France – Two days ago Anggun was announced to be France’s representative at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Baku. Since then many articles and editorials have been written, comments were tweeted on twitter and Anggun herself, her label and France 3 have commented the choice . What do French journalists and music lovers think? Is Anggun the right choice for France?.
FranceSoir.fr starts its article entitled “Anggun, the last chance?” by enumerating all supposedly failures of the Grand Nation in recent years. Ranging from disappointment about the bad placing of last year’s supposed favourite Amaury Vassili to dispair about Patricia Kaas’ inability to activate the Eastern European vote despite her popularity in that region. The journalist is quite pessimistic about Anggun’s chance to change these disappointing Eurovision results. He thinks the choice was not evident but points out that the strategy has not been determined yet. The journalist thinks that singing in English and thus breaking a French tradition would significantly improve Anggun’s chances.
Marie-Laure Combes writes for Europe1 that Anggun can actually win the competition. “Anggun can win…yes she can!” is the title of her article and she is certain that Anggun’s song for Eurovision which still has to be written will be more “comprehensible” to the general audience than last year’s Sognu was. Comparing her to other former French entrants she suggests that Anggun is more popular abroad than Jessy Matador, more beautiful than Sebastian Tellier, more experienced than Virginie Pouchain and more engaged in charity than Les Fatals Picards. Will that be enough to achieve a victory for France for the first time since 1977?
Paris Match also starts by listing the recent French “failures” and by basically blaming Eastern Europe and block voting for the bad results (c’est pas trop gentil, hein?). They are quite enthusiastic about Anggun however, calling her a choice of “exotic charm” and praising her “velvet voice”. They also praise her internationallity as she records her albums in French, English and Indonesian which according to Paris Match may be an advantage at the Eurovision Song Contest. The fact that Anggun has sung many scores for films and has collaborated with known artist like Céline Dion and Peter Gabriel might help Anggun as her voice will thus be familiar to some voters.
Read the INTERVIEW with Anggun!
On twitter the opinions are less embracing. “Anggun will represent France this year… ah well, that means we won’t win for another year,” tweeted Johan from Nantes. This opinion dominates on the social media network with others saying that the choice is a premonition for another “bad result” “embarrassment” or “failure“.Others praise Angguns “great vocals” which will give France “a big advantage in the competition”. Maureen Crow thinks that Anggun representing France is a sign that the country is “in depression”. La mouche qui pique criticizes France 3′s choice calling it “cheap” . “Anggun for Eurovision… can I laugh now or should I wait for later” is another pessimistic tweet.
Several blogs of sympathizer’s France’s right-wing and anti-immigration party “Le Front National” and other anti-immigration blogs have reported about the choice quoting Anggun’s statement that she “certainly represent[s] modern France, made out of many different colors” in the titles.
Marie-Claire Mezerette, head of entertainment at France3 told Le Parisien: “To be honest, we have been thinking about her for a long time. Last year we were hesitating between her and Amaury Vassili.If we want to win, our candidate has to be liked by other countries. Anggun is not only popular in France but also in other countries. Furthermore she’s engaged with humanitarian efforts. She emanates real kindness.”
Antoine Gouiffes-Yan, marketing director at Angguns label Warner told the newspaper that “Her first album sold more than one and a half million copies abroad and all her other have been certified platinum or gold. Her best field is export!“ .
“It’s really an immense honor,” Anggun herself told the newspaper Le Parisien yesterday. “It’s a nice present for me, who is of Indonesian origin, but naturalized French since 2000. I symbolize without doubt the France of today, made of many cultures. Your country has given me a beautiful language. I live in Paris, am married to a French man, my daughter Kirana is French and I eat as much rice as I eat cheese.” Concerning Eurovision she added: “Here, we have the image of Eurovision in the 70s and 80s, a bit stiff. But it is a super American-style show which is important for a lot of people, notably in Eastern Europe. Over there they talked to me a lot about Patricia Kaas’ participation in 2009. Secretly we all want to win and I will go their to make France shine.”
What do you think? Will Anggun make France proud in Baku?
Read the INTERVIEW with Anggun!
Have your say:
See all participants of Eurovision 2012, Angguns competitors!
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Let’s hear the song first, then I will tell you if she was the perfect choice for France or not
She is quite popular outside of France. Give her right song…I am sure she can win. With dark voice & great attitude also sensual no doubt at least Top 5. I saw from youtube her live perfomance great as hear on her cd. World music more suittable with her voice. back to 1997 she popular also in part of USA. I saw her perfomance in 54th NYC.
It was clear that the front national would say something stupid.. they don’t say anything but to quote her like that is enough for me… disgusting!
Every year it’s the same thing here: people hate our candidate and are sure we can’t win (because block voting, bad choices by Fr3, etc.) but the Internet is way more enthusiast. I went to esctoday and many other blogs, and the overall comments are extremely in favor of Anggun, here as well. Of course, Vasili’s topping the bookmaker and finishing 15th with 82pts (same amount than Jessy) made people extremely mad and sad here, but Anggun might live a different outcome (and it’s not because we’re a Big 5 that it’s impossible). If you ask a frenchman, he will say that France is always last. But not only France has never been last, but it’s true we’ve been often very close (98-00 and 05-07) but since Tellier and the new internal selection format, we’ve done quite well (at least in my book)
I have high hopes … but there isn’t anything to say really until we know the song.
Except … bonne chance of course.
i agree with roselildk, people should wait until they hear the song before they start to judge. in my opinion France has sent great singers in the last 3 years.
@ Roselil
Hahhahahah Lina called you RoseliN on esctoday!! hahahaha
Lina legend!!
hahahah Marko, she always do that and I dont know why.. maybe she has problem with reading names
come on…France thinks that they can win eurovision with a well-known singers singing in their native language….this is the mistake!Furthermore,France has no alies in eurovision anymore,we all know it….And like always some say wow!we will win!that’s sure or other say not win sure,failure…Guys you haven’t heard the song yet!A name means nothing!I have been commenting in many sites about Blue last year and writting the same thing like above;you haven’t heard the song yet!Actually,i was sure that Blue would fail cause they were a 4-member group singing a dance pop song that could not support this song (since it is allowed up to 6 persons to be on stage)….
do you really think Germany (last in esc 08) had many allies when they won 2010 and beat Turkey in second place, who has much more esc allies, starting with Germany itself?
dito!
Yes you are absolutely right for Germany…but how Russia won in 2008 (this year failed)?or how did Serbia didin 2007?or do you think that it’s doesn’t matter if you have allies or not…
Serbia has as much allies as Ukraine and Russia even Turkey who came 2nd, 3rd and 4th in 2007. The fact Serbia won over these other three is not because of allies, but because people liked it better.
Same goes for Russia 2008 in comparison to Ukraine, Greece or Armenia, its 2nd, 3rd and 4th who all have huge allies. Why did Russia win? It got more points overall, from allies AND from other countries.
Almost no esc winners had many zeros: they just got most points from everyone, allies as well as others. And it’s not enough to have allies, Turkey, Armenia in 2011, or Serbia which you quote in 2007 failed to qualify in 2009!
Sweden giving Bosnia 10pts in 2008, is that political ally or just Swedish people liking such type of music?
you said it yourself…all these countries finished in top5 cause they have allies… people likes france this year a lot,but can you remind me in which place Amaury finished?or tell me the same about Cyprus 2007?etc…i am not going to answer you cause you are too stuborn,sorry.i hate this behavior that every one tries here to prove that what he says is right…have a nice evening
I don’t think I was too stuborn: as you said these countries finished in the top 5 because they have allies BUT that’s not what I was debating you for. You said France can not win because it does not have allies and I strongly disagree: did Finland really win in 2006 because of allies? really? The winner wins because it has the most votes from all over Europe and even countries with poor allies like Finland or Germany can win, the fact is, they won. Do not confuse doing well and winning.
ANGGUN will definitely make France shine in Eurovision 2012! I totally disagree to those people saying that anggun is not the perfect candidate just bcause she’s not a French by born. Her popularity is not limited in France but in other countries around the world even in the USA.
C’mon guys give her a chance and she will prove it to the world!
anggun I like you, because you from Indonesia.
Anggun I Bilieve You.
I’d vote for France if I like the song, I wish them good luck from the UK