France nul points-bound for Eurovision?

If you thought the tale of the French entry at this year's annual "musical" (the term has to be used lightly) jamboree that is the Eurovision Song Contest was over - think again.

After deciding who would represent the country a couple of months ago, the choice of song has now been made.

Amaury Vassili (screenshot from YouTube video)

Back in February the Powers that Be at France Television decided who would sing the French entry at this year's bash.

None of that namby-pamby, letting-the-public-choose nonsense in France.

TV execs "wield the stick" and they plumped for 21-year-old Amaury Vassili, a singer with a "fine lyric tenor voice" (and lots of hair).

You know the sort of thing: not quite classical and certainly ill-suited for opera, but pleasant enough to listen to - if you're into that sort of tra-la-la-ing.

When the choice was announced, the promise was made that the song would be especially written for him and would be sung in the Corsican dialect*, which makes a great deal of sense for someone born in the northeast of the country.

Whatever.

That commitment has been honoured and Vassili will be singing his lungs out next month with...wait for it...this.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!



Yes. France - one of the stalwarts of the competition has done itself...er...proud.

Dramatic - overly so - camp and tedious are three words that spring to mind.

And even though that might describe what Eurovision has become (and perhaps always was), with such an - ahem - "unusual" entry, does the France really stand any chance of lifting a title it hasn't won since 1977?

Maybe.

Over the years stranger songs have been entered and even won.

Who will ever forget Norway's 1995-winning ethereal nonsense "Nocturne" by Secret Garden or Finland's laughable head banging "Hard rock hallelujah" from Lordi 11 years later.

A rhetorical question.

So perhaps there's some hope for this year's Gallic entry.

Just don't put too much money on it winning.

You'll be able to find out for yourself on May 14 when the final will be broadcast live to millions from the German city of Düsseldorf.

* If English-speakers out there thought that they would have problems understanding France's entry, spare a thought for the French.

Not even the official Eurovision site has come up with a translation into French, although it has helpfully provided the original Corsican and English

So now you can sing along too!

"Sognu di ste labbre
Di sta voce chjara è pura
Mai spentu ricordu di tè
Quella notte cui cun tè

I dream of those lips
The voice, clear and pure
I still think of you
That night, there with you"