Prior to the 2017 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty-nine 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 have 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'sCarola 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. 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 has opted to internally select the French entry, a procedure that was continued in order to select the 2017 entry.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
France 2 opened an online submission form on 13 September 2016 that called for submissions from artists and songwriters for the internal selection of the French Eurovision Song Contest 2017 entry. The submission period remained open until 30 November 2016. Francophone performers between 16 and 50 years of age and of any nationality were eligible for consideration, while songs were required to contain at least 80% French language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics. Songwriters and artists could either apply individually or together; artists that applied individually might have been matched with a song or a song that had been submitted without an attached artist. Between 30 November 2016 and 10 March 2017, the artistic committee of France Télévisions reviewed the received submissions and selected an artist and song to represent France in Kiev. At the end of the submission period, it was revealed that around 300 songs had been received. On 9 February, France 2 announced that the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 would be "Requiem" performed by Alma.
Promotion
Alma made appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Requiem" as the French Eurovision entry. On 25 February 2017, Alma performed "Requiem" at the Ukrainian national final. She also participated at the London Eurovision Party at the Café de Paris in London, United Kingdom; the Eurovision in Concert at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands; Israel Calling at the Ha'teatron in Tel Aviv, and the Eurovision-Spain Pre-Party at the La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.
At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place at the International Exhibition Centre in Kiev, Ukraine and consisted of two semi-finals on 9 and 11 May and the final on 13 May 2017. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. As a member of the "Big 5", France automatically qualified to compete in the final. In addition to their participation in the final, France was also required to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final. For the very first time, the final of the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in all cinemas in the CGR Cinemas across the country. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2016, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Once all the competing songs for the 2017 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. France was set to perform last in position 26, following the entry from Bulgaria.
Points awarded to France
Points awarded by France
Jury members
The following five members comprised the French jury:
Antoine Gouiffes-Yan – Chairperson – marketing director
