After two big disappointments at Eurovision with beginner or emerging artists, France is banking on a new strategy with Slimane for the 2024 edition, a singer with an established career in France. The 34-year-old French artist announced the information on his social networks on Wednesday, November 8. “For my parents, for my daughter, for France, for you…” he wrote in a message accompanied by the hashtag
Slimane can boast some prominent titles: more than 30 million plays for “Thousands of I Love You” on Spotify, the leading platform in the music streaming market. During his duo with the singer Vitaa, who also now plays solo, he even topped the album sales ranking in France in 2020 with their opus Versus. Their song “It’s going to come” allowed them to win a Victoire de la Musique that year in the original song category.
Slimane began to make a name for himself in France by winning the talent show “The Voice” in 2016. He will perform “Mon amour” on Wednesday evening on France 2’s 8 p.m. newscast, a song that will represent France at Eurovision in Malmö, Sweden, May 7-11, 2024.
16th place in the competition in 2023
France is therefore relying on an artist “who is already in the hearts of the French and at the heart of a great career”, as Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French delegation, revealed to a handful of journalists, also director of entertainment and games at France Télévisions. In 2009, France chose Patricia Kaas, well-known, but whose career peak dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. She only took 8th place in the competition.
In recent history, since the great performance of Barbara Pravi, who finished 2nd in 2021, France has been disillusioned. Alvan
La Zarra, from Quebec, a choice endorsed (like Slimane) by Alexandra Redde-Amiel without a vote from the public or the jury, finished 16th in the competition in 2023, with a controversy to boot. The singer defended herself from having given the middle finger to the cameras at the time of the final counting of points, putting forward a “gesture of disappointment that we use between friends”, according to comments given to the newspaper 20 website. Minutes.
163 million viewers
France’s battle plan this year is clearly inspired by that of Sweden, victorious last year thanks to the singer Loreen, already crowned in 2012. “Loreen was already very well known in Sweden and in this case, the country is more likely to support its candidate in charting an international route,” explained Alexandra Redde-Amiel.
France also decided this time to reveal its candidate very early. The choice of La Zarra, at the start of her career in music, was only made public in mid-January and her song “Obviously” only released in mid-February. Stéphane Chiffre, head of Eurofans France taken into confidence at the same time as the journalists, welcomes the choice: “Slimane is very well known, very loved, it is a first to have an artist at the heart of a career, announced very soon, we can’t wait to see what happens next. » France has not won Eurovision since Marie Myriam in 1977.
Sweden, a seven-time Eurovision winner, will therefore host the competition in 2024, the year of fifty years since its first success with “Waterloo”, by the legendary group ABBA. The 2023 edition of the competition was watched by 162 million viewers worldwide, according to BBC figures.
