Every year, singers perform during Eurovision. France haven’t won it for 40 years, and sometimes it would have been “voluntary”.
There France has won Eurovision 5 times. André Claveau in 1958, Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, Isabelle Aubret in 1962, Frida Boccara in 1969 (with 3 other countries ex-aequo) and Marie Myriam in 1977. In 2023, it is the singer La Zarra who represents France in the competition of Eurovision. She will perform on stage the title specially written for the occasion: the song Evidemment. And with the latter, she hopes to take first place. But is his victory desired by everyone on the side of the organization? Indeed, theformer program director of France 2 Yves Bigot made amazing secrets about Eurovision on the set of C Médiatique on Sunday May 7. According to him, there were instructions on not winning the contest.
He indeed explained that he had officially “order to lose” by relating in particular to the Parisian an anecdote which occurred in 1999. “I was on France 2 at the time. Right away, I had the idea of contacting my friend Jean-Patrick Capdevielle who was producing a girl called Emma Shapplin… She had an opera singer side with an incredible look, half sadomasochistic, half -medieval, perfect for Eurovision. I said to myself: I have a one in two chance of winning.” When he expressed his enthusiasm for the president of France Television at the time, Xavier Gouyou-Beauchampshe understood his mistake: “He asked me ‘So how does Eurovision look?’ I answer him: ‘We are going to win, president’. And there, he adds ‘Above all, don’t do that!”.
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Why France had an interest in losing Eurovision?
You are probably wondering why would a country want to lose this international singing competition. The explanation is quite simply financial, as Yves Bigot points out on the set of C Médiatique. “The problem is that if you win, it’s you who organize the following year, that’s 20 to 25 million euros… So the channels don’t have that money. Except in small countries, where then it is the tourist office or the Ministry of Tourism, which finances.” As a result, some countries whose finances are in the red sometimes choose not to participate one or more years. Yves Bigot was also at the head of RTBF and gives this glaring example: after Belgium’s victory with Sandra Kim in 1996, RTBF would have been “forced to lay off 2000 people”. Today, however, the fear of winning is no longer relevant in France. Will the Zarra be the 6th French victory at Eurovision? Reply on May 13.