France: From Zero to Hero. The interview of the Head of the French delegation
A very interesting interview was recently given by Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French Eurovision delegation, to the French podcast “12points-le podcast qui décrypte l’Eurovision”. During this interview Alexandra showcased how France managed to escape from last places and mobilise the local and international interest on its participations.
Let’s start from the beginning.
The time France used to be the queen of Eurovision finished in 1977 with the victory of the “L’oiseau et l’enfant” by Marie Myriam. Since then Eurovision suffers from a growing depreciation by the French people, and its participations, though sometimes promising, rarely can they compete on dynamism, originality and freshness those of other, more competitive countries.
Alexandra Redde-Amiel is nominated Director of Entertainment and Games of France Televisions and at the same time Head of the French delegation of Eurovision in 2018. With a long experience on the production of the French Star Academy and as an enthusiast for big shows like the SuperBowl and the Victoria Secret Shows, she starts her mission with only one goal: reverse the depreciation atmosphere and bring Eurovision back to France after more than 40 years!
The turning is immediate. French participations get bigger communicative promotion, stagings are prepared by experts, internationally appealing elements are added and in 2021 France is back on the podium with Barbara Pravi and “Voilà”.
The success recipe, according to Alexandra, is multi-layered. Everything starts from the determination of those taking the decision to provide good participations to the contest so that they will eventually win.
“I am very lucky that my supervisors have never set limits on me about Eurovision”
she says, pointing out the fact that French Tv not only passionately supports the country’s participations, but even more, it encourages them to overpass the limits. At the same time, the post of head of the french delegation is held by a woman believing in the country’s abilities to win, has a strong experience, music and television knowledge and believes that everything is possible, you just need the means to succeed.
Then Alexandra underlines the importance of the song’s and its performance’s quality. The French participation should first of all be loved by the French people and contain elements representing today’s tendencies.
“If we include everyone, subsequently the participation will be supported and with international appeal”
she notes. Following this opinion, France dares to try different ideas these last years. About this year’s choice of La Zarra she says:
“Combines the big French song, a Eurovision style, an artist with character and complete artistic view”
Finally, decisive for the contest’s revitalization will be a victory. As French have gradually depreciated the contest due to the country’s bad results, so they will show their support to Eurovision once France steps up again to the highest rank.
It’s obvious that the French tv is following a complete and not at all random strategy in order to bring back Eurovision on the limelight. All efforts are concentrated to the country’s next victory, and when that happens, the spontaneous interest will grown in France and will take to a higher level the next participations.
“The more France is loved by Europe, the more French will feel proud and motivated”
It’s worth mentioning that this strategy is not limited in the song selection. It includes a full communication plan in order to promote the song, the artist’s preparation for his staging, cooperation with various artists and artisans, and mostly a well prepared and explained with all the details stage direction in order to avoid any problems during the rehearsals. Nevertheless, the artist keeps the liberty of his artistic expression and is the one to take most of the decisions.
Everything Alexandra Redde-Amiel mentioned on her interview may look evident, but they actually compact all those success factors that could lead a country to the victory. France does not just wish to win but is indeed determined to win, and they will do it one day. Not because a random song will be loved, but because the responsible people have the knowledge and the will to give Europe a song that will deserve the victory.
You can listen to the complete interview in french here.
Watch La Zarra’s interview to EurovisionFun:
Stay tuned to EurovisionFun for more news about France’s participation in Eurovision 2023!
