FRANCE

The French Final was held on January 27th at the Studios de France in Saint-Denis, Paris, hosted by Garou. Before the final there were 2 semi-finals of 9 entries with the top 4 from each continuing on. The finalists were chosen solely by jury, but in the final this was changed to an international jury (50%) & televoting (50%). The winning act was Madame Monsieur with their song “Mercy”.

The song starts off with Émilie and Jean-Karl stood opposite each other with the camera spinning round until both of them come into view. You notice quite quickly that both of them are dressed the same in a black polo neck top, black trousers and red shoes. He is playing the guitar but also provides backing vocals during the second half of the song. He stays mainly in the background whilst she does more of the emoting to camera. Behind them are small videos of the sea bobbing up and down in a sepia tone, later on this becomes a multicoloured sea of faces. During the chanting part at the end, the audience join in with some hand choreography.

The song is quite understated and stats with Émilie singing very low. I like the fact that the first line ends with the phrase “Je m’apelle Mercy” – a  phrase most of us would have learnt or heard at school! The song moves into a better range before going into the chorus. The chorus has a very memorable pattern and tune which will help those viewers who don’t speak French. There is not a lot of repetition but the song is simple enough to get into your head very quickly. Plus it is full of simple words one would have learnt at school e.g. enfant, mer,  je suis, vie. Around the 2:30 mark she starts the “Mercy, Mercy” chant which adds an extra ending earworm to the end of the song

This is the first real national final France have had for a long time (they did have a small final in 2014 but that was just from of 3 entries) Although the quality has been mixed, the diversity of acts and song genres has been wide and made all the songs very interesting to watch. Mercy” has a great message and follows on from the sensibility that Salvador had during 2017 (we all remember the SOS Refugees jumper he got told off for wearing during rehearsals) The song sounds and looks very French and has that very slick and understated feel to it. Although the song won the French televote quite convincingly (27% of the total votes cast) the jury vote was very mixed and unless they sort out a more visually stunning look and/or get a good starting position in the final, this could flop. However,on a wider note I feel that Eurovision is reaching a turning point. Maybe Eurovision *is* political after all and if this is the kind of thing we should see more of then I really won’t complain. I would much rather have seen something more complex to have won (Igit or Malo') but out of the big favourites I think this was the best option.

ARTIST – Madame Monsieur

SONG – Mercy

MUSIC - Émilie Satt, Jean-Karl Lucas

LYRICS - Émilie Satt, Jean-Karl Lucas