Anggun’s 22nd place made headlines all over France immediately after the contest. Anggun herself expressed her big disappointment. “I don’t understand these votes”, she said to radio station RTL, “We deserved a Top 10 position, Top 5 or even Top 3. Sweden was a clear leader, that was my personal favourite too, but I surely think we didn’t deserve this”. On her personal Twitter account, the artist expressed her feelings: «Sincerely disappointed with the result, we had a blast on stage and did the best we could. Note to self: don’t take it personally?»

 

Anggun’s husband, Cyril Montana (journalist, novelist and radio producer), wrote a long article in weekly L’Express. It is a love letter to his wife as well as a pamphlet on the result. Mr Montana writes as if the entry placed in the Top 5 and funnily says that “Anggun loves her country France so much that she didn’t want to change the French tradition… not to win the competition”. It also deals with the political situation in Azerbaijan.

“Anggun did her best in Baku”, wrote France Soir. The journalist pointed out that Belgium and Italy didn’t even give points”. “Cruel disappointment”, said Le Figaro.

Another debate quickly arose, with newspapers asking “Anggun and France punished ?” or “France victim of a geopolitical vote ?”. The usual statements. Thierry Langlois, manager at France 3, declared : “Anggun’s song didn’t deserve this placing, Eurovision is hard work. We will talk with the EBU because there’s a debate on the way points are given”.

As for France at Eurovision, Mr Langlois said : “We will change the way to select the entrant. We can’t afford to have big names suffering such a defeat any longer. From now on, we will give the card to new talents and make promotion around it”.

The Eurovision final show itself was not the most viewed TV program last week. It placed on second position, with nearly 4 millions viewers (market share at 23%). It peaked at 8,8 millions at 11:06 PM, which is the best figure since last September on France 3.