France in the Eurovision Song Contest

Several French broadcasters have been used to present Eurovision in the country, formerly RTF (1956–1964), ORTF (1965–1974), TF1 (1975–1981) and Antenne 2 (1983–1992). Since 1993, France Télévisions has been responsible for France's participation in the contest, with the final being broadcast on France 2 (1993–98, 2015–present) and France 3 (1999–2014), and the semi-final which France votes in was broadcast on France 4 (2005–2010, 2016–19), later France Ô (2011–15) and since 2021, Culturebox [fr]. The semi-final in 2004 was not broadcast; viewers who were close enough to Monaco were able to watch that year's semi-final via TMC Monte-Carlo. Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year or since 2013, by France Inter from 1971 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2012, France Bleu (also in 1976). In 1982, RTL Radio transmitted the contest due to the country's absence that year.

France has often changed the selection process for the country's entry for the contest, with either a national final or an internal selection (occasionally a combination of both formats) having been held over the years.

France is one of the most successful countries in the Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second five times and coming third seven times. However, France has only hosted the Eurovision contest three times (1959, 1961, 1978).^[1] France was ranked first in number of victories (either alone or tied with other countries) without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. Moreover, Amina was close to victory with the song "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" in 1991, when she finished in joint first place (with the same number of points as Sweden). Therefore, the 'countback' rule applied, but both countries had an equal number of twelve points (four lots), but the victory went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-point scores. Today, with the new rules, France would have won the competition, because they received points from more countries than Sweden. One year before, France was also close to winning with Joëlle Ursull performing "White and Black Blues". The song finished in joint-second place with Ireland's entry.

However, in recent years, the French results have been mixed. Since 1998, when the televoting was introduced, France has almost always ranked in the bottom 10 countries in the final, coming 15th (2004), 16th (2019 and 2023), 18th (2003 and 2008), 19th (1999 and 2008), 22nd (2006, 2007 and 2012), 23rd (2000, 2005 and 2013), 24th (1998 and 2022), 25th (2015), and 26th (last place, for the first time in its Eurovision history) in 2014.

France has had some good results during the 21st century. In 2001, Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came fourth 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 fifth with "Il faut du temps" and received the Marcel Bezençon international press award for the best entry of that year. The positive experience with Sébastien Tellier in 2008 created considerable interest among the French showbiz for the contest, which resulted in Eurovision being seen by the French media as a valuable advertising campaign. With these ambitions, Patricia Kaas represented France in the 2009 contest with "Et s'il fallait le faire", finishing in eighth place. Kaas received the Marcel Bezençon artistic award, which was voted on by previous winners and presented to the best artist. In the 2016 contest, Amir with his song "J'ai cherché" ended in sixth place and broke a 40-year record by scoring the most points in France's Eurovision history, by scoring 257 points in the final. That record would later be broken once again in 2021, as Barbara Pravi with her song "Voilà" finished in second place with 499 points, France's best result since 1991, only 25 points behind eventual winners Måneskin from Italy.

Absences

Since their debut in 1956, France has only missed two contests, in 1974 and 1982. In 1974, after selecting a singer and song to represent them at the contest, France withdrew after the President of France Georges Pompidou died in the week of the contest.^[2] If they had participated, France would have been represented by Dani with the song "La Vie à vingt-cinq ans".

In November 1981, TF1 declined to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for 1982, with the head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, saying, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. Eurovision is a monument to inanity [sometimes translated as "drivel"]."^[3] Antenne 2 took over the job due to public reaction of TF1's withdrawal, hosting a national final to select their entry as well, from the 1983 contest.

Since 1999, France, along with Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, have automatically qualified for the Eurovision final regardless of their results in previous contests.^[4] These countries earned this special status by being the four biggest financial contributors to the EBU, and subsequently became known as the "Big Four". Italy returned to the contest in 2011, thus upgrading the countries to members of a "Big Five".^[5][6]

Marcel Bezençon Awards

Year	Category	Song	Composer(s) lyrics (l) / music (m)	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2002	Press Award	"Il faut du temps"	Rick Allison (m), Patrick Bruel (m&l), Marie-Florence Gros (l)	Sandrine François	5	104	Tallinn	[8]
2009	Artistic Award[c]	"Et s'il fallait le faire"	Anse Lazio, Fred Blondin	Patricia Kaas	8	107	Moscow	[9]
2011	Composer Award	"Sognu"	Daniel Moyne (m), Quentin Bachelet (m), Jean-Pierre Marcellesi (l), Julie Miller (l)	Amaury Vassili	15	82	Düsseldorf	[10]
2018	Press Award	"Mercy"	Émilie Satt (m&l), Jean-Karl Lucas (m&l)	Madame Monsieur	13	173	Lisbon	[11]
2021	Press Award Artistic Award[d]	"Voilà"	Barbara Pravi, Lili Poe, Igit (m&l)	Barbara Pravi	2	499	Rotterdam	[12]

Winner by OGAE members

Year	Song	Performer	Final	Points	Host city	Ref.
2016	"J'ai cherché"	Amir	6	257	Stockholm	[13]

Conductors

Year	Conductor[e]	Musical Director	Notes	Ref.
1956	Franck Pourcel	N/A		[14]
1957
1958
1959	Franck Pourcel		[f]
1960	Franck Pourcel	N/A
1961	Franck Pourcel		[g]
1962	Franck Pourcel	N/A
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968	Alain Goraguer
1969	Franck Pourcel
1970				[15]
1971
1972
1973	Jean Claudric
1974	Jean-Claude Petit		[h]
1975	Jean Musy
1976	Tony Rallo
1977	Raymond Donnez
1978	Alain Goraguer	François Rauber
1979	Guy Matteoni	N/A
1980	Sylvano Santorio		[i]	[16]
1981	David Sprinfield
1983	François Rauber
1984
1985	Michel Bernholc		[j]
1986	Jean-Claude Petit
1987
1988	Guy Matteoni
1989
1990	Régis Dupré
1991	Jérôme Pillement
1992	Magdi Vasco Noverraz
1993	Christian Cravero
1994	Alain Goraguer
1995	Michel Bernholc
1996	Fiachra Trench
1997	Régis Dupré
1998	Martin Koch		Host conductor[k]
1999	No orchestra		[l]
2000

Heads of delegation

Commentators and spokespersons

Since its debut in 1956, French broadcasters has sent commentators to provide coverage on the contest, including Robert Beauvais and Léon Zitrone. During the 1960s, its commentators was relayed in Luxembourg, Monaco, and French-speaking Switzerland.

• 
  André Claveau in Hilversum (1958)
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  Guy Mardel in Naples (1965)
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  Dan Ar Braz in Oslo (1996)
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  Jonatan Cerrada in Istanbul (2004)
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  Les Fatals Picards in Helsinki (2007)
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  Sébastien Tellier in Belgrade (2008)
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  Patricia Kaas in Moscow (2009)
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  Jessy Matador in Oslo (2010)
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  Amaury Vassili in Düsseldorf (2011)
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  Anggun in Baku (2012)
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  Amandine Bourgeois in Malmö (2013)
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  Twin Twin in Copenhagen (2014)
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  Lisa Angell in Vienna (2015)
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  Amir in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  Alma in Kyiv (2017)
• 
  Madame Monsieur in Lisbon (2018)
• 
  Bilal Hassani in Tel Aviv (2019)
• 
  La Zarra in Liverpool (2023)

• France in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
• France in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• France in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.