There’s no rest at France Télévisions, which, just a few weeks after the the end of Eurovision 2022, is already back at work. On Thursday, during its annual press conference announcing programming for the upcoming season, the French broadcaster announced the return of its national selection Eurovision France in 2023.
Eurovision France 2023: National selection confirmed
Preparations for Eurovision France 2023 are already underway. Just like last year, candidates will be selected through casting sessions which will start soon and conclude sometime in October. The casting is open to both amateurs and professionals. Music professionals, including producers, record company directors and casting directors, will compose a jury that will select various candidates who will be invited to perform at the Apollo theatre in Paris in early 2023.
After this phase, only 12 candidates will be selected for the grand final, which will be broadcast on France 2 in the first half of next year. This year, the semi-amateur group Alvan & Ahez were chosen by the public to represent France in Turin.
France Télévisions looks forward to Eurovision
In December 2021, France hosted Junior Eurovision in Paris thanks to Valentina’s victory the year before. Although France did not win twice in a row, Enzo still finished in third place with the song “Tic-Tac”. The event attracted more than 30 million viewers in Europe.
In general, the success of the Eurovision brand has been well received by French television viewers, with an audience of 3.2 million viewers for the broadcast of the final in Turin, with a peak of 4.1 million viewers during the performance of the French representatives. The audience was slightly down on last year, but viewers are now younger, with the 15-24 age group accounting for 45% of the market share this year.
The challenge for France Télévision will be to maintain the success of the Eurovision France franchise, which doesn’t have the guaranteed audience of the actual Eurovision.
This year, the national selection only attracted 1.47 million viewers, a clear drop compared to 2021.
Are you excited for Eurovision France 2023? What do you expect from French selection? Tell us in the comment section below!
No new news from France so far
Oh and please organise the national final in bigger venue like a theatre for example and not a small studio like 2022. Coronavirus is gone for now so you can do bigger venues.
This year’s Eurovision France show was very weak, none of the songs were strong enough to stand out in Turin and Fulenn was the only different one (still a mystery how it flopped so hard in televoting). Viewing rates showed the decline as well. Guess it was rushed… I think it’s good that they insist on this format as they give a chance to all artists to submit songs and increase the interest for ESC to new audiences in prime time but honestly i’d rather see an internally selected entry like 2016 and 2017. Cmon France Televisions can really push… Read more »
The studio version of “Fulenn” remains my absolute favourite from this year’s Eurovision and the only track I still listen to.
Nice! France’s national selections have all been pretty good since 2018 and I hope it continues. Fulenn may not have done well live (mostly due to the lackluster live vocals) but it was definitely an interesting song
I hope they don’t just randomly announce the date a week before it happens this time. Waiting for the French NF last year was quite the party
Well, they had JESC to organize and host, so it’s understandable why the actual Eurovision was so rushed – they simply didn’t have enough time for it.
And I would add you should make the NF as early as possible like that once the act is selected promote them internationally as much as you can, they should sing their song in the others countries NF or big shows like Barbara Pravi did in Spain or like Alma, Madame Monsieur and Bilal did in Ukraine. Don’t count on the preparties to promote them, these parties have zero impact in terms of promotion because they are only popular among the eurofans and not among the general public, don’t use the preparties circuit but make your own circuit, go in… Read more »
It didn’t help Alma, Bilal or Madame Monsieur to come high in Eurovision.
when an act has performed at vidbir as an interval, ukraine usually gives them some points. they did for alma, lake malawi, and madame monsieur (12 pts from ukrainian jury) at least
Mercy was a great song. I don’t understand how it did not make it into the top10. Fulenn, nevertheless, was nothing great. Neither the song nor the performance.
It helped to get more points.
I don’t know what to think, since 2018 and their come back in the jesc, they pick every of their acts internally and it works so so well seeing their incredible results each years, so they know very well how to select internally (despite in 2020 with Tom Leeb but he could have done well, who knows). I mean they could choose an act internally like for the jesc and be successful too like in the jesc so I don’t know but I’m happy with the NF too however I would make some changes, only one night show is not… Read more »
A one week event with several shows, with some happenings each days, and with a big final at the end of the week would be great.
Yes to everything but influencers. Have we already forgot Bilal?
I’m not saying to send an influencer in Eurovision but to involve some of them, and the biggest why not, to associate them with Eurovision France, make them react about the potential acts on youtube for example to get a big exposure on the social medias, it helps a lot and it would be great for the artists, they will get more publicity. You talk about Bilal as it was a shame, nobody has forgotten him, and when he was involved in the french NF and in the Esc the TV ratings were the highest in France for these shows,… Read more »
Imagine Squeezie and his 17 millions of followers on youtube, it would boost Eurovision France hugely, I mean you take Joyca with his 5 millions of suscribers who moreover makes music and it will be already a big boost. Nowadays if you want a big exposure you have to “use” these influencers no choice. I dream too about a big star like Indila, Kendji, Slimane to represent France and of course with their millions of followers it would help a lot Esc France but it’s impossible, France has no Melfest or San Remo to attract big names and to get… Read more »
Slimane could win Eurovision with the right song.
True, Indila too,
great
Why would it be a shame? I was talking about them in the context of a bad singer winning with just an ok song simply because they had a huge fanbase.
And written by someone who won their selection a year before.
Come on Roi was far to be a bad song and Madame Monsieur are very talented composers so I don’t get the problem.
“far from being a bad song” sorry for my weak english.
If you are looking for Bilal, this year he is a jury in the program “Danse avec les stars”. With Angunn and Carla among the contestants. It’s more like “Dancing with former Eurovision contestants”!
They should do better with the casting and select acts that have /or can perform live. In that respect I think they did a better job with Destination Eurovision.
The decision to maintain a NF was essential, as bosses already told “it takes time to install a brand”. So no worries about next year. We can already expect some tweaks for Eurovision France 2023 as the selection can still go higher in production, music consistency and public interest. During past press conferences, it was mentionned the will to move the competition “en région”, as it was initially planned without Covid uncertainties. If the situation enables it next year, holding the contest in Britanny would be a nice wink for the first edition to be held outside of Paris. Apart… Read more »
I liked Fulenn but it was so so messy. Their voices didn’t blend at all and the staging was chaotic even though they had the best use of the rainbow of death’s lights.
Nuit Pauline would have done so much better. I would love to see her and Emmy Liyana back even though I doubt they ever will. And before anyone comes for me – Seule was my favorite until I saw them live. They just weren’t ready.
*come back
Fulenn was a great song, but I feel like it was not packaged well. Ahez girls were not in sync with their movements, the dancer was very distracting. Moving forward, they should find a way to attract professional singers into the national final.
I’m glad they are carrying on with the national final and haven’t spat their dummies out at least. Fulenn was a risk and sadly it didn’t pay off this time, I’m slightly baffled by its very low placing I expected above 20th at the least guess it just didn’t connect!
It was a shame that Fulenn finished this low in the Grand Final. It is a very innovative and modern track with interesting ethnic elements. Looking forward to what France has to offer next year! Even if Voila did good, I would prefer something more creative and original from France next year
Eurovision will always have unfair results. There’s just no way of preventing that. For the life of me, I will never understand why Fulenn did so poorly. There were many songs much worse than Fulenn. The fact the song was sung in a regional language is the only possible explanation I can find. I don’t care about the result. I still listen to the song on a regular basis.
I agree, I also listen to it very often! One of the few songs from this year that I still listen to regularly.
Was it a national contest the brought us Barbara Pravi’s “Voilà”, or was it the same process that got us Alvan and Ahez?
Both
ugh i still can’t comprehend that my winner France got 24th place. We can say bye bye to minority languages from France for sometime… I’m still really excited for their National Final though!
I’d say that’s a natural decision. Despite “Fulenn”, France has had a remarkable upswing in the past six years.
Fulenn and Voila are by far the best French entries of the past decade, so no, not despite Fulenn, no matter the poor result.
Imo, J’ai cherché, Requiem, Mercy and Roi were great too and they did pretty well .
I can’t agree more, Requiem too.