Introduction

• Participant(s): Amir
• Song: J’ai Cherché
• Writer(s): Nazim Khaled & Amir Haddad
• Composer(s): Nazim Khaled, Amir Haddad & Johan Errami
• Broadcaster: France2
• Social media: 
• Team review: 

The French broadcaster France 2 has made an internal selection to determine the French singer and song for Stockholm 2016. The choice felt to Amir with the song “J’ai Cherché”. This song has already become a radio hit in France since it was officially announced as French song for the ESC.

Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad was born in Paris in 1984. Amir’s farther is Tunisian and his mother is Moroccan-Spanish, they lived in Paris and in Israel. In Tel Aviv Amir has studied dentistry. Beside of his studies he was always in love with music since the age of 6 when he started singing. Then he took part in a talent show "Kokhav Nolad” and in the French edition of the “The Voice”, where he reached the 3rd place. Amir recorded his first album “Vaheji”. Listen to Amir’s voice: “Kache Limtso Milim” Hebrew version of Patrick Bruel's French hit "J'te l'dis quand même",  “All Of Me” .

The song “J’ai Cherché” is a very uplifting and fresh song both in French and English language. The meaning of his song is the message from near and far to guide us to ourselves with joy. Everybody should understand the message that’s why the song is recorded and presented in two languages. This song has a great hit potential it is convincing by first hearing. The sympathetic singer appears authentic and unpretentious and already has the important winning smile. This might be a great year for France as it is one of the best entries for years. Bonne chance!

History

• Debut: 1956
• Participations: 59
• Victories: 5
• Finals: 59
• Top 10: 37
• Chance for Top 10: 62 %

France belongs to the founding members of the Eurovision Song Contest from the first year 1956. This year in Stockholm is going to be the 60th anniversary for France! Congratulations!

France has withdrawn in 1974 and 1982. Nevertheless there were five winning songs, six second places and seven third places, unfortunately the biggest successes can be found in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. In the last 30 years France struggled with good placings, this is due to the increasing amount of participating countries and the televoting and sometimes it’s due to the bad choice for the right entry by the French broadcaster.

A Top10 position France could be achieved 37 times within six decades, so approximate chance to get a good placement overall is about 62%.
France is famous for its chansons and ballads, but also French pop tunes have been presented lately like “Divine” by Sébastian Tellier (19th rank in 2008) and “Allez Olla Olé” by Jessy Matador (12th rank in 2010) which have been found in the international charts as well. Here France was on the right way to be successful.

Even with big names like Patricia Kaas, Natasha St. Pierre or Patrick Fiori could not bring another victory for France, but at least some respectable placings and international attention. In 1977 Marie Myriam convinced the juries with “L'oiseau Et L'enfant”, this was the last big victory in Eurovision, and that’s more than 30 years ago! As France belongs to the Big 5 countries, it is set automatically for the final like Germany, UK, Spain and Italy.