FRANCE

The French song was unveiled on February 29th by France 2 via their website however it was not officially presented until March 12th on the Dicaire show. It was announced in late 2015 that the French entry for the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected internally. They were looking for performers 16 to 50 years of age and of any nationality. Songs were required to contain at least 80% French language lyrics. The selected singer is Amir Haddad who will be singing his latest release “J'ai cherché" (I searched)

The song is a standard pop song with some country/folk elements. The verses are in French and the chorus in English. During this performance he is backed by 4 female singer/dancers who alternate between hand microphones and and using microphone stands. They are also dressed the same and have tambourine each. The song structure builds well and the balance between the French and English is just right. Having the chorus in English is a clever turn as the verses sound very lyrical in French but the have all the memorable hooks in the chorus. The ooooh-ing starts right from the beginning sets up the motifs and ear worms straight away.

Amir was born in France but moved to Israel in the early 1990s. In 2006 he took part in Kokhav Nolad singing mainly French language songs, however he did not win. After the competition ended he signed a music deal with a French label where he released music in both French and Hebrew. He then entered the French version of “The Voice” in 2014. He sang “Candle in the wind” in his blind audition and all 4 judges turned but chose to be on Team Jenifer. He eventually came 3rd in the competition and joined the other competitors on the Voice Tour.

This needs a lot of work. Although this was presented as a 'show' I very much doubt this is what we will see in Stockholm. If it is then this is going to fall very flat. First of all the backing singers were miming and I don't think that the oooohing can sound that good live. Amir doesn't do all the singing so the extra singers need to be really very good. If it starts off badly I don't think this can crawl back. Amir needs to be the star of the show and with so much going on behind him it is a bit of a distraction. If it starts off badly I don't think this can crawl back. Oddly,if this was trying to qualify from a semi I think it would just because it stands out so much from everything else but as a ready made finalist I am not sure how well this would do. It is contemporary and quite radio friendly but the show needs much more direction. Maybe with the freedom of a bigger stage, better backdrop and more scope for camera angles, this could get something out of the bag. I can see this ending up in the low teens.

ARTIST – Amir Haddad

SONG – J'ai cherché (I searched)

MUSIC - Nazim Khaled, Silvio Lisbonne, Skydancers

LYRICS – Amir Haddad, Johan Errami, Nazim Khaled