France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Participating broadcaster	France Télévision
Country	France
National selection
Selection process	Eurovision 1999: la sélection
Selection date(s)	2 March 1999
Selected artist(s)	Nayah
Selected song	"Je veux donner ma voix"
Selected songwriter(s)	Pascal Graczyk René Colombies Gilles Arcens Luigi Rutigliano
Finals performance
Final result	19th, 14 points
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1998 • 1999 • 2000►

France was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "Je veux donner ma voix", written by Pascal Graczyk, René Colombies, Gilles Arcens, and Luigi Rutigliano, and performed by Nayah. The French participating broadcaster, France Télévision, selected its entry for the contest through the national final Eurovision 1999: la sélection organized by France 3.

Twelve songs competed in the national final on 2 March 1999 where "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.

As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 10, France placed nineteenth out of the 23 participating countries with 14 points.

Prior to the 1999 Contest, France Télévision and its predecessor national broadcasters, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing France forty-one times since RTF's debut in 1956.^[1] They first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962, and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Their fifth – and so far latest – victory came in 1977 with "L'oiseau et l'enfant" performed by Marie Myriam. They have also finished second four times, with "La Belle Amour" by Paule Desjardins in 1957, "Un, deux, trois" by Catherine Ferry in 1976, "White and Black Blues" by Joëlle Ursull in 1990, and "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" by Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's "Fångad av en stormvind" by Carola in a tie-break. In 1998, they finished in twenty-fourth place with the song "Où aller" performed by Marie Line.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, France Télévision organised the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcast the event in the country. For 1999, the broadcaster opted to delegate the selection of its entry to France 3; since 1993, France 2 had been responsible of selecting the entry and broadcasting the contest in France, however, they were unable to broadcast the 1999 contest due to its date conflicting with the French Rugby League Championship. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose its entry in the past. From 1988 to 1998, the broadcaster opted to internally select its entry. The 1999 French entry was selected via a national final which featured several competing acts, marking the first time since 1987 that a national final was organised to select the French entry.^[2]

Eurovision 1999: la sélection was the national final organised by France 3 to select the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. A two-member selection committee consisting of former RTL Head of Musical Programming Monique Le Marcis and M6 music programmer Catherine Régnier selected twelve entries to compete the national final from 600 submissions, and songs in Arabic (Israhn), Basque (Kukumiku), Breton (Alex) and Hebrew (Anath) were also featured in addition to French.^[3]

The national final took place on 2 March 1999 at the L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl and was broadcast on France 3. The twelve finalists performed their entries together with an orchestra conducted by Réné Coll and the winner, "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah, was selected by the combination of public voting via telephone and Minitel (50%) and a jury panel (50%).^[4] The jury panel consisted of Gilbert Bécaud, Marie Myriam, Jocelyne Béroard, Lââm, Sandy Valentino, Richard Cocciante, Jean-Pierre Bouryayre, Laurent Petitguillaume, Jean-Michel Boris and Jean Réveillon. The rankings of each half were used to calculate the result; hence, the song with the lowest total won. There was a tie for first place between Ginie Line and Nayah; however, Nayah won as she received the most votes from the public.^[3][5] The national final was watched by 4.996 million viewers in France with a market share of 20.6%.^[6]

The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, on 29 May 1999. According to the Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation, the seventeen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest. As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Denmark and before the entry from the Netherlands.^[7][8] France finished in nineteenth place with 14 points.^[9]

In France, the contest was broadcast on France 3 as well as on a 3 hour and 5 minute delay via TV5 with commentary by Julien Lepers.^[10] The French spokesperson, who announced the French votes during the show, was Marie Myriam who won the contest for France in 1977. The France 3 broadcast reached 4.2 million viewers within France, representing a 27.9% market share.^[11]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Portugal in the contest.

Points awarded to France[12] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points  Norway 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points  Ireland  Lithuania  Turkey 1 point

Points awarded by France[12] Score Country 12 points  Portugal 10 points  Israel 8 points  Germany 7 points  Croatia 6 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 5 points  Turkey 4 points  Estonia 3 points  Sweden 2 points  Belgium 1 point  Slovenia

• French National Final 1999