# France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000

France was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 with the song "On aura le ciel", composed by Benoît Heinrich, with lyrics by Pierre Legay, and performed by Sofia Mestari. The French participating broadcaster, France Télévision, organised the national final Eurovision 2000: la sélection in order to select its entry for the contest. Fourteen songs competed in the national final on 15 February 2000 where "On aura le ciel" performed by Sofia Mestari was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.
As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 5, France placed twenty-third out of the 24 participating countries with 5 points.

## Background

Prior to the 2000 contest, France Télévision and its predecessor national broadcasters, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing France forty-two times since RTF's debut in 1956. They first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962, and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Their fifth – and so far latest – victory came in 1977 with "L'oiseau et l'enfant" performed by Marie Myriam. They have also finished second four times, with "La Belle Amour" by Paule Desjardins in 1957, "Un, deux, trois" by Catherine Ferry in 1976, "White and Black Blues" by Joëlle Ursull in 1990, and "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" by Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's "Fångad av en stormvind" by Carola in a tie-break. In 1999, they finished in nineteenth place with the song "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, France Télévision organised the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcast the event in the country. For 2000, the broadcaster opted to delegate the selection of its entry to France 3. The French broadcasters had used both national finals and internal selection to choose their entries in the past. From 1988 to 1998, the broadcaster opted to internally select its entry. The 1999 entry was selected via a national final that featured twelve competing acts. In 2000, they opted to organise a national final under a similar format.

## Before Eurovision
### Eurovision 2000: la sélection

Eurovision 2000: la sélection was the national final organised by France 3 to select the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2000. The competition took place on 15 February 2000 at the L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl and was broadcast on France 3. The national final was watched by 5 million viewers in France with a market share of 23.6%.

#### Competing entries

France 3 received 450 submissions from record companies as well as artists and songwriters themselves. Auditions featuring entries shortlisted from the received submissions took place at the Headquarters of France 3 in Paris where a three-member selection committee consisting of Nathalie André (producer), Catherine Régnier (M6 music programmer) and Fabrice Ferment (Head of Delegation for France at the Eurovision Song Contest) selected 20 entries for the next stage, which took place on 6 January 2000 and involved an alternate committee consisting of representatives of France 3 that finalised the 14 entries to compete in the national final.

#### Final

The final took place on 15 February 2000. Fourteen entries competed and the winner, "On aura le ciel" performed by Sofia Mestari, was selected by the combination of public televoting (50%) and a jury panel (50%). The jury panel included Marie Myriam and Patrick Fiori who represented France in the 1977 and 1993 Contest respectively. The jury vote was won by Sofia Mestari who was ranked second by the televote, which Jessica Ferley (ranked fourth by the jury) won with 27,000 votes out of the 43,000 registered. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Patrick Fiori performed the song "Terra Umana" as the interval act of the show.
| Draw | Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) | Place |
| 1 | Jenny Zana | "Tendresses" | Jean-Michel Soupraya | — |
| 2 | Stéphane Godsend | "Nous deux" | Stéphane Godsend, M. Arraya, E. Reverdi | — |
| 3 | Ebony | "L'amour en noir et blanc" | Thierry Gronfier, Chantal Péraldi | — |
| 4 | Christophe Sarti | "C'est une très belle histoire d'amour" | Jean-Max Rivière | — |
| 5 | ZH | "Tu en fais trop" | Serge Pellerin | — |
| 6 | Sofia Mestari | "On aura le ciel" | Benoît Heinrich, Pierre Legay | 1 |
| 7 | Orijin | "Autour de toi" | Renaud Bidjeck, Thierry Bidjeck | 3 |
| 8 | Gildas Thomas | "Pense à moi" | Gildas Thomas | — |
| 9 | Hologramme | "Avec des gants" | Pascal Mounet, Félix Nicklabon, Peter von Poehl | — |
| 10 | Aïden Aleksander | "Maintenant" | Aïden Aleksander, Lionel Florence | — |
| 11 | Jessica Ferley | "Espoir" | Frédéric Bêchecloux | 2 |
| 12 | Guillaume Eyango | "Libérez" | Guillaume Eyango, Benjamin Farley | — |
| 13 | Mademoiselle | "SOS" | Thierry Gronfier, Chantal Péraldi | — |
| 14 | Soundkaïl | "Jeunes solidaires" | David Selise, Sacha Stouri | — |

## At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom six countries in the 1999 contest competed in the final on 13 May 2000. As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 21 November 1999, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Estonia and before the entry from Romania. France finished in twenty-third place with 5 points.
In France, the contest was broadcast on France 3 as well as on delay via TV5 with commentary by Julien Lepers. France Télévision appointed Marie Myriam, who won the contest for France in 1977, as its spokesperson to announce the French votes during the show.

### Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The country awarded its 12 points to Turkey in the contest.