Barbara Pravi, with a retro style very marked by the song with lyrics like Edith Piaf, will represent France at Eurovision Song Contest in May, the public and a jury of professionals decided on Saturday.
She and her song "Voilà" were preferred to eleven other artists, at the end of the program "Eurovision France, it's you who decides", broadcast on France 2.
Barbara Pravi, with a retro style very marked by the song with lyrics like Edith Piaf, will represent France at Eurovision Song Contest in May, the public and a jury of professionals decided on Saturday.
She and her song "Voilà" were preferred to eleven other artists, at the end of the program "Eurovision France, it's you who decides", broadcast on France 2.
So many emotions .. Thank you all for your first feedback ❤️ This song is me, and I sang it for you, quite simply.
#Voila#Votez7#EurovisionFrance@EurovisionF2pic.twitter.com/Yky66ef4Ei
- Barbara Pravi (@Babpravi) January 30, 2021
At the head of the votes of the public and the members of the jury
Barbara Pravi came out on top of both the votes of the public, who could vote by phone, and of the ten members of the jury chaired by singer Amir, among whom the couturier Jean-Paul Gaultier or Marie Myriam, the last French winner of the 'Eurovision (in 1977).
His song with the heady chorus ("Here, there, there, here is who I am ...") is by his own admission based on his personal experience.
She interprets it in a broken voice, with gestures that evoke Piaf.
"She picks up the arrow left by Edith Piaf or Barbara and sends it even further", commented after her performance one of the jurors, the composer André Manoukian.
Several others had tears in their eyes after the song.
Professional singer under contract with the Capitol label, Barbara Pravi also writes for other artists: she notably co-signed the song "J'imagine" for the young Valentina, winner of the Eurovision Junior competition last November.
The Eurovision final scheduled for May 22
Saturday, at the end of the show presented by Laurence Boccolini and Stéphane Bern, she notably beat Corsica Casanova, the electro duo Pony X, whose DJ is disguised as a pony, or another singer, Juliette Moraine, who had received on Twitter the support of the Secretary of State for Tourism, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne.
Eurovision had been canceled in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was Tom Leeb who would have represented France if the competition had been able to take place.
He had been chosen by a committee.
But this year, France Télévisions wanted to return to a method of designation in which the public would have a say.
The final of the 2021 edition is scheduled for May 22, in Rotterdam.