France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Mercy" written by Émilie Satt and Jean-Karl Lucas. The song is performed by the French duo Madame Monsieur. The French entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal was selected through the national selection Destination Eurovision, organised by the French broadcaster France Télévisions in collaboration with the television channel France 2. The selection consisted of two semi-finals and a final. Madame Monsieur became the winner, placing third with the international juries but winning a landslide share of the vote from the French public, amassing enough points to win the competition. This was the first time France used a national final since 2014.
As a member of the "Big Five", France automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Background
Before the 2018 contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixty times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . France 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. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France has also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. Since 2000, France has managed to place within the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001, Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002, Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in 2009 and Amir finishing sixth in 2016. In 2017, France was represented by Alma and the song "Requiem". The country ended in twelfth place with 135 points.
The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 2. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. The 2014 French entry was selected via a national final that featured three competing acts. Since 2015, the broadcaster had opted to internally select the French entry. For their 2018 entry, it was announced on 21 June 2017 that the broadcaster would organise a national final.
Before Eurovision
Destination Eurovision
Destination Eurovision was the national final organised by France 2 to select France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition consisted of two semi-finals on 13 and 20 January 2018 and a final on 27 January 2018, all produced at the Studio Visual – Bât 210 in Saint-Denis and broadcast on France 2, TV5Monde and TV5 Québec Canada. All three shows in the competition were hosted by French-Canadian singer Garou.
Format
The format of the competition consisted of three shows: two pre-recorded semi-finals on 13 and 20 January 2018, and a live final on 27 January 2018. Nine entries competed in each semi-final, from which four were selected to advance to the final from each show. Results during the semi-finals were determined by the combination of votes from two jury groups: a three-member Francophone jury panel and a three-member international jury panel.
The Francophone jury panel consisted of: Amir – French singer, songwriter, represented France in the 2016 Contest (replaced by Alma during the final) Isabelle Boulay – French Canadian singer Christophe Willem – French singer
The international jury panel consisted of: Christer Björkman – Head of Delegation for Sweden at Eurovision, supervisor of Melodifestivalen Nicola Caligiore – Head of Delegation for Italy at Eurovision Olga Salamakha – Head of Delegation for Belarus at Eurovision
Results in the final were determined by the combination of public televoting (50%) and a ten-member international jury panel (50%). The three international jury members in the semi-finals were joined by an additional seven members from Armenia, Bulgaria, Finland, Iceland, Israel, Russia and Switzerland. The public and the juries each had a total of 420 points to award, with each jury member awarding 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points to their top six entries. The public vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through telephone and SMS voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 420 points rounded to the nearest integer: 42 points.