France was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "", written by Pascal Graczyk, René Colombies, Gilles Arcens, and Luigi Rutigliano, and performed by Nayah. The French participating broadcaster, , selected its entry for the contest through the national final organized by France 3.
Twelve songs competed in the national final on 2 March 1999 where "" performed by Nayah was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.
As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 10, France placed nineteenth out of the 23 participating countries with 14 points.
Prior to the 1999 Contest, and its predecessor national broadcasters, had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing France forty-one times since RTF's debut in . They first won the contest in with "" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in , "" performed by Isabelle Aubret in , and "" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in in a four-way tie with the , , and the . Their fifth â and so far latest â victory came in with "" performed by Marie Myriam. They have also finished second four times, with "" by Paule Desjardins in , "" by Catherine Ferry in , "White and Black Blues" by Joëlle Ursull in , and "" by Amina in , who lost out to 's "" by Carola in a tie-break. In , they finished in twenty-fourth place with the song "" performed by Marie Line.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, organised the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcast the event in the country. For 1999, the broadcaster opted to delegate the selection of its entry to France 3; since , France 2 had been responsible of selecting the entry and broadcasting the contest in France, however, they were unable to broadcast the 1999 contest due to its date conflicting with the French Rugby League Championship. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose its entry in the past. From to , the broadcaster opted to internally select its entry. The 1999 French entry was selected via a national final which featured several competing acts, marking the first time since 1987 that a national final was organised to select the French entry.
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France 3 organised the national final to its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. The broadcaster received 600 submissions for the competition and a two-member selection committee consisting of Monique Le Marcis (RTL Head of Musical Programming) and Catherine Régnier (M6 music programmer) selected twelve entries to compete in the national final. Songs in Arabic (Israhn), Basque (Kukumiku), Breton (Alex) and Hebrew (Anath) were also featured in addition to French.
Fourteen entries competed in the national final which consisted of a live final that took place on 2 March 1999 at the L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl and broadcast on France 3. The twelve finalists performed their entries together with an orchestra conducted by Réné Coll and the winner, "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah, was determined by the combination of public voting via telephone and Minitel (50%) and a ten-member jury panel (50%). The rankings of each half were used to calculate the result; hence, the song with the lowest total won. There was a tie for first place between Ginie Line and Nayah; however, Nayah won as she received the most votes from the public. The national final was watched by 4.996 million viewers in France with a market share of 20.6%.
The jury panel consisted of:
The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, on 29 May 1999. According to the Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation, the seventeen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest. As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from and before the entry from the . France finished in nineteenth place with 14 points.
In France, the contest was broadcast on France 3 as well as on a 3 hour and 5 minute delay via TV5 with commentary by Julien Lepers. The French spokesperson, who announced the results of the French televote during the show, was Marie Myriam who won the contest for France in 1977. The France 3 broadcast reached 4.2 million viewers within France, representing a 27.9% market share.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Portugal in the contest.