ALVAN and AHEZ. The Breton group Alvan & Ahez and their song “Fulenn” carry France’s hopes for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, the final of which is being held this Saturday, May 14 in Turin, Italy.
[Mis à jour le 14 mai 2022 à 08h12] It’s the big day for the Eurovision final! For this 2022 edition, all French eyes are on the Breton group Alvan & Ahez, which represents France at Torino, in Italy, where the European singing competition is held this year. The French will be the sixth to perform at the ceremony. But do the tricolor standard bearers have a chance of winning and doing better than the second place offered last year by Barbara Pravi with the song There ?
Each year, predictions are made by international bookmakers, who bet on the country which they believe will win. For this 66th edition of Eurovision, it is Ukraine and Kalush Orchestra which is acclaimed, with a 59% chance of winning, a figure which increases as the final approaches. As for France, you have to go down to 16th place in the ranking of bookmakers, who estimate the chances for Alvan & Ahez to win at less than 1%… Will the Breton group prove them wrong? Answer tomorrow.
It’s with the song Fulennwhich means “spark” and “young girl”, that they will carry the French hopes, a year after the second place won by Barbara Pravi and the title There. “Fulenn, it means spark and pretty girl in Breton, with for this last expression a slightly pejorative connotation, as if to say light girl, and we wanted to take this expression on the opposite foot and carry an emancipatory discourse for women. We sing the story of a young girl who goes dancing at nightfall around a bonfire, she takes everyone with her, pushing back the slanderous looks”, explains to AFP Marine Lavigne, one of the three young women in the group.
It was on Saturday March 5, at the end of the Eurovision France program, that the group Alvan et Ahez was designated French flag bearer with the song Fulenn. A total of twelve candidates were in the running during this telecrochet, hosted by Laurence Boccolini and broadcast on France 2. The Bretons therefore found themselves in the place of successors to singer Barbara Pravi, who offered France a second place in the competition. of Eurovision 2021, never seen since 1991 and Amina.
Alvan, Marine, Stereen D. and Stereen form the group Alvan & Ahez, a name borrowed from a figure from Breton mythology. “We met in a bar last summer, explained Alvan to Tele-Leisure. We discussed our respective musical universes. Alvan had already written a piece, and he was considering the possibility of adding Breton voices. We listened, and I hooked directly on what he was proposing. In the process, I called Sterenn Diridollou and Sterenn Le Guillou. We sing together at Breton festivals. We wrote lyrics, and that’s how it was born Fulenn.”
So it is with the song Fulenn that the Alvan and Ahez group will have the heavy task of trying to do better than Barbara Pravi and her second place with the title There in 2021. The title of the Breton song means “spark” and “pretty girl”. “It is made with the heart”, explains Alvan in the columns of TV Mag du Figaro. “She is unclassifiable”, adds Sterenn Diridolou, member of the group. And to Setrenn Le Guillou to conclude: “It’s a cauldron in which everyone put a little of what they liked, the influences of Alexis, the values we want to defend, the words, the language, our identity . It’s really a song that looks like us, and we want to take it to the highest level!”
Before the Eurovision Song Contest, each of the competing countries reveals the song with which its candidate will defend its colors. The same goes for France, which unveiled its representative on March 5, 2022. The group Alvan & Ahez therefore uploaded the clip for its song Fulenn on YouTube on May 6, 2022.
In the song Fulenn, the group Alvan & Ahez therefore sings in Breton. The lyrics evoke a young girl, who dances around a bonfire in spite of judgments. “In the darkness of the woods the night sprouts. The stars appear in the restless rustling. A feminine shadow twirls in the light of a torch. Ignoring the wild beasts, I dance. I steal the fire from their full gazes of lust. And changes it into a song to be sung in unison. She dances with the devil, so what?”, sings the Breton group.
But then what do the French think of their representative at Eurovision 2022? If the opinions are mixed, both the difference with Barbara Pravi and There in 2021 is great. Like every year, the most watched comments are those of the bookmakers, who bet on the winner of the edition. For this 2022 competition, Ukraine wins all the votes. France and Alvan & Ahez are hovering around tenth position with, according to bettors, a 1% chance of winning Eurovision.