France is the country of the chanson. In former years the Eurovision Song Contest was mainly a contest of gala music with beautiful chansons and ballads. Since 1974 when ABBA brought pop into Eurovision the style of the music has changed dramatically. Lots of fast and contemporary music was in the competition, but France was still sending classical chansons to the contest. It changed over the years and the French tried several extraordinary experiments, which were quite successful like Joelle Ursull with “White and Black Blues” or Amina “C’est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison”. With all the new countries from Eastern Europe it wasn’t easy to stick to the old methods. A classical French ballad was no guarantee anymore for a good result. Recently the French entries were all found in the bottom of the ranking.

This year it’s the very first time for France that a French entry will be sung all in English! Sébastien Tellier is quite well known outside France. His song “Divine” is absolutely untypical for a French entry. It’s the sound of the easygoing Seventies, a kind of Electro, moony, spacey and very 2008. Such a song is either top or bottom, nothing in between. Maybe a great chance for France!