Bilal Hassani is a French singer, songwriter and YouTuber. He represented in the in Israel with the song "Roi" after scoring 200 points in the final of Destination Eurovision. At the Eurovision final, Hassani finished in 16th place, with 105 points.
In 2005, at the age of 5, Hassani began singing for his family, who had him start singing lessons. In 2015, encouraged by his friend, a finalist of the first season, Hassani participated in the second season of The Voice Kids and introduced himself in the blind auditions by singing a cover of "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst, a singer whom he admires. He joined the team of judge Patrick Fiori. He was eliminated during the battle rounds by Lenni-Kim In 2018, the LGBT magazine Têtu designated Hassani as one of the "30 LGBT+ who move France". The magazine described him as "an icon for French LGBT+ youth".
On 6 December 2018, Hassani was announced to be among the 18 candidates participating in Destination Eurovision, the French national selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest which was broadcast on France 2, with this edition choosing the representative of France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, which took place in Tel Aviv, Israel in May 2019. On 20 December 2018, an excerpt from his song for the competition was released, the song titled "Roi" and written with the duo and 2018 winner of Destination Eurovision Madame Monsieur. The song was described to be about self-acceptance. On 4 January 2019, "Roi" was made available on all music platforms, and by 14 January, it had exceeded 3 million views. The newspaper Le Monde wrote that Hassani "leaves no one indifferent". The initial front runner to represent France at Eurovision, Hassani began a media tour for Destination Eurovision on media outlets such as NRJ, Quotidien, and France Inter. On 12 January 2019, he won the semi-final by winning 58 out of 60 points awarded by the international jury, and winning 57 points from the French public. He totalled 115 points and qualified for the final, alongside Chimène Badi, Silvàn Areg and Aysat. He won the final on 26 January 2019, with a total of 200 points including 150 of the French public while he was ranked fifth with the International Jury vote, of 50 points. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 final, in Israel, Hassani performed the song "Roi", and placed 16th, with 105 points.
Controversy
On February 1, 2019, i24news unveiled former Twitter tweets published on the singer's account in 2014, accusing Israel of crimes against humanity and taking the defense of Dieudonné, a French comedian known for his antisemitic sketches. A few hours later, the singer claimed on a video not to be the author of these tweets, which would have been written by a relative with access to his account, adding that he was 14 years old at the time. Soon after, a "funny" video of 2018 resurfaced, about the latest attacks committed in France, which gave rise to a new controversy. The senator of the Alpes Maritimes requested that Bilal be "dismissed urgently from the contest".
Personal life
On 23 June 2017, Hassani publicly came out on social networksthe day before he went to Paris Pride. He has also been described as queer. Starting in December 2018, Hassani has been the victim of cyber-harassment and has received racist and homophobic attacks and death threats. In response to this, the organizations Urgence Homophobie and Stop Homophobie joined forces to take legal action against anyone who has insulted, discriminated against or threatened him on social networks, including Twitter. By 27 January 2019, the two organizations already identified 1,500 insulting, discriminating or hateful tweets because of his sexual orientation and/or physical appearance. Hassani has filed a complaint to those who may be potentially identified with these lawsuits, citing "insults, incitement to hatred and violence and homophobic threats".
