France were one of Eurovision's most successful nations winning five times in the early days, but unfortunately, their luck hasn't been great of late.  They saw disappointing results with ordinary songs in 1999 and 2000.  2001 saw them enter a wonderful song, and the performer sang in English - a one and only for France at Eurovision - they secured 4th place.  This form was kept up for a year at least with one of my faves 'Il Faut Du Temps' in 2002 by Sandrine Francois.  They saw the UK award them 10 points and managed a fantastic 5th place.  Things then went downhill... their 2003 entry wasn't bad, but not great, 2004 was a boring male ballad amid lots of other boring male ballads and 2005 saw France's entrant Ortal point at everyone in Europe and tell them how selfish they all are singing "chacun pense a soi" - not the best way to pick up votes!  In fairness, the song was good, but it just went somewhat wrong on the night.  France need to rethink things majorly if they're going to succeed at Eurovision, something I'd like to see.

 

 

Unfortunately, France failed to rethink things again and here we are with something that sounds so much similar to those other poor-performing French entries.  I must admit though, I do like this song, it's just nothing special.  It's very repetitive, even someone who didn't speak French would be able to come up with the title 'Eel etay tom' by the end of the three minutes.  Virginie will give a sound performance, but I think she's better than the song.

 

 

With the same return to form I think France can only expect to do as well as they have been.  This just doesn't have what it takes at all, so late teens to twenties is what I'd expect to see here.

 

 

I think France are going to really struggle to get votes.  They'll be relying on countries like Spain, Monaco and Andorra - maybe even Belgium for points.  I like the song, and some might say that being one of the less in your face entries gives this a good chance, but I personally think there are better not-so-in-your-face entries this year such as Germany and Malta, which should do better.

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the French entry this year and I thought it was very well presented, though that doesn't mean I was still surprised to see it fare so badly. Virginie sang well, and looked beautiful, the man on the cello was a lovely touch and the whole presentation of the song was very intimate. So credit to France, they did send a quality song to Eurovision this year and although they didn't score well, it was a ncie number to watch and listen to. Turns out I wasn't too far off with my prediction on this one either :o)