
Every year I lament the fate of the French, who I feel have had some great entries that haven’t got the results they deserve. This year I’m just going to suck it up and say ‘Bravo!’ for another great national final. It’s not all a parade of hits, but mon dieu, it’s a heck of a lot more interesting than what the BBC can come up with.
The emergence of the social media star is beginning to have very real impact on ‘real’ life, and we’ve seen online ‘celebrities’ cross over into traditional media channels as talent and reality show contestants. Bilal is one example, boosted no doubt by his online fanbase. You can scoff at this all you like, but you’re just going to come across as an out of touch Cnut trying to turn back the tide. Increasingly social media support is going to have an influence on Eurovision, particularly at national final levels.
What it brings is a more diverse sensibility, one where a gender-queer Arabic artist like Bilal can both find a voice and thrive, inspiring a section of a whole new generation that once might have been the outsider. His song echoes this, another example of finding strength in your own identity that swept an artist like Conchita to victory in 2014. I’m excited that we live in a time where this is made possible.
However, the opportunities of the medium also highlight its limitations. Bilal is not yet an artist with extensive performance experience (which showed during the national show), and as we well know national fame can count for jack when being judged by international viewers. This renders this something of an unknown quantity until we see what they do with it in May. I hope they do something fantastic; this is the kind of message we need to be heard.
Monty’s score: 10 points