France FRANCE 2024 - Slimane - Mon amour

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[soulm8]

As I wrote in the Swiss thread, France is adjusting its aim. Through thick and thin, he is bringing solid music, staging concepts and performers. In the short term he will win again. Because mostly the winners are those who manage to have an oven that churns out more tasty baguettes rather than one that churns out one every now and then. Their musical panorama is reactivating and after Slimane's good positioning other great artists will approach the ESC. Historically, France is among the nations with the broadest musical background: from ballad to urban to disco. It has solid roots. Furthermore, many do not think about it, from 2024 it can again enjoy its almost complete block: Belgium, Switzerland and now Luxembourg. If the Principality of Monaco also enters, it will be able to have a good haul of jury/televoting points.

Regarding Slimane I must say that... the jury and the lack of ballad competitors helped him a lot. On the interpretative side and on the sweet and medium level singing it was ok. However, when he opened his throat due to the emotional scream, his voice lost its stability and risked going out of tune. His clever move of moving away from the microphone during the emotional scream, giving the false impression that he wanted to sing acappella, allowed him to mitigate the problems he had during rehearsals. In my opinion he and "Mon Amour" in 2024 were very overrated. The French song itself was structurally weak and full of clichés. Well done to France for focusing on a ballad in a noisy edition like this. Whether they realized it after the success of Käärijää or it was a coincidence, it worked.

Will we be able to see France bring an urban theme, where they are among the best, to the ESC sooner or later?

I disagree. I believe the jury actually ruined his chances, he got even better televote score than the winner himself.

 

[gigi_copp3]

France should stick on sending simple entries, that's what the public wants from them

 

[Paco Roca]

I disagree. I believe the jury actually ruined his chances, he got even better televote score than the winner himself.

It was inevitable. The juries had no alternatives. They had to stem the Israeli political vote and the Ukrainian diaspora. However, Slimane received excellent acclaim. A better position than the one obtained was too much: vocally he wasn't convincing and the song was nothing sensational. I'd say it went well for him.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

I'm happy for Slimane. It's a strong result and maybe it will encourage other big names in France to compete. Well done.

 

[Flamenkax]

Will we be able to see France bring an urban theme, where they are among the best, to the ESC sooner or later?

As long as we'll have Redde-Amiel as HOD, i wouldn't expect this tbh.

As for the whole thing, i didn't like the song but as expected, he knew how to sell this thanks to his voice and his charisma. With another singer, i'm not sure the song would've gone this far tbh. But yeah we can be quite proud of him as representant. He looks totally fine with the fourth place and i think he really liked the experience. For a popular singer from here i can tell, it means A LOT, and yes, maybe this could be the turning point for other heavy hitters to come next years.

 

[HayashiM]

So, were are all the persons who were sooo sure that he would bomb in the televote?? I can only say: Mon amour, you have absolutely no idea!!

That would be me when I first heard the song. I was completely wrong, the live version was pretty awesome.

 

[ESC94]

That would be me when I first heard the song. I was completely wrong, the live version was pretty awesome.

It´s never too late to acknowledge you´re wrong.

 

[soulm8]

No, no! I actually can’t… I’m watching people reacting to the performances from last night… and every time it is France - I start crying while watching. This man has unbelievable energy, leave alone the song, he is beyond special. It is officially my number one artist I’ve ever discovered in this contest. I know I sound overdramatic, but this is the truth. Since the rehearsals started, Slimane is always singing on my phone and TV. Thank you, France! I was actually extremely happy with his result, but with every watch I think he truly deserved to win! Je t'aime, Slimane, merci pour les émotions !

 

[Lumina]

Tali & Slimane performing a mash-up of Fighter and Mon Amour! That’s so sweet!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6yeIf9tBwJ/?igsh=dDJleXJwMWxoZXBn

 

[ViVillRejv]

I wish for France to stop sending Chanson now... This was a nice result but I want to see French rock (I absolutely love the band Indochine), metal or Indie or something... The francophone world has a thriving music scene.

 

[DirtyFalcon]

I totally agree with Flamenkax when he says this result can be a turning point for us. 2 top 5 in ESC and 3 wins in JESC in only 4 years is very positive. The french fan have a love-hate relationship with our HoD but forced to admit she has very good results so far. This result with Slimane can encourage big artists to participate or encourage our HoD to be more ambitious with a national selection and a better one than CVQD

 

[Sammy]

I wish for France to stop sending Chanson now... This was a nice result but I want to see French rock (I absolutely love the band Indochine), metal or Indie or something... The francophone world has a thriving music scene.

Yes. They also could go in the direction of Nassi or Maître Gims. I‘d love that!!

 

[Celka]

France should stick on sending simple entries, that's what the public wants from them

I feel like this strategy seems to be working even though I absolutely hate it.

It was painful to come back to work yesterday (I don’t live in France) and have my colleagues said they absolutely loved the French entry.

I can agree that he is strong vocally (even though Saturday was not his best performance), but why can’t we send something that has a little more substance lyrics-wise?

“Mon amour” is full of stereotypes, it’s so cringe to listen to when you actually understand French. I guess in a sense it answers the expectations other countries have for France.

Would love to see another genre chosen as the next entry, but I feel like this will not happen in the near future. Hopefully they send a fully-fledged song. Would be curious how someone like Hoshi would score in the board

 

[soulm8]

I feel like this strategy seems to be working even though I absolutely hate it.

It was painful to come back to work yesterday (I don’t live in France) and have my colleagues said they absolutely loved the French entry.

I can agree that he is strong vocally (even though Saturday was not his best performance), but why can’t we send something that has a little more substance lyrics-wise?

“Mon amour” is full of stereotypes, it’s so cringe to listen to when you actually understand French. I guess in a sense it answers the expectations other countries have for France.

Would love to see another genre chosen as the next entry, but I feel like this will not happen in the near future. Hopefully they send a fully-fledged song. Would be curious how someone like Hoshi would score in the board

This is a live contest. Artists perform. And Slimane is a true artist. You can give him 3 words to repeat over and over again and I will still cry watching him perform live! People need to understand that the connection you make with the public matters big time, this was a Political tele voting otherwise France would make it in top 2 in the Final tele voting! He was sensational, all my friends from Bulgaria who watched the contest mentioned him as their favorite or at least top 3.

 

[DirtyFalcon]

Barbara Pravi and Slimane are charismatic and compelling live performers so they were able to massively elevate their entries during the night and create a connection with the audience. But we also sent french ballads in the past who flopped as well so its not a recipe for success. The requirement for french ballads to work well at Eurovision : Being performed by a compelling performer. If not, then they could get completely lost on a field of 26 entries and forgettable. I dont want us to be stuck on ballads unless you have a very strong artist live.

Im not that surprised Slimane did so well in the televote. He's more than only a great vocalist and people tend to forget this.

 

[Edweis]

Would love to see another genre chosen as the next entry, but I feel like this will not happen in the near future. Hopefully they send a fully-fledged song. Would be curious how someone like Hoshi would score in the board

Hoshi would probably land in the second half of the televote ranking. She has a slightly raspy tone that might be not appreciated by the public. No idea about jury.

I'm not surprised at all that Slimane did well in televote. Aside from what has been already said about foreigners' love for French ballads, let's not forget he won The Voice. He's obviously appealing in the eye of the public.

It doesn't change the fact that the lyrics legit make me uncomfortable though, I still can't take the song seriously. Unfortunately, I can't ignore them and they totally kill any sympathy I could have for this entry.

 

[Lumina]

I think it's because most people don't speak French enough to understand more than some words. If the song was in English, people would strongly dislike it, label it as cliché and basic. Kinda what Tom Leeb did. FORTUNATELY they didn't because the lyrics, who are indeed a bit basic, don't do the song justice. It's SO NICE, I love it! It was one of my favourites right from the beginning. I am so happy for him because honestly, I did think he would end up much lower in the public vote. Glad he didn't.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Fulenn wasn't a ballad, and it flopped

 

[Sammy]

Just a little notice: I do understand french and I still loved this a lot.
Yes, the lyrics are simple and there are a lot of clichés.
On the other hand, simple lyrics can also be meaningful. And that’s the case here. They are telling a basic story, but in an effective way.
I still prefer this to lyrics that are just there to be sung or to rime. Or lyrics were people squeeze out a deeper meaning that simply isn’t there just to have a story to tell at the press conference.

 

[Celka]

Fulenn wasn't a ballad, and it flopped

People are probably influenced by their expectations when it comes to entries. And Fulenn is definitely not what people expect a French entry to be. Yes it’s not a ballad, but I don’t think it’s the only reason it failed so hard.

- It’s not the most compelling techno-folk song I have ever heard. I can’t exactly define it, but it feels like the song lacks something, cohesion?
- It’s not in French. I am not sure how aware the rest of Europe is that there is a part of France that has a Celtic dialect / folklore. If you’re expecting to hear romantic French (or whatever people feel French sounds like), you might be disappointed?
- It went in the beginning of the grand finale and was not a memorable enough entry (Songs that run early in the evening are statistically likely to underperform.)

But I think what’s more important is the live preformance: poor staging, shabby vocals, weird camera work, and a song that ends being too different from the tapped version

Sadly, it really stands out when you compare performances when sending ballads and it might be a while before France tries to send something different again

PS: This is a deep dive analysis of why a song sent by France that I liked (for once) performed so poorly. I needed to find reasons for it haha