ZARRA EUROVISION. France, represented at Eurovision 2023 by La Zarra, finished in 16th position, arousing strange reactions from the singer.
[Mis à jour le 15 mai 2023 à 10h42] Bad loser or victim of a contest of circumstance? Since the end of Eurovision, late in the evening on Saturday May 13, comments have been going strong on the post-competition of La Zarra, who represented France with his song Obviously and who finished the competition in 16th place in the final ranking.
It is the Swedish Loreen who won Eurovision 2023, with her song Tattoos. A disappointment all the greater for the tricolor delegation, especially since the bookmakers, very followed bettors of Eurovision, had predicted La Zarra a third place. “I’m very, very happy to have taken part in Eurovision. I’m very happy with everything that happened.”, she declared to BFM TV, moments after Loreen’s victory was announced. “There are people who sing Obviously, who sing about the Francophonie. I think we’re winning just with that,” she added.
But behind this apparent fair play, two gestures from La Zarra particularly caught the attention of commentators and reacted on social networks. The first is the departure of the singer and the French delegation, even before the announcement of the name of the winner of Eurovision 2023. Faced with numerous comments on social networks, La Zarra explains to the French press that he left the room ” simply because we sit for long hours and my bladder is very small. I had to get up to relieve myself!”
The second gesture of La Zarra to have provoked strong criticism on social networks is the supposed middle finger made when announcing his points and therefore his 16th place.
“Toz” or finger of honor, the gesture of La Zarra irritates
When La Zarra learned that the public had awarded him 50 points, the artist made a hand gesture interpreted by many as a kind of middle finger. According The Parisian, this gesture would actually be a “toz”. This word is a derivative of the word “pet” in the Arabic language, and the gesture associated with it is used to mean “a categorical refusal, indifference, even exasperation”, writes the Ile-de-France daily. A gesture that many viewers of Eurovision 2023 did not fail to notice, and which aroused many criticisms. Review below the gesture in question, shared by a user on Twitter.
A press conference of the singer was then organized after the announcement of the results to try to cut short the nascent controversy. La Zarra claimed it was “absolutely not” a middle finger. “Although I represent France, I also have a double culture. It’s a bit generational. It’s not a negative gesture, on the contrary, it’s a gesture of disappointment that we use between friends”, she defended herself.
“There are a lot of gestures which, in other countries, mean something else”, she continued, before saying “understand” that “it is considered as another gesture” by French spectators. La Zarra finally said she was “very happy” to have participated in Eurovision. Words reported by The Parisian. The boss of the French delegation, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, then defended the explanations of her candidate, as reported BFM TV. “It’s very cultural, as (La Zarra) explains: it’s a gesture that means ‘it doesn’t matter’ (…) It is urgent that the press put the church back in the middle of the village,” she said.
Watch video of La Zarra’s performance at Eurovision
Relive La Zarra’s performance with his song Obviously, during Eurovision 2023, this Saturday May 13, 2023 in Liverpool:
ObviouslyLa Zarra’s song for Eurovision
This year, therefore, France Télévisions relied on Obviously, a title subtly located between French song and electro, even disco. On Sunday February 19, 2023, a few weeks after being announced as a French representative at Eurovision, La Zarra had unveiled this piece with which she defended, in vain, France in Liverpool. A title written by the artist herself with the Canadian Benny Adam and produced by the electro duo Banx & Ranx.
“The song Obviously arrived while I was doing a seminar in the South of France for my second album, which will be released after Eurovision and will be followed by a tour. I hummed it and it stayed. We wrote it in three nights, because we don’t sleep. It was very easy to do, in a good mood, very passionate, even if the note where I sing the great France was hard for me”, explained the artist to the Parisian after his selection.
Who is La Zarra, French candidate for Eurovision?
Fatima Zahra Hafdi, known as La Zarra, was born on August 25, 1997 in Montreal, Canada. In the columns of Parisian, she says she comes from a family of seven children, including six girls, born in Quebec to parents who emigrated from the Maghreb. But refuses to give his age. In 2016, she collaborated with Niro on the song white spring. But before breaking into music, La Zarra worked as a hairdresser. She then moved to Paris.
It is in 2021 that the notoriety of La Zarra explodes with the song you will go away, which plays in a loop on the radio as well as on television. Nominated in the Francophone Revelation category at the NRJ Music Awards 2021, she released her first album, Treacheryin 2022. The following year, she was appointed by France Télévisions as the French representative at Eurovision 2023, on May 13 in Liverpool, United Kingdom.