Back in 1986, the extremely popular French humorist Coluche created a charity commonly and familiarly known as Les Restos du Cœur, the main activity of which is to distribute food packages and hot meals to the needy and homeless people. The initiative was supported by a song penned by the as much popular songwriter and singer Jean-Jacques Goldman (who is the brother of Robert Goldman aka Jill Kapler who wrote the 2001 French Eurovision entry) called Les Restos du Cœur, which included some of the lyrics being sung or read out by many celebrities. Soon enough, televised shows, live concerts and tours would be organised following the release of an album every year, raising millions of French francs and later on millions of Euros for the needy.

This year again, many artists and celebrities in France gathered all together under the colloquial nickname Les Enfoirés to promote the action of Les Restos du Cœur and raise as much money as possible with the release of a new album entitled Le bal des Efoirés which has sold more than 400,000 copies already since last November. The main single Attention au départ, penned by Jean-Jacques Goldman and in which one will recognise the voices of Patrick Fiori, who took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in Millstreet in 1993, and Natasha St-Pier, who entered the Copenhagen edition in 2001, also reached the top of the French music charts. The annual live show aired on France’s main TV channel TF1 was followed by almost 14,000,000 viewers and the ticket sales for the forthcoming tour entitled La boîte à musique des Enfoirés are proving the initiative a success once more.

Official video (available in certain countries only)

The whole concept of Les Restos du Cœur has been exported to Belgium as well where more than 40,000 meals are served each winter thanks to the organisation. Since 2008, some of the French artists of Les Enfoirés team up with some famous Belgian singers and celebrities to raise funds for the cause. United under the stage name of Tour du Cœur Belge, they released their new anthem days ago. Titled Notre liberté, the song is a composition by the French singer Merwan Rim and counts on the participation of two Belgian Eurovision entrants: Plastic Bertrand, who entered the Eurovision Song Contest held in his hometown Brussels on behalf of Luxembourg in 1987, and the young Roberto Bellarosa who will fly the Belgian flag in Malmö next May.