France in the Eurovision Song Contest
During its successful run in the 20th century, France has also finished second four times, with "La Belle amour" by Paule Desjardins (1957), "Un, deux, trois" by Catherine Ferry (1976), "White and Black Blues" by Joëlle Ursull (1990), and "C'est le dernier qui a parlé qui a raison" by Amina (1991), who lost out to Sweden's "Fångad av en stormvind" by Carola in a tie-break.After reaching the top five in 23 contests in the 20th century, France has had less success in the 21st century, only making the top five four times, with "Je n'ai que mon âme" by Natasha St-Pier fourth (2001), "Il faut du temps" by Sandrine François fifth (2002), "Voilà" by Barbara Pravi second (2021), and "Mon amour" by Slimane fourth (2024).France's other top 10 results in the century are "Et s'il fallait le faire" by Patricia Kaas eighth (2009), and "J'ai cherché" by Amir sixth (2016).Therefore, the 'countback' rule applied, but both countries had an equal number of twelve points (four lots), but the victory went to Sweden, when France had fewer 10-point scores.In 2001, "Je n'ai que mon âme" performed by Canadian singer Natasha St-Pier came fourth, being the favourite to win the contest by fans and odds.This good result was carried into the 2002 contest, when "Il faut du temps" by Sandrine François came fifth and received the Marcel Bezençon international press award for the best entry of that year.With these ambitions, Patricia Kaas represented France in the 2009 contest with "Et s'il fallait le faire", finishing in eighth place.