Contest History
France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second four times and coming third seven times. France was ranked first in number of victories (either alone or tied with other countries) without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. More over, Amina was close to win with the song "Le Dernier qui a parlé..." in 1991, when she finished at the same points as Sweden. Both countries had an equal number of twelve points, but the profits went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-points. Today, with the new rules, France would have won the competition, because they got points out of more countries than Sweden. One year before, France was also close to win, when Joëlle Ursull performed Serge Gainsbourg's song "White and Black Blues". The song came second.
However, in recent years, the French results have been somewhat disappointing. Since 1998, when the televoting was invented, France has almost always been in the bottom-10 countries in the final, coming 18th (2003 and 2008), 19th (1999), 22nd (2006, 2007 and 2012), 23rd (2000 and 2005) and 24th (1998). Despite this France has never come last in the contest since their debut.
Yet, France have had some good results during the 21st century. In 2001, Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came 4th for France with her song "Je n'ai que mon âme", being the favourite to win the contest by fans and odds. This good result was carried into the 2002 contest, when Sandrine François came 5th with "Il faut du temps" and received the international press award for the best song and performance. Finally, the positive experience with Sébastien Tellier in 2008 created considerable interest among the French show business for the contest, which resulted in the fact that Eurovision is seen now in the French media as a great advertising campaign and it has been decided that big names will represent France in the future. With these ambitions, the French superstar Patricia Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia. Kaas is one of the most successful French-speaking singers in the world and she has sold over 16 million records worldwide. She ended in 8th place and as in 2002, she received the international press award for the best song and performance.
Read more about this topic: France In The Eurovision Song Contest
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