France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 with the song "Divine" written and performed by Sébastien Tellier. The French broadcaster France Télévisions in collaboration with the television channel France 3 internally selected the French contest entry for the 2008 contest in Belgrade, Serbia. "Divine" was officially presented to the public by France 3 as the French entry on 7 March 2008.
As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 19, France placed nineteenth out of the 25 participating countries with 47 points.
Background
Prior to the 2008 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifty times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in . France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. In the 21st century, France has had less success, only making the top ten two times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001 and Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002. In 2007, the nation finished in twenty-second place with the song "L'amour à la française" performed by les Fatals Picards.
The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and delegates the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 3. France 3 confirmed that France would participate in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on 27 November 2007. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. The French entries from 2005 to 2007 were selected via a national final that featured several competing acts. In 2008, the broadcaster opted to internally select the French entry.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
France 3 announced in early 2008 that the French entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected internally. The organisation of the internal selection was headed by the French Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest Bruno Berberes. On 7 March 2008, France 3 announced that the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 would be "Divine" performed by Sébastien Tellier. The song, performed entirely in English and is the first song performed entirely in the English language that was selected to represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest, was written by Sébastien Tellier and had already been released as a single from Tellier's recent album Sexuality, which was released on 25 February 2008. However, "Divine" was later edited and included additional lyrics in French.
Controversy
The announcement of "Divine" as the French entry garnered controversy as the lyrics of the song were mostly in English. On 15 March 2008, Member of French Parliament François-Michel Gonnot from the UMP Party stated that the French broadcaster "is giving up defending its language in front of hundreds of millions of television viewers around the world", which was further supported by French Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophony Alain Joyandet who issued a statement on 17 April 2008, pledging Tellier to "honor the French language" as "when one has the honour of being selected to represent France, one sings in French".
In response to the public criticism, Sébastien Tellier's producer Marc Teissier du Cros disagreed that "singing in French is the best way to make oneself understood by the whole world" as "half the Eurovision candidates [in the 2008 contest] are singing in English". Tellier also responded in an interview with RTL Radio that attempts would be made to include more French lyrics, as well as revealing that he would have written a song entirely in French if he had been asked by France 3 to write a song specifically for Eurovision instead of selecting his contest entry from his album.