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TelevisionEurovision: Quebecer La Zarra will represent France
This year, the French delegation chose its artist internally without asking the public’s opinion.
La Zarra was nominated for the French-speaking revelation of the year, at the NRJ Music Awards in 2021.
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The France has chosen Quebecer La Zarra for Eurovision 2023, revealed by her hit “Tu t’en iras” in 2021, without going through a vote by a jury and the public as in recent years. “It’s very funny, when I was little, my mother sang me “The Child and the Bird”, confided the singer to Agence France-Presse before the official announcement. “It’s a sign!” exclaimed at his side Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French delegation to Eurovision. It was with this title that Marie Myriam won the last French victory at Eurovision in 1977.
Alexandra Redde-Amiel also refutes any revolution for the selection. “Each year, the history of Eurovision is different in France. The external selection, by vote of a jury and the public, is put on hold in 2023 but will return in 2024”, assures the one who is also director of entertainment and games for France Télévisions. The televised playoffs had brought out French representatives in recent years such as Barbara Pravi, second in 2021, or Alvan & Ahez, penultimate in 2022. To hear Alexandra Redde-Amiel, the change in the method of designation has nothing to do with the disappointment of last year. But he was induced by an “encounter” and a “conviction”.
The song for the contest remains to be defined
“As entertainment director, I meet a lot of artists all the time and two years ago I met La Zarra, in line with what I’m looking for for Eurovision,” she says. . La Zarra (stage name chosen in reference to “La Môme”, nickname of Edith Piaf) rewinds the film. “In recent years, I was not ready, I was writing my first album (“Traîtrise”, released at the end of 2021) and I did not see myself defending France, this great country”. “Today, I have more self-confidence and I am surrounded by a motivated team”, explains the one who is preparing her second album in parallel.
The artist, who made a name for himself with “Tu t’en iras”, cultivates an image between glamor and mystery. Nothing filters his age. She just conceded in the newspaper “Le Parisien” to come from a family of seven children born in Quebec to North African parents. It is obviously not with “Tu t’en iras” that she will defend France on May 13 in Liverpool, the song will be unveiled soon. “With Eurovision, my character of La Zarra will evolve, grow and there may be little surprises,” concedes the singer.
Rigorous preparation
Alexandra Redde-Amiel points out that “La Zarra is full of characters: she is mysterious, iconic, extravagant, discreet, embodies French chic, is charismatic. Everything is in place for a very beautiful future winner. In 2001, France was represented at Eurovision by the Canadian Natasha St-Pier (4e). La Zarra, who goes back and forth between Quebec and France and lives especially these days in Paris, “feels a little French”.
“I was quickly adopted, Quebec and France are very close. I don’t know if it’s because of our accent, but you like us, and it’s a pride to represent France”, develops the one who has “the French variety” in her “DNA”. How does she manage the song of a lifetime, the one to be performed in mondiovision? “I can’t sleep at night. (Laughs.) More seriously, I did a lot of combat sports, boxing: we repeat the movements so that the body learns; for Eurovision, we will repeat, repeat, until it is easy to sing in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.
(AFP & lematin.ch)
