France has been a loyal Eurovision Song Contest contender since the very beginning. It is one of the only seven countries to be present at the first contest in 1956 and has only missed two contestants which were 1974 and 1982.
The country is back with a joint group this year hoping to win the trophy and host next year’s contest. The artist to represent France was chosen through ‘Eurovision France: c’est vous qui décidez’, where they competed with five other acts and came on top by the jury and televote.
The competition is taking place in Turin, Italy this year. Last year’s winners Mäneskin are also a group and won last year with a total of 524 points, they became the 68th winner of the song contest and the first Italian entry to win the contest in 31 years.
Read more: Eurovision: Meet the Cardiff folk singer who became a superstar in France
Who’s representing France this year and have they ever won the Eurovision Song Contest? Here’s everything you need to know.
Who’s representing France for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022?
Alvan, a 29-year-old musician, has teamed up with Ahez, a vocal trio to compete for France this year. Alvan has been producing “chill electro world” music with the group ‘Alvan Project’ for a number of years. While Ahez, consisting of Marine Lavigne, Sterenn Diridollou and Sterenn Le Guillou have been performing since 2018 and their music intertwines traditional northern French singing with modern, Celtic influences.
The group who are competing with an original song Fulenn first met last year and decided to join together and apply for this year’s entry selection process. The song, which means Spark in English, was written by Alvan and Ahez’s Marine Lavigne, most of the song is sung in a Celtic language Brenton , a language primarily spoken in the artists’ home in northern France.
The song follows the story of a young woman who only feels free at night when she is accompanied by the devil by a bonfire. The song has two elements two it, an ultra-modern beat fused with traditional vocal stylings to produce a track described as “Celtic EDM”.
France didn’t have to do very much to get to this point as they are one of the “Big Five” countries, so they automatically go through to the Grand Final.
How many times have France won Eurovision?
France has won Eurovision five times, the same number as the United Kingdom. However, France has only been able to host the contest three times which were in 1959, 1961 and 1978.
France came very close to winning many times, it came second five times and third seven times. Since 1998, the year televoting was introduced, France has been performing badly. Since then it has been in the bottom 10 countries almost every year. In 2014, the country finished in last place for the first time since the start of Eurovision with only two points. At least it’s not as bad as last year when the UK received 0 points.
The Eurovision Song Contest will be live streamed on BBC One from 8pm. It is Alvan and Ahez’s final chance to win this year’s competition and celebrate a sixth victory.
