France announced Thursday to rely on Eurovision 2023 in May for Quebecer La Zarra, revealed by her hit you will go away in 2021, without going through a jury and public vote as in recent years.
“It’s very funny, when I was little, my mother used to sing to me The child and the bird “, told AFP the singer. ” It’s a sign ! exclaims next to her Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French delegation to Eurovision.
It is with this title that the Franco-Portuguese Marie Myriam had won, in 1977, the last French victory at Eurovision.
According to Alexandra Redde-Amiel, director of entertainment and games for the France Télévisions group, the external selection, by vote of a jury and the public, put on hold in 2023, “will return in 2024”.
The artist La Zarra – stage name chosen in reference to “La Môme”, nickname of Edith Piaf – cultivates an image between glamor and mystery. His age is unknown. She just said in the paper The Parisian come from a family of seven children born in Quebec to North African parents.
During Eurovision scheduled for May 13 in Liverpool, she will defend France with a song that will be unveiled soon. “With Eurovision, my character of La Zarra will evolve, grow and there may be little surprises,” says the singer.
For Alexandra Redde-Amiel, “La Zarra is full of characters: it is mysterious, iconic, extravagant, discreet, embodies French chic, is charismatic. Everything is in place for a very beautiful future winner, ”she judges.
The artist, who lives mainly these days in Paris, “feels a little French”. “I was quickly adopted, Quebec and France are very close. I don’t know if it’s because of our accent [rires]but you like us, and it is a pride to represent France”, develops the one who says she has “the French variety” in her “DNA”.
How does she manage the song of a lifetime, the one to be performed in mondiovision? “I can’t sleep at night [rires]. More seriously, I did a lot of combat sports, boxing: we repeat the movements so that the body learns; for Eurovision, we will repeat, repeat, until it is easy to sing in front of hundreds of millions of viewers”.
In 2001, France had already been represented at Eurovision by a Canadian, Natasha St-Pier, who finished fourth.