Slimane describes his Eurovision staging: “Mon Amour” will be a romantic rendez-vouz

Back in April, France’s Eurovision 2024 singer Slimane met up with me at the London Eurovision Party. Owing to technical difficulties it’s taken me a hot minute to get it up. But following his eye-popping second rehearsal, I’m glad we can finally hit publish. 

Slimane — who has been performing his a cappella moment since Croatia’s Eurovision selection in March — says that his collaborator Zach Reece suggested he do it at Eurovision. 

“I come from the piano bars,” he told me. “So when you are trained to sing only with a piano, it happens that you sing a cappella quite often. It’s an important part of my story.”

Slimane describes his Eurovision staging: “Mon Amour”

Singing without an instrument comes naturally for Slimane, partly because of his experience performing with gospel choirs when he was younger. “I said absolutely, ‘Let’s do it! Let’s try it in Croatia.’ I was more excited than scared.”

The a cappella moment requires precision with the mic. “It needs to be perfectly straight,”he says. “Not too high. Not too low. That’s why I need to be extremely focused when doing it.”

Following his rehearsals, fans suggested that Slimane was singing to his love on a cloud — or maybe at the gates of Heaven. Slimane is happy to leave the interpretation to you. But what he will say is that he wanted to use his voice to create connection between all Eurovision viewers. 

“My performance is pretty much like me to be honest. Talking about Eurovision, I’m proud to say I didn’t disguise myself. I’m not pretending to be someone else. That is the spirit of my performance.”

“It’s like a bubble you create when you are in love. Except this time I hope we will be 180 million people loving each other. My performance will be like a romantic rendez-vous.”