This article forms part of the OnEurope archive and was originally published on oneurope.co.uk. It has been permanently migrated to oneurope.net, the official home of OnEurope.
If Amandine’s version of hell is lots of whips, chains, slings and restraints (careful, Monty), then you can clearly understand what she is singing about. France’s entry for the 58th Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö is L’enfer et moi (“Hell and Me”), performed by Amandine Bourgeois and written by Boris Bergman with music by David Salkin. The leather, scars and toxic-love imagery in the lyrics gives the whole thing its destructive, erotic charge.
Filth is written all across her face and in her eyes. She knows where the camera is and, with all her emoting and gyrating across the stage, the very few heterosexuals in this hall have got a little bit semi!! — and I think so have I.
There is no giant Eurovision gimmick here: Bourgeois stands at the microphone in a grey dress and black high heels, surrounded by red, orange and yellow light, with flames and steam projected behind her. Three backing vocalists — Fanny Llado, Guillaume Eyango and Judith Flessel-Toto — add to the drama, but the focus is very much on Amandine. She figuratively and seductively makes love to the microphone, then goes absolutely mental towards the end of the song and belts it out. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen; it was immense!
France, automatically through to the grand final as one of the Big Five, will open the show in Malmö on 18 May, performing before Lithuania. At this rehearsal stage, who knows whether all that intensity will translate into votes? But kitchen sinks are in short supply in Western Europe too, it seems. Who says that France 3 don’t want to win the contest? Don’t you believe a word of it!
Postscript: In the result eventually known after this report was published, France finished 23rd of the 26 finalists with 14 points. That does not make the performance any less committed — merely rather less successful with the voting public than this reviewer hoped.
