FRANCE

The French song was premiered on the France 3 website on March 14th. Back in January, the national broadcaster France 3 revealed that Amandine Bourgeois would be representing the country. She will be singing the song "L'enfer et moi" (Hell and me).

The website premiered the music video for her song, however on the same day she appeared on "C'a vous" where she performed the song in front of the other guests on the show. She sings the song on a stool backed by 2 female singers. Unfortunately it gives us very little clue as to how it might be staged in Malmo. The music video is very stylised and although it might be nice to try and get this feeling onto the stage this will be very difficult.

"L'enfer et moi" is a very dark song. During most of this song she is backed by an electric guitar. As it progressedsto the end the beat of a drum is most prominent. She is an interesting singer with quite a unique voice, if not a little screechy and shouty at the end. It is a moody song which will require a moody performance, not necessarily an engaging one and one, I don't think will make people pick up the phone and vote - not even in French speaking countries.

Basically, this is not a Eurovision song at all. I don;' even think this is an 'anti-Eurovision' or 'too good for Eurovision' song. Not being in English should not be a barrier to voting for a song but in this case I feel it is. There is such a strong narrative to the song that I feel will missed because this plot will not be able to come out on the Eurovision stage. Therefore I feel this is a song no-one will vote for no matter how good she might be on the night. As they are part of the Big 5, France are automatically through to the final - which is a good job really. Expect a finishing position that begins with a 2 (and I don't mean a single digit).

Artist - Amandine Bourgeois

Song - L'enfer et moi (Hell and me)
Music - Boris Bergman, David Salkin
Lyrics - Boris Bergman, David Salkin