France has not won Eurovision since 1977. To believe that a curse hangs over France. The 2023 edition does not seem favorable to a victory for La Zarra either, and we explain why.
Is France cursed at Eurovision? This is the question that we can ask ourselves after decades of defeats in the European singing competition. This year, it is La Zarra who has been chosen to represent the tricolor flag at the event being held in Liverpool, this Saturday, May 13, 2023. Will she finally offer victory to France and put an end to this long crossing of the desert? It is far from certain.
France has not won Eurovision since Marie Myriam’s victory in 1977. And if the quality of certain performances has been criticized, our candidates have also had bad luck several times in this long crossing of the desert. In 1974 already, when the singer Dani, on the rise, had every chance with her song Life at 25, France is simply forced to withdraw from the event because… of George Pompidou’s funeral, which falls on the same day as the final! In 1991, new tile: Amina is a hit with her title It’s the last one who spoke who is right and even fails to win since it ends ex-aequo with Sweden. The jurors must choose a winner and dissect the figures and the rules of Eurovision to decide between the countries on a par and end up favoring the Nordic country.
The controversy that will scuttle the candidacy of France in 1999 is even more surprising. From her selection, the French artist Nayah will be controversial, but she will hang on to go until the competition to finally finish in the bottom of the ranking, in 19th place. The reason this time: the singer belonged to an apocalyptic religious sect!
Will the curse theory, now installed among some fans, be verified again this year? In any case, serious indicators point to a defeat for France at Eurovision 2023. First of all, the bookmakers do not believe in a victory for La Zarra on Saturday. On May 11, bettors estimated that the French-speaking candidate had a 4% chance of winning, a figure that has been constantly falling for several days and, above all, far behind Sweden, the big favorite, whose victory was estimated at the same time. at 49%. If the bookmakers could sometimes be wrong in their forecasts, they had perfectly predicted the victories of Ukraine in 2022, Italy in 2021 or even the Netherlands in 2019. Not really encouraging.
Moreover, some observers believe that the order of passage of La Zarra, in the first part of the evening, will be penalizing. The public of Eurovision would vote more easily for the last services seen, that is to say those of the end of the evening. However, counter-examples, such as the victory of Dutchman Duncan Laurence in 2019, undermine this theory. A few years ago, on the other hand, it was considered better to go first, when the viewers’ attention was full.
Some will also underline the weight of politics in the Eurovision verdict. If last year, sympathy for Ukraine at war undoubtedly contributed to the country’s victory, in addition to the acclaimed performance of Kalush Orchestra, France suffers on the contrary from a chronic animosity towards it which does not help to obtain points from other countries. But let’s keep hope: the public’s vote can however reverse the trend, and a surprise is never excluded at Eurovision.