The French selection process is gathering space. Today, the French head of delegation, Bruno Berberes confirmed to esctoday.com that France has selected the ten songs that will be sung in the national final. He also confirmed that France will be following Spain's lead with a big promotion campaign for the national final across the five French Channels, France 2, 3, 4, 5 and FRO.
Mr. Berberes also confirmed to esctoday.com that "It’s too early to tell you more but we have already selected 10 songs among 2000 proposals". A press conference will be held in early February with more details once plans are finalised.
So far, two of the 10 acts for the final have been selected. Valérie Louri and the group Medhi-T have been selected by RFO. France 2, France 3, France 4 and France 5 will each select two further artists. With 2000 proposed songs, France overtakes Spain for the second highest number of songs selected, pushing Spain into third place, but still over 1000 songs fewer than in Sweden. It also suggests that as in Spain, recent poor results has not effected the music industry'sresurgent interest in the Eurovision Song Contest.
France finished 22nd (third from last) in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Athens with the song Il était temps. As part of the big four, France is nevertheless directly qualified for the final in Helsinki.
