France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez was the national final organised by France 2 to select France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition took place on 30 January 2021, produced at the France Télévisions studios Paris and was hosted by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini. The show was broadcast on France 2, online via the broadcaster's official website france.tv as well as on TV5Monde and TV5 Québec Canada on a time delay.

France 2 opened a submission period on 29 June 2020 in order for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals through an online submission form up until the deadline on 30 September 2020. Songs were required to contain a majority of French language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics.[1] At the closing of the deadline, the French broadcaster received 700 submissions. A selection committee reviewed the received submissions, shortlisted twenty entries for an audition round which took place at the Apollo Théâtre in Paris and selected twelve to compete in the national final.[2][3] The competing artists and songs were announced on 9 December 2020.[4]

The final took place on 30 January 2021. Twelve entries competed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top seven entries were determined exclusively by public televoting to advance to the second round, the superfinal. An additional entry was determined from the remaining five entries by a ten-member jury panel to advance. The jury panel consisted of Amir (jury president, singer, songwriter, represented France in the 2016 contest), Chimène Badi (singer), Michèle Bernier (comedian), Agustín Galiana (Spanish singer and comedian), Jean-Paul Gaultier (fashion designer), Élodie Gossuin (television presenter), Duncan Laurence (Dutch singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019), André Manoukian (jazz singer and former judge on Nouvelle Star), Marie Myriam (singer, winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 1977) and Natasha St-Pier (singer, represented France in the 2001 contest). In the superfinal, the winner, "Voilà" performed by Barbara Pravi, was determined by the combination of public televoting (50%) and the jury panel (50%).[5]

The show opened with a medley of Eurovision songs with the 12 contestants and members of the jury. During the first round of voting, Amir performed a medley of his songs from his three French-language albums. Valentina, winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020, performed a two-song medley of her winning song "J'imagine" and Celine Dion's winning song from 1988 "Ne partez pas sans moi" with the 8 superfinalists during the final round of voting.