France – Nine acts taking part in the French national final called Destination Eurovision will part in the first semi-final, which was recorded earlier this week. A 100% jury deicision will pick the four that will qualify to the final! The show starts at 9 pm.
The show will be presented by Franco-canadian singer Garou. The French jury is composed by Franco-canadian singer Isabelle Boulay, French Idol winner Christophe Wilem and the French artist at Eurovision 2016 Amir! They will all sing an Eurovision entry to begin the semi. An interval act will also feature Amir’s new song.
Each artist gets a short presentation video, then sings a snippet of a cult classic (we’ll hear songs by Michael Jackson, France Gall, Johnny Halliday, Patrice Bruel, Cyndi Lauper or London Grammar), then we get a second video to present the writing team behind the song (or in some cases when the artist also wrote the song, the story behind the writing) and then finally the full song! The songs are all performed in the live condition. However, the final, on January 27th will be 100% live and televote will replace the French jury. The semifinals, pre-recorded earlier this week, are 100% jury. With the French jury, the head of delegations of Sweden, Belarus and Italy will also vote. They give 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12pts to their Top 6 out of the 9 songs. The top 4 qualifies.
Tonight line-up is:
- Masoe – “Paradis” (You Rock My Mind)” (Dany Synthé, Jonah & Masoé / Hope)
- Noée – “L’Un Près De l’Autre” (Jules Jaconelli & Mélanie Di Petrantonio / Barbara Pravi & Tomislav Matosin)
- Lisandro Cuxi – “Eva” (Felipe Saldivia, Fred Savio & Tristan Salvati)
- Malo – “Ciao” (Malory Legardinier)
- Emmy Liyana – “OK ou KO” (Zazie, Olivier Schultheis, Jean-Pierre Pilot & William Rousseau)
- Enea – “I’ll Be There” (Emilie Satt & Sonia Boraso / Allyson Ezell & High P)
- Pheno Men – “Jamais Sans Toi” (Gabin Lesieur & Pheno Men / Kim Worthy)
- Louka – “Mamma Mia” (Maître Gims, Vitaa, Renaud Rebillaud & Louka)
- Ehla – “J’ai Cru” (Ehla & High P / Ehla, Grand Corps Malade & High P)
The Eurovision Times 
The French favor Ehla and Malo instead of the walz and Emmy.
Noée is way too cliché France for a Frenchman, when the foreign juries would favor it (like Alma last year)
I was sure Christophe would give 12 to Malo! :)
I hope Amir won’t help Louka qualify instead of Ehla
And he did it!Stupid!
Ehla was a more daring and interesting finalist, over Louka who’s only there to make girls televote for him… so freaking annoying!
It was a weak live.No way justifying his 10 pts.
to be “sadly” fair, Louka’s song is more what the French radio play than Ehla’s song so it makes sense… but it sucks that the jury wouldnt have Ehla in the top 4! for 2pts!
yeah, that annoyed the hell out of me :/
He just did exactly that. LOL
Stupid decision.
3/4 I think that the international juries supported Noée because her song sounded very French to them whereas it just sounded like another song to the French jury.
Actually the french reason did not vote for it for exactly that reason. But they did not mind pushing Louka and almost Ehla into the top-4 because of who the songwriters are…
I don’t think it’s necessarily true.2 of them gave very similar votes ignoring Louka while Amir gave him 10 pts for a weak live.
* the french did not vote for it exactly because it sounded “french”
which is dumb, coz very French would work in esc, as seen as Noée’s result in international juries or Alma’s televote last year! Amir knew that and gave her 6pts but that wasnt enough as Isabelle and Christophe gave pts to Masoe’s “Paradise” instead of her…
Exactly. But what riles me is their favouritism to the “big beasts” they invited only to bring mediocre songs.
well Zazie is big and wrote Emmy’s song and they didn’t support her that much, not to mention Lisandro’s team isnt huge, Lisandro is popular though
I watched French twitter all night, and it’s definitely between Lisandro and Emmy there, then Malo, then the French didn’t care much for the other 6
It’s good that viewers agree with the result then. I did not listen to anything that could bring France higher then in the previous two years though…Waiting for next Saturday :)
What worries me a lot is the story or narrative connected to Lisandro. That mother and back to my birthplace thing. That might push him in France but nobody has ever cared for stuff like that in ESC because most people simply don’t know about it. Some people seem to think of ESC as a casting show where such a strategy always helps but luckily ESC isn’t a casting show. :)
Wow a clear win for Lisandro, I expected it to be closer.
The french jury pushed Louka’s and Ehla’s songs simply because of their famous songwriters…
Overall good results. I just would’ve preferred if Emmy won :/ and I would have switched Ja’i cru with ‘Mama mia’. Thanks Amir lol.
Worst possible votes by Amir….
with only fucking 2 to “Ciao” when both Isabelle and Christophe had it at 12!!!
The result is okay. Only Louka should work on himself till the final.
Seriously now…
Damn, Ehla lost at the last vote, what was Amir thinking ??
I’m obviously not in contact with anything music-wise :)
Igit to Lisbon!
Goodnight, everyone!
Here’s my ranking for this semi:
1. Malo – Ciao
2. Emmy Liyana – OK ou KO
3. Ehla – J’ai crû
4. Lisandro Cuxi – Eva
5. Masoe – Paradise
6. Noée – L’un près de l’autre
7. Louka – Mamma mia
8. PhénoMen – Jamais sans toi
9. Enea – I’ll be there
Don’t forget, the last two entries chsoen in a French NF are Fatals Picards and Twin Twin… it was a long way until we got a half decent show like this one, with imo two great entries that’ll mark this year’s nf season, in Ciao and Ok Ou Ko!
Judging by the overall results, the spoilers that I saw are correct.
They are, I knew it, but hey… shush ;)
Noée instead of Louka and I would’ve been happy. Now I’m very eager to watch the second semi. Igit and Nassi to the final!
I reckon it’ll be between Nassi and Lisandro in the final
I could live with both. Slight preference of Nassi at the moment. In the end it will depend on the live performances.
YES! Yes! Ouais!
This was the best case scenario for the final, and I’m so happy Lisandro won by that much, he blew me away!
The 4 finalists were the best case scenarios, and I agree with the points all around.
Very nice show, lovely graphics and identity and great system of point giving, emphasis on the 12s. Overall I loved it!
Glad to hear a positive feedback! It’s a very new approach for France, not sure how it’ll turn out ;)
Sure it can use one or two fixes there, but for what it was, I enjoyed it a ton. Lisandro, Louka and Emmy were immediate attention callers, with Lisandro being close to perfect. I didn’t enjoy Malo as much, but I recognized he had the goods. Kind of a weird, high nasal voice that reminds me of Adam Levine and performance wise was… weird. Not putoff-ingly so.
I enjoyed the show too. I hope our German one will be at least as good. It was nice to see that the cover songs were just brief to introduce the candidates and that the emphasis was on the ESC song. :)
Things did not go well NF-wise here in LuBu today. I had the family over for dinner and my mother and my sister got into a fight. My mother loves Elton and my sister can’t stand the sight of him … LOL
Totally forgot about this one and it seems I missed it..oh well. Good luck to all participants and congratulations to the qualifiers.
Hmmmm I got 2 out of 4…I’m afraid seeing that Emmy Liana is second even with the jury in the semi…televote then will hardly back her.. :(
Loosing Emmy Liana will be a HUGE disappointment for me..
I am back again. I’ve just read the final results on ESC Portugal. Congratulations to the 4 finalists. :)
Without the French jury in the Final, Malo seems to be in trouble. Lisandro not as much as he was a pleaser all around
The televote will be between Lisandro and Nassi I reckon, the portuguese and maghrebin communities are the biggest here too
Quite. My interest in this NF has dwindled, malheureusement.
LISandro to LISsabon? Hm… seems just too obvious. XD
He can meet Lissabjörn there … :)
That would be cool. :-D
won’t be mad :)
Here’s hoping Nassi’s song is a killer.
Noée is not in the final and all the pretty faces who may or may not sing well are. Not a good start.
Noée had a pretty face too, and Masoe or Ehla who were pretty did not Q… let’s not kid ourselves, Fr2 only picked young hot new comers, that was the common point between all artists!
Not colourful enough. The results are predictable and ludicrous. That Louka fellow was horrible live. One hopes for better stuff next week.
Hm. Still disagree, Enea and PhenoMen were colourful, happy-go-lucky, and both finished last with nil points too!
No, they were not. They dod not look young and fresh. They did not deserve to qualify, imo, but this jury is acting foolishly.
Anyway, the biggest problem with the French NF is that 100% televote final – I suspect France will pay dearly for that mistake.
The final isn’t 100% televote? Isn’t it 50% international jury 50% televote?
I almost sure it’s a 100% televote affair.
I looked it up and international juries representing Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland will also be voting.
Good for France, then. :)
It’s split between televoters and international juries who seemed to favor Emmy and Lisandro in this semi.
Thanks. I hope that the next semis have better songs than the ones sung by Lisandro and Emmy who deserved better ones.
Aren’t you satisfied with Emmy?? :O
I love her voice, but the song comes across as forced and unmelodic. I much prefer Amandine’s.
I seriously think if she takes trophy that would be the best thing that happened to ESC since Loic Nottet from Belgium.. in that modern way…
Salvador Sobral is different league, different approach..
We’re getting ahead of ourselves, there are still a semi final to be heard, so to speak.
True…but I haven’t seen such a style as Emmy’s in ESC since I don’t remember… she is BRILLIANT for ESC…her outfit is the best outfit..
I watched Malo’s live performance and damn he is so cute lol
On the qualifiers:
Emmy – the bandwagon can be found in LuBu. :) <3
Malo – different and right up my alley but the vocals left a lot to be desired
Lisandro – he is a fine singer and a good performer but his song does absolutely nothing for me. Perhaps I am growing old …
Louka – toddle off!!!
I’ll probably be the only one not joining that bandwagon. :) Noée had the best song here and the one that could have brought a better result in Lisbon. I am waiting for the next semis.
I really liked Noée’s song too but at the end of the day it was just another beautiful French song like thousands of others. As I said above: It might sound intreaguing to foreign ears who do not hear songs like that every day but it probably sounded totally been there done that to French ears. This is reflected in the int. vs nat. juries points too.
The bandwagon will be packed anyway and crash on the day of the French final. It is probably wise to steer clear … :)
NO! Please don’t kill my hopes!! Be positive, PLEASE! Thanks!
:D
I am always positive. Hope dies last …
I have just remembered that you LOVE France 1998, just like I do…black women with very short hair are fantastic for France <3 LOL "Où aller" is on of the best ESC entries EVER!
LOL There is still a long way to go. There may be hidden gems in the next semis. On Noée, that song woud do well on an ESC stage; if France sends some americanized/anglo-saxonized song even if sung by a good singer, its chances of doing well will be worse. What’s even worse, how the heck does a professional jury leaves Noée behind and goes for Louka in stead? Ridiculous.
I think that Noée would have done a Lisa Angell. :(
Lisa Angell had one problem – she looked old.
Well, the adoration of youth certainly is a factor. It wasn’t back then when the Olson Brothers won …
Things change in 17 years. We live in a youth-obsessed culture. Anyway, these are still early days. Much water will pass under the bridge til May.
Regardless of her chances in Lissabon Noée really should have gone to the final instead of Louka. And Emmys song reminded me slightly of ‘L’enfer et moi’. That didn’t end well in Eurovision either. Malo’ is extraordinaire but Lisandro really is the best bet for France in Lissabon till now.
Agreed and signed.
Don’t worry, I’m not on the bandwagon either
I’ve just read some of the comments on Wiwi. Someone wrote there was nothing fresh on offer in this semi. I agree. There is still a long way to go though.
Masoe: Disappointing. And I was so mad cuz I had his snippet on my head for days now. Not only a weak live, but also weak verses. It died on stage :?
Noée: Very France from the 60s. Beautiful woman, beautiful voice and presence. But for me… it wasn’t enough. It needed more to stand out.
Lisandro: Perfect. The underlying beats in there are very much my sound, the voice and the big WOW moment blew me away! This might win and I am all for it!
Malo’: (first of all, random ‘ is random). For me he tried to emulate Salvador the most out of all acts I’ve seen. His voice is very weird, the movements are unusual, but he has fun and charisma to carry it. It’s not my cup of tea, but the song is strong enough to warrant the praise. Vocals are very… Adam Levine, high and nasal.
Emmy: FORCE. Very strong presence and song. For me… it takes a little too long to get started, but glad to see it was much stronger than the snippet let us see. Deserved.
Enéa: Sadly, the weakest of the bunch. Light and breezy, but vocals were not up the par and there was a lack of connection with the audience, I feel she was nervous.
Pheno Men: This needed to be performed at a 10/10, but wasn’t. It was somewhat… clumsy and lacked the hook of Motown to impress. Also, the most odd choice of a cover song.
Louka: Ed Sheeran by the tons. Needs to improve a bit, but the cover let us show he can sing. Very dangerous earworm, telegenic, charismatic, and pretty unique
Ehla: Visual identity was a 10/10, but I agreed. It was a great French song, but for the contest… it needed more. Very well done and deserved high score.