frances "Eurovisiongate"

"andy"

"andy"

"andy"

Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Posts
13,990
anyone seen whats been going on with frances eurovision entry over last few weeks ? ive only been interested because im a fan of tellier

anyway the french picked a track from his new album (great album too) to be there entry song.

then french MPs came out saying its a disgrace because the song is sang in english

anyway in the end hes gave in and said he will re write parts of it in french (even though last week he said its sounds crap in french)

some classic quotes in the guardian today
Now Tellier, in true French fashion, appears to have surrendered.
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"The baguette won't taste any worse tomorrow morning if I sing in English," he said.
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:p

personally i cant see why this makes a difference ? infact theyve probly got more chance of winning with english lyrics havent they ?

why choose a song and then ruin it by changing the lyrics :/

anyway they should have just entered la ritournelle and wiped the floor
 
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I would think afew people would be annoyed if we entered a song in French. Actually thinking about it most people I know who watch the EV song contest only watch it to listen to Terry Wogan waffle on and laugh at how silly it all is so they probably wouldn't care :).
 
Official vid is a bit better:) -

I was v pleased when I heard Sebastian t was doing Eurovision - no idea what all the fuss is about, trust the nationalist Francais to kick up a fuss about this!
 
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Surely the French politicians have something more important to worry about than Eurovision? Also they didn't complain when Air or Daft Punk were having international success with songs sung in English.

Yes, we would kick up a fuss if we were to enter a song in French but that is partly because in general, Brits automatically criticise any pop music sung in a language other than English as we are not used to hearing it. Germany are entering a song sung in English this year with nowhere near the controversy.
 
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escape sanity said:
Germany are entering a song sung in English this year with nowhere near the controversy.
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Its to do with the whole anti-americanisation/anglicisation culture of French government. I seem to remember they have a special department which restricts the amount of new technology words that come into the language which are english. Apparently the 'walkman' was quite controversial...:rolleyes:
 
theyre a strange bunch like

allot of the recent french acts who are good arent big at all in france compared to here and the states
 
As much as I like La Ritournelle, I don't think it'd win any Eurovision.... partly because it's too good, and it's also a "proper" song as opposed to naff europop crap that generally wins. Plus, the French aren't all that popular (kinda like us) so won't get the vote-rigging favours from other countries which is needed to win the contest.

escape sanity said:
Surely the French politicians have something more important to worry about than Eurovision? Also they didn't complain when Air or Daft Punk were having international success with songs sung in English.
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Well, in fairness, they have done similar things in the past... French radio stations are legally required to play French records, i.e. actually sung in French not just by French artists but in a foreign language, for at least 40% of the show during prime time programmes.
 
I thought all Eurovision entries had to be sung in the official language of the country concerned? Or did that rule get dropped?


M
 
Meridian said:
I thought all Eurovision entries had to be sung in the official language of the country concerned? Or did that rule get dropped?


M
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The rule was dropped in 1999. Since then, only one song sung entirely in a language other than English has won (Serbia's 2007 entry).

And I know about the 40% rule with French radio stations aswell as the law saying all signs must contain a French translation but I don't see how this is preserving either the French language or culture. It is the most French sounding song they have entered for ages and complaining about is only going to give it a higher profile which will help it do better and encourage more English entries like what happened when some Christian groups complained about Lordi a couple of years ago.

Saying that, I am grateful for how OTT the French politicians are being. It is unusual to see Eurovision getting some non-negative attention from our media and hopefully people will be able to see that this is an amazing song and that we will need to do better if we are going to beat the frogs :D.
 
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