Will it be "France nul points" at Eurovision?

All right, so it might only be February but that hasn't stopped all Eurovision Song Contest eyes and ears from pointing towards the warblings promised in May in Moscow.

And France has already chosen its representative - and the song.

Patricia Kaas will be singing "Et s'il fallait le faire", a track lifted from her latest album "Kabaret" when she takes to the stage of the Olympiyski Indoor Arena in Moscow on May 16, and hopes are high - in France at least - that she will prove to be this country's not-so-secret weapon for victory.

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The United Kingdom might have had the temerity to choose a song penned specifically for the annual Jamboree by the internationally renowned composer, Andrew Lloyd Webber and American Grammy Award-winning lyricist Diane Warren to fly the flag in Moscow in the shape of Jade Ewen (who?) singing "It's My Time".

But France has gone one better - perhaps - in terms of cheek.

You see Kaas, who counts among her hits songs such as "Mademoiselle chante le blues" and "Mon mec à moi" has been a star since the late 1980s not just in France, but throughout Europe and most importantly - as far as the French are concerned for this year's contest - also in Eastern Europe and Russia.

And that could prove vital in a contest which has become as well-known for its apparently "politically-influenced" bloc voting over the years as much as it has for the musical "merit" of (some might say) rather cheesy songs.

A brief resumé for those of you (un)lucky enough not to know what the Eurovision Song Contest is all about.

It all started innocently enough way back in the 1950s - 1956 to be precise - in Switzerland, when just seven countries entered.

But since then, under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which came up with the idea of an international song contest in the first place, it has....well mushroomed would be putting it mildly.

So much so that when Dima Bilan won last year with "Believe" he had to face competition from songs representing 37 other countries in the semi-finals before making it through to the final.

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That has been the pattern ever since 2004 as the number of countries clamouring to compete has grown, and the EBU has been forced to split the contest into semi-final and final stages.

Only the so-called "Big Four" - Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and France - gain automatic qualification to the final round - no matter how poorly they might have done in the previous year's competition, because they're the biggest financial contributors to the EBU and without them the production costs to mount to contest would be prohibitive.

The country with the winning song (the voting procedure is cumbersome and protracted) then goes on to host the following year's contest.

Hence when Bilan chirped his way to victory in Belgrade last year, Russia was assured of organising this year's Songfest.

Still following?

Anyway enough of the history - there's plenty of other info out there (including more, much more on the all-important process of voting) in the Blogosphere if you're really that interested. Just follow the links.

When the curtain goes up on May 16 on an event reportedly watched by an estimated audience of 100 million people (where do they get these figures you might ask) it'll be Kaas out there representing this country.

The hopes are that after last year's poor performance for France by Sébastien Tellier, whose song "Divine" caused a storm-in-a-teacup row here because it was sung mainly in (horror upon horrors) English and notched up just 47 points to finish 19th (out of 25), Kaas will be able to fly the tricolour all the way to the top in Moscow.

Although France has never had the ignominy (or honour) of racking up the now infamous "nul points" at Eurovision, who knows, with Kaas, the country could join an illustrious list of past underachievers.

Take a listen and judge for yourself.

Roll on May! (?)