France's almost nul points at the Eurovision Song Contest

From the wurst - bravo Austria's Conchita...

Conchita Wurst (screenshot Eurovision TV)

 ...to the very worst Les Twin Twin from France with fewer points (two) than group members three and a deserved last place.

Friday's French music break - Twin Twin, "Moustache"

Friday's French music break this week is the song you've been waiting for - France's entry to that annual musical jamboree, the Eurovision Song Contest.

Yes, the song that will carry the hopes of a nation and (probably) disappoint as usual has been chosen.

Representing France in Copenhagen in May will be the trio of Lorent Idir, François Djemel and Patrick Biyik who make up the paradoxically-named Twin Twin.

Twin Twin (screenshot France 3 "Les chansons d'abord"

Their gloriously dire "Moustache" was chosen by a combined panel of music "experts" and the voting public from among three "finalists" and the "winner" was announced on France 3's "Les chansons d'abord" on Sunday March 2.

"Moustache", bears more than a passing resemblance to Belgian singer Stromae's (excellent) "Papaoutai" with a dash of former child star Jordy's 1992 hit (the ghastly) "Dur dur d'être bébé!" thrown in for good measure.

If you need a bit of convincing, close your eyes and take a listen to Twin Twin and Stromae back-to-back or you could listen to all three titles (just click on the links provided) on the mashup made by DJs on Virgin radio.

Although the group has admitted there's some (!!!) similarity at the beginning of both their song and that of Stromae, they've denied accusations of plagiarism saying that the song was written a year before the release of Belgian singer's album ("Racine carrée").

"We're flattered to be compared with Stromae," the group said. "He's a great artist but the word 'plagiarised' isn't really appropriate."

All right. How about "copied" then?

France hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1977 and in recent years has placed (to say the least) poorly.

The method over the last six years for choosing the country's entry had been for the execs at France Télévisions to choose an artist and then the song.

All very democratic and hugely unsuccessful; producing a string of also-rans with last year's entry from Amandine Bourgeois finishing in 23rd place.

So a change of strategy was adopted this year with three artists and three songs being put to that combined "expert" and voting public vote - the first time it has happened since 2007.

Mind you, that doesn't bode particularly well either.

That year's entry -  Les Fatals Picards with "L'amour à la française" (the link also has Terry Wogan's "Gosh, wasn't that awful" commentary) totted up a magnificent 19 points to finish 22nd out of the 24 finalists.

Here you go then. Here's Twin Twin with "Moustache".

France "nul points"?

Er...enjoy (!!!)

Plagiarism claims levelled against French Eurovision hopefuls Twin Twin

France hasn't even chosen its contestant to place poorly in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, but already one of the contenders is creating a buzz.

And not for the right reasons.

The confusingly (purposefully) named trio Twin Twin are being accused by many of having "plagiarised" one of 2013's biggest-selling songs in France in an effort...well presumably to make it through as France's representative at this year's songfest to be held in the Danish capital Copenhagen in May.

Twin Twin (screenshot from France 3 television)

Their group's song, "Moustache", bears more than a passing resemblance to Belgian singer Stromae's (excellent) "Papaoutai" with a dash of former child star Jordy's 1992 hit (the ghastly) "Dur dur d'être bébé!" thrown in for good measure.

If you need a bit of convincing, close your eyes and take a listen to Twin Twin and Stromae back-to-back or you could listen to all three titles (just click on the links provided) on the mashup made by DJs on Virgin radio.





The group has admitted there is some (!!!) similarity at the beginning of both their song and that of Stromae, but has denied accusations of plagiarism saying that the song was written a year before the release of Belgian singer's album ("Racine carrée").

"We're flattered to be compared with Stromae," the group said. "He's a great artist but the word 'plagiarised' isn't really appropriate."

All right. How about "copied" then?

France hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1977 and in recent years has placed (to say the least) poorly.

The usual method for choosing the country's entry has been for the execs at France Télévisions to choose an artist and then the song.

All very democratic and hugely unsuccessful producing a string of also-rans with last year's entry from Amandine Bourgeois finishing in 23rd place.

So a change of strategy this year with three artists and three songs being put to a public vote.

They are of course "Moustache" from Twin Twin, a semi-finalist in a past edition of Star Academy Joanna, singing "Ma liberté" (you can listen that here) and "Sans toi" - an English-French mix from the group Destan

All three acts have already performed at the so-called National Finals televised on France 3 and it's now up to the public to decide which one will represent the country in Copenhagan in May.

The "winner" will be revealed towards the end of February.

Paris hotel opens an anti-snoring room

The InterContinental-owned Crowne Plaza chain of hotels perhaps has the answer for travellers whose sleep is disturbed by their partners snorting and grunting their way through the night.

The chain is testing a "snore absorption room" in nine different hotels across Europe and the Middle East from June 27 to July 1.

Crowne Plaza Paris République (screenshot from YouTube video)

One of the hotels at which guests can book the snore absorption room - at the same price as any standard room - is the Crowne Plaza Paris République in the French capital.

And as Olivier Billard, the Rooms Division Manager of the hotel, told Europe 1, the idea is to allow both guests in the room to get a good night's sleep.

"The concept is being tested throughout the week at our hotel in just one room which has been specially converted to minimise the noise made by the person snoring," he told a rather perplexed and definitely ill-behaved team during Laurent Ruquier's afternoon round-table radio show on Monday.

"The walls and the headboard have been sound-proofed and there's also a special anti-snoring pillow which prevents the person from lying on his or her back," he continued.

"To help the person being kept awake by the snoring there's a white noise machine which emits a relaxing sound similar to the wind in the trees."

Sceptics might think that the idea nothing more than a publicity stunt especially as it's on a trial basis.

But as Business Traveller points out the Crowne Plaza chain has a reputation for "innovation".

In 2010 for example it came up with the idea of putting real grass in a number of its meeting rooms at two of its British and one of its Irish hotels to "unlock some long-forgotten childhood creativity."

And last year as part of an eco-friendly initiative the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers in Denmark installed electricity-producing bicycles and offered guests a free meal if they produced 10 watt hours of power.

Sweet dreams

Handball ref who dropped his pants sent home from World Championships

The men's handball World Championship is currently taking place in Sweden with 24 countries battling it out to lift the title held by France.

The tournament is due to run until the end of January, but for one man it has all ended rather abruptly - and it wasn't one of the players.

France's Olympic gold-winning men's handball team, Beijing, 2008 (from Wikipedia, author Jmex60)

As The Local, an English-language online news site based in Sweden, reported, one of the referees for the tournament has been banned after he exposed himself to staff at the hotel in which he was staying in Göteborg, a city on the western coast of the country.

He was apparently arrested last Thursday evening after hotel cleaners alleged he had exposed himself in front of them.

Police detained him overnight for questioning, says The Local, on "suspicion of sexual molestation", but no charges were brought and he was released the following morning.

When the sport's governing body, the International Handball Federation (IHF), got wind of what had happened it immediately took action.

It issued a statement on its website saying that it had suspended the man from the tournament and had asked local authorities for more details on the incident before it would decide what further measures to take.

Neither the name nor the nationality of the man who apparently felt the need to dangle his privates in public has been released, according to Agence France Presse,

But TV4 news website nyhetskanalen.se reported that he had been spotted on Friday travelling to the Danish capital Copenhagen to take a flight back home.

The 2011 men's handball World Championship is the 22nd time the tournament has been held since 1938.

France are the current Olympic, World and European champions.