France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

France’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was Virginie Pouchain with the song "Il était temps" (It was time), composed by Corneille Nyungura and Pouchain.

Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Country France
National selection
Selection processArtist: Et si c'était vous?
Song: Internal Selection
Selection date(s)14 March 2006
Selected entrantVirginie Pouchain
Selected song"Il était temps"
Finals performance
Final result22nd, 5 points
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2005 • 2006 • 2007►

Virginie Pouchain is a 26-year-old hairdresser, who decided to take part in ‘Entrée des Artistes’, a musical show hosted by Pascal Sevran. Virginie won that competition and along with three other participants, she entered Et si c'était vous?, the French broadcaster's national final for the 2006 contest.

Before Eurovision

Et si c'était vous?

Et si c'était vous? was the national final organised by France 3 to select France's entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, intending to have new talents emerge. A collaboration between three broadcasters in France: France 3, France 2 and overseas territories broadcaster RFO, the competition was hosted by Michel Drucker and Claudy Siar and produced at the La Plaine St-Denis TV Studios in Paris.

Format

The selection of the twenty-one candidates for the competition and ultimately the French entrant took place over two rounds. The first stage of the competition involved France 3, France 2 and RFO conducting varying selections in order to determine the candidates for the second stage of the competition, the televised national final, where the winning artist was selected. France 3 submitted thirteen candidates, France 2 submitted four candidates and RFO also submitted four candidates.[1]

France 3 selection

The France 3 selection involved artists attending regional auditions between 16 January 2006 and 3 February 2006 in thirteen cities across France: Île-de-France, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Lorraine Champagne-Ardenne, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Alsace, Bordeaux, Corsica, Marseille, Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes, Rennes and Normandy. From each audition, ten were selected by a jury panel for a final round, where a public internet vote and a jury panel selected the winning contestant to advance to the national final.[2] The thirteen candidates selected by France 3 for the national final were:

  • Alexandre Vautrin
  • Aude Henneville
  • Candice Parise
  • Émilie Chenneviere
  • Fabian Ballarin
  • Gwladys Fraioli
  • Julien Lamassonne
  • Laurent Leandri
  • Leila Barechdy
  • Maëlle Audic
  • Pierre Suppa
  • Tamara Calhoun
  • Virginie Schaeffer

France 2 selection

France 2 selected the four candidates through the show Entrée des Artistes, hosted by Pascal Sevran and broadcast on France 2. Over 500 artists attended regional auditions between 2 December 2005 and 13 December 2005 in three cities across France: Lille, Marseille and Paris, and eighteen contestants were selected for the competition. Two heats, a semi-final and a final took place in January and February 2006 and the top four contestants, selected by public televoting, internet voting and a jury panel, advanced to the national final.[2] The four candidates selected by France 2 for the national final were:

Draw Artist Song (Original artists) Place
1 Yorrick Vrzal "Marguerite" (Richard Cocciante) —
2 Laura "Un enfant" (Jacques Brel) —
3 Mickaël "Une femme" (Roch Voisine) —
4 Mélody Simek "Paris violon" (Michel Legrand) —
5 Fabien Incardona "Cent mille chansons" (Frida Boccara) —
6 Virginie Pouchain "Le coeur volcan" (Julien Clerc) 1

RFO selection

RFO selected the four candidates through 9 semaines et 1 jour. Nine of the participants in the show were selected, and an internet vote took place between 30 January and 5 February 2006 for users to vote for their favourite acts. The results of the internet vote (1/3) and the votes of a jury panel (2/3) determined the four contestants that would advance to the national final.[1] The four candidates selected by RFO for the national final were:

Draw Country Artist
1 Martinique Kolo Barst
2 Réunion Ousa Nousava
3 Mayotte Mikidache
4 French Polynesia Barthélémy
5 Guadeloupe Krys
6 Saint Pierre and Miquelon D'Ge
7 New Caledonia Gulaan
8 New Caledonia Tyssia
9 French Guiana Chris Combette

National final

The final aired live on 14 March 2006. The winner was selected over three rounds of voting. In the first round, ten of the twenty-one competing artists advanced to the second round. In the second round, the remaining contestants performed for a second time and the top three were selected to advance to the third round, where the winner was selected. Results in the first round of the national final were determined by a four-member jury panel, while results in the second and third round were determined by public televoting (50%) and the jury panel (50%).[3] The jury panel consisted of:

First Round

The twenty-one contestants performed cover versions of popular songs in groups and ten acts were selected to advance to the second round: Candice Parise, Aude Henneville, Alexandre Vautrin, Virginie Schaeffer, Pierre Suppa, Leila Barechdy, Julien Lamassonne, Tyssia, Fabien Incardona and Virginie Pouchain.

Draw Artist Result
1 Candice Parise Advanced
2 Aude Henneville Advanced
3 Alexandre Vautrin Advanced
4 Virginie Schaeffer Advanced
5 Gwladys Fraioli Eliminated
6 Tamara Calhoun Eliminated
7 Pierre Suppa Advanced
8 Laurent Leandri Eliminated
9 Maëlle Audic Eliminated
10 Émilie Chenneviere Eliminated
11 Leila Barechdy Advanced
12 Fabian Ballarin Eliminated
13 Julien Lamassonne Advanced
14 Kolo Barst Eliminated
15 Chris Combette Eliminated
16 Mikidache Eliminated
17 Tyssia Advanced
18 Mélody Simek Eliminated
19 Yorrick Vrzal Eliminated
20 Fabien Incardona Advanced
21 Virginie Pouchain Advanced

Second Round

The top ten acts again performed cover versions of popular songs in groups, from which three were selected to advance to the third round: Virginie Pouchain, Fabien Incardona and Julien Lamassone.[3]

Draw Artist Result
1 Virginie Schaeffer Eliminated
2 Alexandre Vautrin Eliminated
3 Virginie Pouchain Advanced
4 Aude Henneville Eliminated
5 Tyssia Eliminated
6 Pierre Suppa Eliminated
7 Candice Parise Eliminated
8 Fabien Incardona Advanced
9 Julien Lamassone Advanced
10 Leila Barechdy Eliminated

Third Round

The top three contestants each performed a cover version of a popular song assigned to them. Virginie Pouchain was selected as the winner after interpreting Céline Dion's "Pour que tu m'aimes encore".[4]

DrawArtist Song (Original artists)PercentagePlace
1Virginie Pouchain "Pour que tu m'aimes encore" (Celine Dion)42.5%1
2Fabien Incardona "Savoir aimer" (Florent Pagny) 34.2%2
3Julien Lamassone "L'envie" (Johnny Hallyday) 23.3%3

Song selection

On 8 February 2006, Corneille Nyungura was announced as the composer of the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006.[5] After Virginie Pouchain won the national final, she complained to Nyungura that that the initial song "Vous, c'est nous" did not suit her style. Therefore, a new song, "Il était temps", was written and officially replaced as the French entry for the 2006 contest.

At Eurovision

Pouchain was accompanied on stage by Matheson Bayley. As France was one of the top four donors to the European Broadcasting Union, it gained automatic entry to the final. Pouchain's song finished 22nd out of 24 entries, with just 5 points.

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

Points awarded by France

See also

References
  1. "France 2006".
  2. Bakker, Sietse (20 December 2005). "More details on French selection". Esctoday.
  3. "FRENCH NATIONAL FINAL 2006".
  4. West-Soley, Richard (15 March 2006). "Virginie Pouchin to represent France in Athens!". Esctoday.
  5. van Gorp, Edwin (8 February 2006). "Corneille will write the French entry". Esctoday.
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