The French song was revealed on February 18th during the France 2 show "20h30 le dimanche" presented by Laurent Delahousse. Earlier in January, the French broadcaster announced that Quebecois singer-songwriter La Zarra had been internally selected as their act. Her song is called "Évidemment" (Obviously)
La Zarra - real name Fatima Zahra Hafdi - is a Canadian singer and songwriter based in France. She was born in Montreal to parents of Moroccan descent and settled in the suburb of Longueuil. Her career began in 2016 with the release of her debut single "Printemps blanc" collaborating with French rapper Niro. Her next song "Tu t'en iras" was not released until 2021 and was certified platinum by Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. La Zarra was nominated for the NRJ Music Awards, the leading French music awards, as "Francophone revelation of the year" and nominated in her homeland at the Gala de l'ADISQ for "Revelation of the year" in part by the success of her debut album "Traîtrise"
La Zarra is on a small platform inside a small dark studio with a lot of strobing lights. She is dressed in a dark tight fitting dress with a cinched in waist, pointy shoulder pads and matching fascinator. She has no particular choreography but does use her arms a lot and moves her shoulders to the beat. After a dramatic instrumental intro La Zarra starts with a staccato and very pronounced first verse; her voice is quiet and has a slightly raspy/whispery tone during the verse and pre-chorus. The chorus builds nicely and has a steady beat throughout although doesn't really build that much. We then have another verse and pre-chorus; the backing seems to be the same as before but her voice is stronger. This then runs into a shorter chorus than the one before. After this there is a bridge that feels like a much wordier verse but has a nice big note to end on. This then runs into the very last repeat of the chorus and finishes with the title of the song.
The song is in a similar genre to her previous songs with a slight Dua Lipa type feel to it. With this it has a bit of a retro 70s/80s disco vibes a la Dalida, Raffaella Carrà, Sheila B Devotion or Dihya. The repetition of the name of the song is well done, earwormy and is kind of unforgettable. The French vibes are evident but is not too in your face. The presentation was done via a lip synced video and this leaves some imagination as to how well this can be sung. Personally I find the sound production a bit flat and I hope she can really accentuate the words and harness her vocal power to make it a little less one-note energy-wise. The exaggerated nature of the chorus makes the title really stand out but the rest of the song feels quite unremarkable. Although this studio setup was good down the lens of the camera, one has to wonder what they have in store for a stage production. I am hoping the classy chanteuse feel will still be there but maybe with the addition of some dancers or cleverer camerawork.
If this song had won through a national final I would be suggesting lots of work to be done to the backing track to, again, make it much more immediate and punchy. I would also go so far as it say that the track doesn't develop anywhere near as much as it could go - I want more instrumentation, bigger drops and a much more compelling ending. However, as it this is an internal selection I very much doubt any of this is on the cards, unless they have a slew of remixes in the bag that could be whipped out before the declarations day mid-March having taken into account fan feedback. I feel like this is a definite effort from the French - something that is relevant, contemporary and fun - but this is no winner.
ARTIST - La Zarra
SONG - Évidemment
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Benny Adam, Banx & Ranx, La Zarra
No comments:
Post a Comment