Monaco's Main Man: Looking back at François Deguelt's Eurovision appearances

François Deguelt performing at Eurovision 1962

Today November 19 marks The Sovereign Prince's Day in Monaco, which serves as the Monegasque National Day.

Monaco's National Day is unique in that the date is chosen at the Prince of Monaco's discretion.

Traditionally princes chose to celebrate Monaco's National Day on the day of the saint they were named after. For example Prince Rainier III, the second most recent Monegasque ruler, selected November 19 which commemorates Saint Rainier.

Current Monegasque ruler, Prince Albert II, broke with tradition when he acceded the throne. He sought to keep Monaco's National Day on November 19, which his father Prince Rainier III had chosen.

To celebrate this day we at Aussievision thought we would take a look at a man who has played in an important role in Monaco's Eurovision history.

Monaco's Eurovision history

Monaco last participated at Eurovision 2006 but has an impressive record at the contest for a micro-state.

The country won Eurovision in 1971, courtesy of French singer Séverine and her anthemic song Un banc, un arbre, une rue.

Monaco has also finished third three times and runners-up once.

The micro-state made its debut at Eurovision in 1959. However it was disastrous.

Frenchman Jacques Pills sang Mon ami Pierrot, a rather erratic song where Jacques bemoans how poor his friend Pierrot is.

The Eurovision judges were not impressed. In that contest, each country had 10 jurors who could award one point to each country except their own.

Jacques finished last with a single point - the lowest score ever at the time.

After such a devastating result, it was a miracle the Monegasques showed up the following year.

But so they did, turning up with another Frenchman - François Deguelt.

François's first years

François was born on December 4, 1932 in the French commune of Tarbes near the Pyrenees mountains. As a child he was raised by his grandmother in Barbezieux, Charente.

François initially went to university to study philosophy.

However music had always been a big interest of François's from a young age. He was inspired to enter the entertainment industry by watching French performer Henri Salvador in the film Mademoiselle s'amuse.

Other performers that François looked up to included Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and France's first Eurovision winner André Claveau.

Abandoning his philosophy studes, François started his music career in the early 1950s as a cabaret singer in Paris.

In 1956 he won the prestigious Grand Prix du Disque award from the Académie Charles Cros. This academy acts as an intermediary organisation between government cultural policy makers and the music industry.

François took a hiatus from his music career to do military service in Algeria, before being offered the opportunity to represent Monaco at Eurovision 1960.

1960: Unexpected medal placing

At the contest in London he sang the romantic French ballad Ce soir-là (English translation: That Night).

The song conveys the deep impact a beautiful, young girl imprints on François after meeting her for one night. This is best highlighted in the following phrase: "In your arms, I understood that from that night life would never have attraction for me far from you."

Tragically though, for reasons unexplained, the girl leaves François causing him to be heart-broken, as demonstrated through this line: "You tore my childhood dream by leaving me."

However in the last stanza François sings he will wait for her to come back forever: "I'll wait for you every day as long as I live, I'll be there that night."

The romantic yet heart-rendering story of the song is set to music that would be very appropriate in a James Bond movie, creating a mystical but also unsettling atmosphere.

François delivered a commanding performance of the song, which was received with rapturous applause.

When the voting started Monaco instantly gained 3 points from the French jury, already tripling its score from last year under the same voting system.

However the true excitement came when the third country to vote, Germany, awarded Monaco 7 points, taking the micro-state into the lead with 10 points. This was met with roars of astonishment from the English audience.

Monaco held onto its lead for a few more juries before it was overrun by runners-up United Kingdom, then winner France.

By the end of the evening Monaco had received 15 points. A long way off France's winning score of 32 points, but still a highly respectable effort for the tiny country.

Curiously France was represented that year by Jacqueline Boyer with Tom Pillibi, the daughter of Jacques Pills who had delivered Monaco its disastrous debut the year before.

1962: Respectable Runners-Up

Impressed by François's third place finish in 1960, two years later Monegasque officials invited him to represent their country again in 1962.

That year's contest was held in Luxembourg following Jean-Claude Pascal's win for the small country the previous year.

This time François had the honour of closing the contest.

He once again sang a romantic ballad titled Dis Rien (English translation: Say Nothing), however this one has a happier storyline, as demonstrated by its triumphant and uplifting music.

The main theme of this song is how François's love for this lady is so deep, not even words can comprehend its meaning and in fact ruin the strength of their romance. This is elucidated through the lines: "Say nothing, words are silly ... the words, it kills the dreams."

Indeed the depth of the romance is mainly physical and spiritual means as conveyed through the lines "My body drowning in yours, I'm as in a wave where my happiness roams, it's so profound, profound," and "My soul - your eyes possess it like a flame," respectively.

In the final stanza François expresses the depths of his love by singing that if he ever lost this lady he would "want to die a hundred times."

The juries once again bought François's heart felt performance.

The voting system was a little different in 1962, with each jury awarding three marks for their favourite song, two marks for their second favourite, and one mark for their third favourite.

At the end of the voting Monaco received 13 points - a long way off France's Isabelle Aubret who won with 26 points.

However it was enough to secure a historic runners-up placing for Monaco - an incredible effort by François again.

François is one of just five Eurovision acts to have finished runners-up and third without having won the contest, and the first to achieve this. The other acts are the UK's Cliff Richard, Germany's Katja Ebstein, Malta's Chiara Siracusa and Serbia's Željko Joksimović.

1966: From singing mic to commentary mic

The final chapter of François's journey saw him commentate on Eurovision 1966 for France, his home country.

As you can hear in the following video François's deep and sonorous provides rather comforting commentary for French viewers.

My favourite part of François's commentary is his consternation when the Scandinavian countries all vote for each other, in perhaps one of the earliest and most blatant examples of bloc-voting at Eurovision.

It is ironic that Monaco's most successful male Eurovision entrant did the commentary for France in the year the latter received its worst result up until that point.

France was represented by Dominque Walter with Chez nous and gained only a single point. The country that spared them from nul puan? None other than Monaco!

This result was viewed as a complete disaster by the French public, as at that point France had never finished outside the top five at Eurovision.

It was still better though than Monaco's fortunes in that particular contest.

Yugoslav singer Téréza was hand selected by Prince Albert's famous mother Grace Kelly to represent the micro-state at Eurovision. Sadly Grace's choice finished last with nul puan, which must have been quite embarrassing for the princess.

Perhaps France or Monaco would have had better luck at Eurovision 1966 if they had been represented by François himself.

I find it disappointing François's home country never sought his services to represent them at Eurovision given his outstanding results for Monaco. After all Frenchwoman Anne-Marie David, who won for Luxembourg in 1973, was eventually selected to represent her homeland at Eurovision in 1979.

François's life after Eurovision

François continued to have a moderately successful singing career after Eurovision into the 1970s.

His biggest single came in 1965 titled Le Ciel, le soleil et la mer (English translation: The Sky, The Sun and The Sea). The song has sold over 100 000 physical copies and has almost two million streams on Spotify.

In the 1970s François discovered his affinity with water and lived on a barge moored at a bridge.

For many years he also owned a sailing boat called Nectos III which he sailed during the summer months.

François continued performing up until 2006, as evidence by this performance of his biggest hit.

Sadly François died after a long battle with illness on January 22, 2014, aged 81.

This humble Frenchman with a litany of life experiences helped put tiny Monaco on the Eurovision map.

Delivering two out of a country's top three Eurovision results is no easy feat, which is why we at Aussievision celebrate François's magnificent Monegasque achievements on Monaco's National Day.

We wish all our Monegasque readers and followers a happy The Sovereign Prince's Day. We also hope to see your country return to the Eurovision stage one day!

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