France is one of the most successful countries in Eurovision, winning the contest five times, coming second five times and coming third seven times. However, France has only hosted the contest three times (1959, 1961, and 1978). France was ranked first in number of victories (either alone or tied with other countries) without interruptions from 1960 to 1993. Moreover, "" performed by
Amina was close to victory in , when it finished in joint first place with the same number of points as . 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. With the current rules in place, France would have won the competition, because they received points from more countries than Sweden. One year before, France was also close to winning with "
White and Black Blues" by
Joëlle Ursull. The song finished in joint-second place with 's entry. However, in recent years, the French results have been mixed. Since 1998, when the
televoting was introduced, France has frequently ranked in the bottom 10 countries in the final, coming 15th (), 18th (), 19th ( and ), 22nd (, , and ), 23rd (, , and ), 24th ( and ), 25th (), and 26th (last place, for the first time in its Eurovision history, in ). France has had some good results during the 21st century. In , "" 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 , when "" by
Sandrine François came fifth and received the
Marcel Bezençon international press award for the best entry of that year. The positive experience with
Sébastien Tellier in created considerable interest among the French showbiz for the contest, which resulted in Eurovision being seen by the French media as a valuable advertising campaign. With these ambitions,
Patricia Kaas represented France in the with "", finishing in eighth place. Kaas received the Marcel Bezençon artistic award, which was voted on by previous winners and presented to the best artist. In the ,
Amir with his song "" ended in sixth place and broke a 40-year record by scoring the most points in France's Eurovision history, by scoring 257 points in the final. That record would later be broken once again in , as
Barbara Pravi with her song "" finished in second place with 499 points, France's best result since 1991, only 25 points behind eventual winners
Måneskin from Italy.
Slimane finished in fourth place in with "
Mon amour", followed by
Louane finishing seventh in with "".
Absences Since its debut in 1956, France has only missed two contests, in 1974 and 1982. In 1974, after selecting a singer and song to represent the country at the contest, France withdrew after the
French president Georges Pompidou died in the week of the contest. If it had participated, France would have been represented by
Dani with the song "". In November 1981, TF1 declined to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for 1982, with the head of entertainment, Pierre Bouteiller, saying, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. Eurovision is a monument to inanity [sometimes translated as "drivel"]." took over due to the public reaction to TF1's withdrawal, hosting a national final to select the French entry as well, from the 1983 contest. == Participation overview ==