Eurovision 2012 Countdown: The "Divine" France

 Hello! Bonjour et bienvenue à mon blog!

 I will have to try to avoid getting carried away and doing this whole entry in French! I love the French language so much... It is so incredibly beautiful. And today I am blogging about France, and their Eurovision exploits.

 I was all ready to write about France Gall on here; she is a French singer whose song, "Ella Elle L'a" is one of my favourite French songs. I had known she won Eurovision; however on researching it I discovered she actually won the contest representing Luxembourg, and not France.

 However, this is my blog and if I say France Gall can be in it, France Gall can be in it! Here is Ella Elle L'a - not what she won Eurovision with, but such an incredible song. And she is a French Eurovision winner... she just didn't win it for France. Hmm. Don't know whether she should be in this blog entry, but here she is.

 Now, onto people who represented France itself. First up, Les Fatals Picards. If you are wondering what a picard is, it is someone from the Picardy region in the north of France. 

 They represented France in Eurovision 2007 in Helsinki - the year of Krisse, as I shall forever know it. Their song was called, "L'amour à la française," although I only found that out the other day, having always known it as, "that French song with that guy who looks like Richard O'Brien running round the stage with a stuffed cat on his shoulder."

 Here it is:

 I hadn't remembered it being in a mix of English and French; I had remembered it being completely in French. At first the "Franglais" was a bit off-putting, but then I came to quite like it. It's certainly something different, and the fact that they can jump straight from one language to the other in the same sentence is quite impressive and I don't know if I'd be able to do it without a lot of practice.

 It's a really catchy song, and you just have to smile when he's doing his, "Je cours, je cours..." ("I run, I run...") thing around the stage. There's something very likeable about this lot, and I may have a listen to some more of their music.

 The next year in 2008 France was represented by Jarvis Cocker, sorry, Sébastien Tellier, with "Divine," which in France caused controversy for being largely in English. I would have preferred it to have been in French because I love the language. But it still sounds amazing as it is.

 There are so many things that are great about this performance: his backing singers all disguised as him; his arrival in a golf buggy; his performance, his voice, the song, the eclipse. I love it all. It came joint eighteenth in the competition, and I think it should have been a lot higher - top five at least. It's a classic Eurovision song.

 The final French Eurovision song I wanted to share with you is their 2010 entry, "Allez Ola Olé!" by Jessy Matador.

 I love this: bouncy, happy, and you can totally dance to it. I love the energy of all the performers, and the way they are clearly really enjoying singing the song. There were many brilliant songs in Oslo 2010, but this was one of the very best. This came twelfth in the competition and I think it should have finished a bit higher. 

 I also wish the female singer was credited alongside Jessy Matador as I think she adds a lot to the song.

 I feel that France have a good track record at Eurovison, and I'm sure they're going to enjoy a lot more success dans l'avenir (in the future).

 Thanks for reading.

 Liz x

Songs: Ella Elle L'a - France Gall - 1987

L'amour à la française - Les Fatals Picards - 2007

Divine - Sébastien Tellier - 2008

Allez Ola Olé - Jessy Matador - 2010