FRANCE

The French Final was held on January 26th at a TV Studio in Le Pré Saint Gervais, hosted by Natasha St-Pier. The winner was chosen by internet voting/televoting (50%) and jury (50%) which ran from January 26th - February 23rd. The winner, announced on March 2nd, was "Moustache" by Twin Twin.

The presentation of the 3 songs was shown during the show "Chansons d'Aboard" but the votes were not revealed until 5 weeks later. All the songs were easily available on your tube. The show was a bit clinical and the performances just sang their song then went off. It seemed although France was going to make an effort this year with a national final, it was a minimal effort.

The performance was very much restricted by the stage which was very small and very plain. The three members of Twin Twin, who all had live microphones, were backed by 3 female dancers. All six of them moved around the cramped stage as best they could. It looked quite bright and eye-catching as everybody on stage has either vivid coloured clothing and quite defined sense of style. The staging will need a very though review. I don't think the dancers brought anything to the performance apart from making it look cramped. I feel that the staging needs to reflect the meaning of the song and I almost feel male dancers would work better.

The song is a dance song with elements of guitar and rap to it. The song is really carried by the rhythms rather than the words of the song, which are mostly in French but has the odd line in English and Spanish. It is an extremely modern sound and something that would not be out of place on French radio. Many have likened this song to Stromae's "Papaoutai" and although it shares a rhythmical quality, the tunes are not similar and this is much more light hearted. It is made up of lots of bits and is not a straight forward verse/chorus or even verse/bridge/chorus. There are lots of earworms here and if you don't song along with the  "I wanna have a moustache" part you will be at the "Je veux ci je veux ça" part.

The vocal standard of this song is OK. It is more a spoken rap than singing and I think the levels on the mics were not exactly right on the night either. The main singer copes really well with the different beats of the song and carries the tune off well. The other two guys are not so proficient and possibly need their turned down ever so slightly. I don't think however they need more backing vocals. It needs a bit more personality and more work to the camera. Although I dismissed the Stromae connotations earlier, this show might benefit from having dancers similar to the Papaoutai video or by having a lyric video in the background screen a la ByeAlex or Gianluca.

This was the best song out of the three and this will give the Eurovision final a much needed dose of light hearted fun on the Saturday night. The young adults of the French speaking countries, as Stromae fans, will love this. It could also be a really eye catching and memorable performance. But let's face it, no jury member (unless they are a French-speaking, teenage Stromae fan) will be voting for this. It will do really well in the televote but bomb in the jury vote. Shame.

Artist - Twin Twin

Song - Moustache

Music - Viktor Pierre Beyres, Kim N'Guyen

Lyrics - Lorent Idir, François Ardouvin