France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Eurovision Song Contest 2000
Country	France
National selection
Selection process	Eurovision 2000: la sélection
Selection date(s)	15 February 2000
Selected entrant	Sofia Mestari
Selected song	"On aura le ciel"
Selected songwriter(s)	Benoît Heinrich Pierre Legay
Finals performance
Final result	23rd, 5 points
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1999 • 2000 • 2001►

France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with the song "On aura le ciel" written by Benoît Heinrich and Pierre Legay. The song was performed by Sofia Mestari. The French broadcaster France Télévisions in collaboration with the television channel France 3 organised the national final Eurovision 2000: la sélection in order to select the French entry for the 2000 contest in Stockholm, Sweden. Fourteen songs competed in the national final on 15 February 2000 where "On aura le ciel" performed by Sofia Mestari was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.

As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 5, France placed twenty-third out of the 24 participating countries with 5 points.

Background[edit]

Prior to the 2000 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-two times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in 1956.^[1] France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. In 1999, the nation finished in nineteenth place with the song "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah.

The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 3. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. From 1988 to 1998, the broadcaster opted to internally select the French entry. The 1999 French entry was selected via a national final that featured twelve competing acts. In 2000, the broadcaster opted to organise a national final under a similar format.^[2]

Before Eurovision[edit]

Eurovision 2000: la sélection[edit]

Eurovision 2000: la sélection was the national final organised by France 3 to select France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. The competition took place on 15 February 2000 at the L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl and was broadcast on France 3.^[3] The national final was watched by 5 million viewers in France with a market share of 23.6%.^[4]

Competing entries[edit]

France 3 received 450 submissions from record companies as well as artists and songwriters themselves.^[5] Auditions featuring several of the received submissions took place at the Headquarters of France 3 in Paris where a three-member selection committee consisting of Nathalie André (producer), Catherine Régnier (M6 music programmer) and Fabrice Ferment (Head of Delegation for France at the Eurovision Song Contest) shortlisted 20 entries to the next stage, which involved an alternate committee consisting of representatives of France 3 finalising the fourteen entries to compete in the national final on 6 January 2000.^[4][6]

Final[edit]

The final took place on 15 February 2000. Fourteen entries competed and the winner, "On aura le ciel" performed by Sofia Mestari, was selected by the combination of public televoting (50%) and a jury panel (50%). The jury panel included Marie Myriam and Patrick Fiori who represented France in the 1977 and 1993 contests respectively.^[7] The jury vote was won by Sofia Mestari who was ranked second by the televote, which was won by Jessica Ferley (ranked fourth by the jury) who received 27,000 votes out of the 43,000 registered. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Patrick Fiori performed the song "Terra Umana" as the interval act of the show.^[4][8]

At Eurovision[edit]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the 1999 contest competed in the final on 13 May 2000.^[9] As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 21 November 1999, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Estonia and before the entry from Romania.^[10][11] France finished in twenty-third place with 5 points.^[12][13]

In France, the contest was broadcast on France 3 as well as on delay via TV5 with commentary by Julien Lepers.^[14] The French spokesperson, who announced the French votes during the show, was Marie Myriam who won the contest for France in 1977.

Voting[edit]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Turkey in the contest.^[15]

Points awarded to France[16] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points  Russia 2 points  Netherlands 1 point

Points awarded by France[16] Score Country 12 points  Turkey 10 points  Germany 8 points  Croatia 7 points  Denmark 6 points  Israel 5 points  Russia 4 points  Ireland 3 points  Latvia 2 points  Netherlands 1 point  Sweden

References[edit]