Despite being one the seven countries that
competing in the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956 and winning
three of the first seven contests, France's record in the
competition in recent years has been quite poor. Their last four
entries have all finished outside the Top 10 and for the last two
years France has finished in the bottom three positions. Indeed
there were rumours in Athens that 2006 that it would be France's
last year in the competition.
This year five French television channels came
together to try and turn things around. Each channel submitting two
potential entries to a national final which took place in Paris on
March 6th. A combination of a jury and a public televote first
reduced the field to two "super-finalists" before
"L'Amour A La Francaise" (Love With The French Woman)
written and performed by the five man novelty pop group Les Fatals
Picards won the ticket to Helsinki, to represent
France.
Les Fatals Picards come from the Picardy region
in north-eastern France and were formed in 2000 by singer Ivan
Callot and quickly built their reputation around their live shows.
Their musical style is a bizarre mix of pop, punk, reggae layered
with comical lyrics, their own unique Picardy phrases and copious
amount of puns, spoonerisms and tongue-in-cheek humour. In the past
they have been compared with the popular 1970s British group
Squeeze. The band has gone through several line-up changes but has
now settled as a five piece with Laurent Honel, Jean-Marc
Sauvagnargues, Yves Giraud, Paul Léger joining Ivan Callot.
The band's self produced debut albums was
released independently in 2000, and despite gaining a limited
release, it established the band who were until then only known for
their live shows, as a recording act. In 2001 a second album
"Navet Maria" (Turnip Maria) followed and sold well in
their local area.
Two more albums on a minor
label followed; "Droit De Véto" (Right Of Veto) in 2003
and "Picardia Independenza" (Picardy Independence) in
2005. The latter album a tribute to their local area, and featuring
the turnip (one of Picardy's best known crops) on the sleeve. It
was however as a live band, that Les Fatals Picards remained best
known, playing over 400 gigs and several outdoor festivals.
The
group's popularity began to spread so that they now have a fan club
of over 6,000 people and in 2006 they were signed by the French arm
of the international Warner label. Earlier this year they released
their most recent album "Pamplemousse Mécanique"
(Mechanical Grapefruit).
Around the same time the
now five piece band's participation in the French Eurovision
selection was announced. They were one of the two entries submitted
by the France 3 channel. While many people felt that a group with
such local appeal might not be understood outside of France, their
song which cleverly uses Franglais, a combination of French and
English words and phrases is probably the most accessible French
entry for many years.
Les Fatals Picards describe
their song "L'Amour À La Française" as being in praise
of romanticism made in France, combined with British charisma, the
result being a perfect and elaborate combination envied in all the
countries in the world. Love does not have any border anymore...
Les
Fatals Picards have concentrated any promotional activity for their
entry on the domestic French market, recording three separate
videos for the song. However the French entry hasn't been doing
especially well in the internet polls and isn't among the
bookmakers favourites.
![[]](images/fr.gif)
FINLAND @ EUROVISION