French Reactions
The last 10 years? Ortal, if you are reading this: I haven't forgotten you: Thompson Pense à Toi aaaaoooow. Seriously though I do think that Tellier was exciting: not like anything ever to cross a Eurovision stage and even though he sung in English, the whole way team France approached the contest last year was very, well... French. Kaas is the present day embodiment of the Chanson tradition. It is exciting that an artist of such renown has agreed to do this contest with a song of such quality. My first listen gave me echoes of Brel's 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' and the thought that France will leave Moscow with its dignity intact and not as many points as it deserves. I hope the returning juries see that this is not the case.
My second thought is, that over my time watching this contest , as well as some real classy chansons (notably the 2001-2002 double) and a few wobbles in the wilderness (see HMSS Naya ) France, possibly more than any other country has had a knack for throwing up unexpected gems of haute qualité. It was almost non-stop at the beginning of the 90s Joelle Ursul, Amina, Kali, Nina Morato. All wonderful . And none of them attempted to toe the eurovision line or compromise for points. They got them anyway. Even the experiments that did not set the scoreboard alight (Dan Ar Braz, Marie Line) were songs that stood out from the crowd in a welcome way. Of late France have been inching (sorry metric: centimetering) back to this confident approach. Although the result in Helsinki was disappointing the 2007 National Final was excellent. 2008 and the Sebastien Tellier Coup was stroke of genius. And now Kaas.
In contrast, more often than not in recent times les rosbif have not known how to approach the taxing task of finding someone to send to Europe. Tongue in cheek? Tongue in, out, shake it all about. Thanks to this uncertain tact we get the holy trinity of Terry Wogan, cack and a Union Jack appearing together in a photoshoot in a May edition of the Radio Times year after year after year. At least we are guaranteed we won’t see this in May 09.
The difficulty in approach the BBC has had (up until the Lord Our Saviour(?) came to town) makes me all the more the more impressed with France Televisions’ efforts. How do they do it? They deserve to see the kind of placings they had in the early 90s but I wouldn’t dare say the ‘W’ word yet. What I would say is that the French Head of Delegation, Bruno Berberes is bringing Gallic back. Quality, Originality, Quintessentially French. Wonderful. Well done that man.
My second thought is, that over my time watching this contest , as well as some real classy chansons (notably the 2001-2002 double) and a few wobbles in the wilderness (see HMSS Naya ) France, possibly more than any other country has had a knack for throwing up unexpected gems of haute qualité. It was almost non-stop at the beginning of the 90s Joelle Ursul, Amina, Kali, Nina Morato. All wonderful . And none of them attempted to toe the eurovision line or compromise for points. They got them anyway. Even the experiments that did not set the scoreboard alight (Dan Ar Braz, Marie Line) were songs that stood out from the crowd in a welcome way. Of late France have been inching (sorry metric: centimetering) back to this confident approach. Although the result in Helsinki was disappointing the 2007 National Final was excellent. 2008 and the Sebastien Tellier Coup was stroke of genius. And now Kaas.
In contrast, more often than not in recent times les rosbif have not known how to approach the taxing task of finding someone to send to Europe. Tongue in cheek? Tongue in, out, shake it all about. Thanks to this uncertain tact we get the holy trinity of Terry Wogan, cack and a Union Jack appearing together in a photoshoot in a May edition of the Radio Times year after year after year. At least we are guaranteed we won’t see this in May 09.
The difficulty in approach the BBC has had (up until the Lord Our Saviour(?) came to town) makes me all the more the more impressed with France Televisions’ efforts. How do they do it? They deserve to see the kind of placings they had in the early 90s but I wouldn’t dare say the ‘W’ word yet. What I would say is that the French Head of Delegation, Bruno Berberes is bringing Gallic back. Quality, Originality, Quintessentially French. Wonderful. Well done that man.
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