Alvan & Ahez – Fulenn
Final Thoughts:
Ok, La France is bringing something different, a song in the Breton language, and I LOVE it. I had to look this up, but Breton is part of the Celtic language family that is spoken in Brittany, France (in the southwestern part of the country).
While I have not been following Eurovision for too long, typically most of the songs submitted by France have been in the ballad category with some themes/reference to the Eifel Tower (ie very “French”). I gotta say that I absolutely love this song and the presentation by Alvan & Ahez. Overall, I think this song and performance are ready for the ESC 2022’s stage in Turin. I would only improve some of the vocals and camera work. At times, it sounds like the group was having some harmony issues (maybe that’s how the song is supposed to sound). While they are singing one song, I thought it sounded like they were singing three different versions of the same song. Also, the rapid camera movement was giving me a bit of motion sickness. However, these are minor issues that definitely can be addressed before ESC2022.
A LOL Eurovision moment
For Benidorm Fest 22 (Spain’s national selection for Eurovision), there was a little be of eurodrama regarding the song that one and the two runner-ups.
While Chanel won the contest with her song, SloMo, a lot of folks were upset that Tanxugueiras did not win the contest. Similar to France’s entry, Tanxugueires is a female trio that sings in Galician, which is another Celtic language
Maybe it’s not HAHA funny, but I thought it was kind of cute that Spain (a Big Five country) did not send a Celtic language song while France (another Big Five country) sent one. Whatever happens, I have a feeling that Spain will give France the maximum of 24 points (12 points from both the national jury and the public vote).
France in last year’s Eurovision
BARBARA PRAVI – VOILÀ
Semi-final results: Since France is one of the Big Five, Barbara did not have to participate in the semifinal round.
Final results: 2nd place out of 26 performances (499 total points – 248 national juries and 251 public votes)
I will say that Barbara did her thing and then some in ESC2021. I do not know what it was, but there is something about Barbara that draws you into this performance. In quite a few of my ESC2022 songs reviews, I have constantly mentioned that the staging needs to be amped up. For some reason, Barbara’s performance did not need a whole bunch of bells and whistles (eg pyro effects, extreme lighting, a troupe of backup dancers, etc). She killed this performance by standing in one spot with a microphone stand and having very basic lightening.