We know a lot about Eurovision; this is knowledge we want to share with you. Therefore we’d like to bring you a blast from the past. This time we’re going back to 1995, to the French entry of that year.
France in the Eurovision Song Contest
In 1987, France had a national final for the last time. It was not quite a success, so French TV decided to quit national finals. It appeared to be a good choice, with lots of successes. Joelle Ursull (1990) and Amina (1991) even came second. Reason enough to do an internal selection again.
Nathalie Santamaria
The French singer, Nathalie Santamaria, was born in Ajaccio, Corsica in 1973. She studied musicology (piano) at the conservatory of Nice. However, Santamaria was not a wellknown or experienced singer when she was chosen to represent France, back in 1995. Dutch commenter Paul de Leeuw resumed it like this: “It’s as if they said to her: ‘guess what you are doing within two weeks’. ‘Working at the supermarket’, she replied. ‘No, they answered, you are at Eurovision’!”
The single “Il me donne rendez-vous” was Nathalie’s first record. In 1997, she released an album: “Entre rêve & realités”. The album contained twelve songs. The entire album can be found on YouTube. After this album, it remained silent around Nathalie.
The song
“Il me donne rendez-vous” (He sets a date with me) was written by Didier Barbelivien and composed by François Bernheim. You can find the lyrics here. Barbelivien wrote the lyrics of the Monegask and French entries in 1978, and the Monegask one in 1979.
The results
In none of the polls nor at the bookmakers’ France was one of the favourites. However, many countries gave it points, and a lot of countries had it among their top songs. France did not get any twelves, but Austria and Hungary rewarded it with 10 points, and three others gave it their 8 points. In total, France got 94 points and became 4th. It was another song in the long row of good scoring entries from France.
