France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

Eurovision Song Contest 2000
Country  France
National selection
Selection process National Final
Selection date(s) 15 February 2000
Selected entrant Sofia Mestari
Selected song "On aura le ciel"
Finals performance
Final result 23rd, 5 points
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1999 • 2000 • 2001►

France was represented by Sofia Mestari, with the song '"On aura le ciel", at the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 13 May in Stockholm. This was the second year in which broadcaster France 3 had been in charge of the French participation, and as in 1999 they opted to choose their entry via public selection, with a national final being organised on 15 February. However the poor result obtained by Nayah in 1999 followed by the even worse result in 2000, together with the controversy surrounding the 2000 selection process, led to France 3 changing to internal selection in the years following, initially with much greater success.

Final

The national final was held at L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl. Fourteen songs took part with the winner chosen by a 50:50 split between televoting and an "expert" jury. Only the top three placings were announced, and a degree of controversy arose when it became known that "On aura le ciel" had been placed first by the jury but "Espoir" had won the televote, it was rumoured by a very large margin. The explanation of France 3 – that "On aura le ciel" came second in the televote while "Espoir" was ranked only fourth by the jury – prompted complaints that in the event of the televote and jury vote coming up with different winners, the televote should have taken precedence, otherwise there was a degree of dishonesty in asking the public to pay to vote, only for their choice to be overruled by a small group of jurors. (A similar controversy would later engulf the 2005 Swedish selection.)[1]

French National Final - 15 February 2000
Draw Artist Song Place
1 Jenny Zana "Tendresses" -
2 Stéphane Godsend "Nous deux" -
3 Ebony "L'amour en noir et blanc" -
4 Christophe Sarti "C'est une très belle histoire d'amour" -
5 ZH "Tu en fais trop" -
6 Sofia Mestari "On aura le ciel" 1
7 Orijin "Autour de toi" 3
8 Gildas Thomas "Pense à moi" -
9 Hologramme "Avec des gants" -
10 Aïden Aleksander "Maintenant" -
11 Jessica Ferley "Espoir" 2
12 Guillaume Eyango "Libérez" -
13 Mademoiselle "SOS" -
14 Soundkaïl "Jeunes solidaires" -

At Eurovision

On the night of the final Mestari performed fifth in the running order, following Estonia and preceding Romania. At the close of voting "On aura le ciel" had received only 5 points (3 from Russia and 2 from the Netherlands), placing France 23rd of the 24 entries, ahead only of Belgium. This was the second time in three contests that France had finished one place off the bottom, and led to reiterated claims that the wrong song for a televoting environment had been sent. The 12 points from the French televote were awarded to Turkey.[2]

Points Awarded by France

Final

12 points Turkey
10 points Germany
8 points Croatia
7 points Denmark
6 points Israel
5 points Russia
4 points Ireland
3 points Latvia
2 points Netherlands
1 point Sweden

Points Awarded to France

Points Awarded to France (Final)
12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points
5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point
  •  Russia
  •  Netherlands

See also

References

  1. ↑ ESC National Finals database 2000
  2. ↑ ESC History - France 2000
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