Sometimes a national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest takes months and months of carefully scheduled preselection shows. And sometimes a country simply turns up one morning and unexpectedly announces its participant. Today, broadcaster France 2 revealed on its Facebook page that Lisa Angell will represent the country at the 2015 contest in Vienna with “N’oubliez pas” (Don’t Forget), a song that is said to lyrically evoke the First World War as well as embodying a wider message of peace. You can hear a clip of the song here.
On first listen, “N’oubliez pas” appears to be a return to a more traditional form of French ballad – perhaps unsurprisingly, considering the composer is a certain Robert Goldman, brother of French music legend Jean-Jacques Goldman. Robert, who often writes under the name J Kapler/Jill Kapler, also composed Natasha St-Pier’s “Je n’ai que mon âme”, the French entry in 2001. That song’s 4th-place finish was France’s best result at ESC in the past two decades.
Now it’s the turn of 46-year-old Lisa Angell to defend the nation’s colours. Angell, who has scored two top 40 albums in France this decade, will participate in the grand final on Saturday, 23 May, as France qualifies directly due to its status as one of the contest’s major financial contributors. Whatever her result, it would be hard for her to do as badly as the last French entrants – in 2014, TwinTwin finished in a clear last place with their song “Moustache”.
0 Comments