France

One of the Original Seven who debuted at the Lugano Contest in 1956, France is undoubtably one of the most successful participant countries at the Eurovision Song Contest with five wins (not counting the 1991 entry by Amina, which tied with Sweden for first place, but was relegated to second, because of the controversial and now-changed tie break system in place at the time - more on that next week).  [Had that song won, France would be right on Ireland's tail with six total wins to Ireland's record seven].  With its first three entries finishing second, it was no surprise that France took the win in 1958's Hilversum Contest with Andre Claveau's Dors, Mon Amour, establishing the chanson style as the gold standard for Eurovision on the whole through the end of the 80s (Luxembourg and Monaco used the same style to great advantage and success as well).  The last winning song from France was courtesy of Marie Myriam's L'Ouiseau et L'enfant ("The Bird and The Child") at the 1977 London Contest, which took home the gold with a total 136 points (in a field of only eighteen contesting countries and scoring a mere three douze points):

France's immediate follow up entries in 1978, 1979 and 1981 all placed third in the Contest (with Joel Prevost singing Il y aura Toujour des Violons on home turf in Paris; Anne-Marie David's Je Suis L'enfant Soleil competing in Jerusalem; and Jean Gabilou's Humanahum doing well in Dublin).  These successful entries were to be the last for the French for a decade, until the arrival of Joelle Ursull's inventive and amazing Caribbean drum flavored White and Black Blues (which despite its English title was performed in French) in 1990's Zagreb Contest.  That entry finished the Contest in a second place tie with Ireland that night, foreshadowing the problems with the then broken tie-break rules.  Despite highlighting these issues, White and Black Blues along with Amina's entry the next year were France's best entries in the Contest, in terms of quality and originality.  Here's a look:

Since 1991, France has not seen its contestants finish in the Top Three, though there have been eight Top Ten finishes for the country in those two decades, the most prominent of which came in the form of well-known Patricia Kaas and her 2009 entry Et S'il Fallait le Faire at the Moscow Contest.  [The 2009 Contest was the first time that two then Big Four countries finished in the Top Ten -UK in fifth and France in 8th place.]  Since then, the Eurovision audience has been treated to soccer-chantish Allez Ola Ole by Jessy Matador, opera-inspired Sognu by Amoury Vassili (sung in Corsican), and last year's entry by popular singer Anggun's Echo (You & I) sung in English and French with a background gymnastics/dance show.  Last year the country finished 22nd in Baku, a result France is hoping to avoid with its entry for Malmo.  The French entry this year is L'Enfer et Moi ("Hell and Me"), a jazzy/blusey song in French, will be performed on Final night by Amendine Bourgeois.  Bonne Chance from all of us, who want France to get back to its former Eurovision glory (& to have one of the Big Five prove that they indeed deserve to quality for the Final automatically):