France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006


France’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was Virginie Pouchain with the song "Il était temps" .
Virginie Pouchain is a 26-year-old hairdresser, who decided to take part in ‘Entrée des Artistes’, a musical show hosted by Pascal Sevran. Virginie won that competition and along with three other participants, she entered Et si c'était vous?, the French broadcaster's national final for the 2006 contest.

Before Eurovision

Et si c'était vous?

France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was selected in a national final consisting of talent search performers, which was intended to have new talents emerge.

Competing artists

21 artists competed, which consisted of 13 selected by France 3 through seven regional auditions, 4 selected by France 2 through Entrée des Artistes, and 4 candidates selected by RFO.
BroadcasterCountryArtist
France 3Alexandre Vautrin
France 3Aude Henneville
France 3Candice Parise
France 3Émilie Chenneviere
France 3Fabian Ballarin
France 3Gwladys Fraioli
France 3Julien Lamassonne
France 3Laurent Leandri
France 3Leila Barechdy
France 3Maëlle Audic
France 3Pierre Suppa
France 3Tamara Calhoun
France 3Virginie Schaeffer
France 2Fabien Incardona
France 2Mélody Simek
France 2Virginie Pouchain
France 2Yorrick Vrzal
RFOChris Combette
RFOKolo Barst
RFOMikidache
RFOTyssia

Semi-final

The semi-final took place at La Plaine St-Denis TV Studios in Paris on 14 March 2006, hosted by Michel Drucker and Claudy Siar. Out of 21 participants, 10 were selected to advance to the next round.

Final

The final was held at La Plaine St-Denis TV Studios in Paris on 14 March 2006, hosted by Michel Drucker and Claudy Siar. The ten finalists performed again and the winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of the votes from public televoting and a jury panel in two rounds. In the first round, the top two entries were selected to proceed to the second round. In the second round, Virginie Pouchain was selected as the winner after she interpreted Céline Dion's French hit, "Pour que tu m'aimes encore".
The jury consisted of Charles Aznavour, Lara Fabian, Natasha St-Pier and Pierre Gage.

Song selection

After winning the selection, Virginie complained to the songwriter, Corneille Nyungura, that the initial song "Vous, c'est nous" did not suit her style. The song was later changed to "Il était temps", composed by Corneille Nyungura and Virginie Pouchain.

At Eurovision

Pouchain was accompanied on stage by Matheson Bayley. As France was one of the top four donors to the European Broadcasting Union, it gained automatic entry to the final. Pouchain's song finished 22nd out of 24 entries, with just 5 points.

Points awarded to France

Points awarded by France