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.