France in Eurovision
France was one of the seven countries to compete in the inaugural edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Since then, it has been absent from just two Contests (1974 and 1982).
France also numbers amongst the most successful Eurovision-winning countries, having been victorious on five occasions (1958, 1960, 1962, 1969 and 1977). However, in the 21st century it has secured a top-three placing only once.
That recent success came last year when Barbara Pravi and 'Voilà' took out second place in Rotterdam, also winning two of the three coveted annual Marcel Bezençon awards for best act as voted for by the accredited media and commentators attending.
2022 entry: Alvan and Ahez - 'Fulenn'
As one of the "Big Five" countries, France automatically qualifies for the Grand Final
My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 9th
Odds to win ranking: 12th
(Rankings as of 22 March 2022)
About the artists
Alexis Morvan-Rosius, who performs as Alvan, is a 29-year-old musician from Rennes (France). He has been releasing, in his words, "chill electro world" music with the group 'Alvan Project' since the mid 2010s, in both French and English.
Ahez is a vocal trio hailing from Carhaix, a municipality in the northern French region of Brittany. Consisting of Marine Lavigne, Sterenn Diridollou and Sterenn Le Guillou, Ahez has been performing at festivals since 2018 and their music melds traditional 'kan ha diskan' (call and response) singing from their region with modern, Celtic-infused influences.
Alvan and Ahez met in a Rennes bar in the summer of 2021 and decided to submit a joint entry for France's 2022 Eurovision entry selection process.
About the song
The song 'Fulenn' (in English: 'Spark') is written by Alvan and Ahez's Marine Lavigne and sung entirely in Breton, a Celtic language most similar to Cornish and spoken primarily in the artists' home region of Brittany.
It tells of a young woman who shuns what is expected of her by society and frees herself by dancing at night in the glow of a bonfire, accompanied by the Devil. The song fuses a pulsing, ultra-modern beat with traditional vocal stylings to produce a track best described as "Celtic EDM".
How were Alvan and Ahez chosen for Eurovision?
On 5 March, Alvan and Ahez participated in 'Eurovision France: c'est vous qui décidez', the live French national final to select the artist(s) and song for Eurovision 2022.
Together with five other acts, they advanced from the first round to the "superfinal" as one of the five favourites amongst the televoting public. They went on to top both the jury vote and the televote in the second round, thus securing their ticket to compete in Turin this year.
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France will compete in the Grand Final on May 14 (European time) in Turin.