The French national selection, Destination Eurovision, concluded last night after two weeks of semi-finals, where 18 artists performed their potential Eurovision songs, with just 8 qualifying to the final.
With two strong favourites from each semi-final, Bilal Hassani and Seemone, it was going to be a tight race to the end. The results were decided with 50% international jury vote, and also 50% televote. For the final, there were 10 jurors from a range of countries.
Here is the full line-up:
- Chimène Badi – Là -haut
- Silvà n Areg – Allez leur dire
- The Divaz – La voix d’Aretha
- Emmanuel Moire – La promesse
- Doutson – Sois un bon fils
- Seemone – Tous les deux
- Bilal Hassani – Roi
- Aysat – Comme une grande
In the jury vote, Seemone scored the most 12 points with a total of 5. Silvà n Areg was also a popular choice with the jury, having recieved 3 sets of 12 points from the jury. Chimène Badi and The Divaz also scored a 12 points each. In total for the jury vote, Seemone topped the list with 94 points, with Silvà n Areg placing second with 76 points. In third was Emmanuel Moire followed by Chimène Badi.
The voting was not over at this stage, with the public votes still left to reveal. It then became clear that the public had different opinions on the competing entries, as Bilal Hassani topped the televote with an incredible 150 points. Chimène Badi was the second favourite with the public receiving 63 points, and Seemone with 62 points. Although Seemone had the lead in the jury vote, it was not enough to score the win as Bilal Hassani finished with 200 points, while Seemone was in second place overall with 156 points.
Bilal Hassani was born in 1999 in Paris however has Moroccan origin. He has been performing since the age of 5, and in 2015 he competed in the second season of the Voice Kids France where he performed the song Rise Like A Phoenix by Conchita Wurst for the blind audition. He joined the team of Patrick Fiori who represented France at Eurovision in 1993.
Roi was co-written with last year’s French representatives Madame Monsieur.
Listen to the song below: