each singer was trying to outcry the others. In NF finals they won only because the good work of cameramen.
I agree that the Amsterdam performance was bad, but I would not put too much into these pre-contest rehearsal shows. It is what will happen in Turin that counts. And I trust the camera people and technicians at Eurovision to be professional.
In the preparties the sound crew has no time to prepare the sound mixing, so it’s normal that the voices levels are meh for this type of songs with 4 singers. There was no problem at their NF and there won’t be in Turin 🙂
This is why they have the stand-ins when the stage assembly is complete, they can see what needs to be changed/improved before going to Turin so when they get there, everything will be set to go for their rehearsals
Why would anyone use an act’s performance at a preparty as basis to think that the actual performance would be anything like it in Turin? A lot of the performers’ attention would be on the main ESC stage so they don’t necessarily have to go a hundred percent with pre-contest fan-run events that are meant to be just fun get-togethers with the fandom.
Traditional legend meets electronica in the Breton language – my absolute favourite this year! A couple of their live performances have been shaky, but I hope Alvan and Ahez will get everything sorted before the big night in Turin.