The Shortlist (10): France

Who are the big favorites for Stockholm? In the next couple of weeks we will highlight some interesting participants, based on the odds they have been given by the bookmakers. This week we are providing a shortlist of the four countries that lead the board who have automatically qualified to the final. Today’s report is France.

Amir
Amir Haddad was born in France but immigrated to Israel at the age of eight. During this time Amir participated in the Israeli version of Pop Idol performing mostly French language songs however was eliminated after four rounds. After serving his obligatory time in the Israeli military Amir moved back to France where he got signed to a French music label.

His most notable claim to fame was during his participation on the third season of The Voice France. He made it to the final but finished third with 18% of the public vote. He has since gone on to release two tracks in France, which performed less than stellar in the French charts.

France 2 TV continued to choose its entry internally for 2016 and explained that two songs stood out to represent France – Amir’s “J’ai cherché” and Sasha’s “Alive”. Due to the track exceeding three minutes, Skydancers and Nazim Khaled remixed the track to fit into three minutes.

“J’ai cherché”
His song “J’ai cherché” is an upbeat acoustic-pop song that utilises Amir’s vocal range to provide a dynamic track and a catchy vocal hook during each chorus. Lyrically the song is in French and English and transcends well in both languages. J’ai cherché translates as “I’ve been looking” which features during the English sung parts of the track. Lyrical concept of the track denotes a declaration of a person dear to Amir who he has “been looking for” to love.

Explaining the odds
France qualifies straight to the final due to being one of the ‘Big 6’ countries. Currently France is the second most popular country that automatically has qualified below Sweden and sixth overall to win the whole contest.

France is currently considered a dark horse for victory having previously been bookmakers favourite to win. France at the moment is getting odds of 21-to-1. This means that if you bet 1€ on France to win the competition, you get 21€, twenty-one times the return if you turn out to be right.