La Zarra unveiled, this Sunday, February 19, “Obviously”, the title that she will perform at Eurovision, on May 13, in Liverpool.
Par LePoint.fr (with AFP)
© Sebastien JARRY / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/VOIX DU NORTH/MAXPPP
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Fin the suspense. Quebec singer La Zarra, who will represent France at Eurovision on May 13, has unveiled the song she will perform on this occasion: “Obviously”. A melancholy text coated in electro-disco, unveiled Sunday evening in the 8 p.m. newspaper of France 2. “Obviously”, it is “the first word that came to me when I was offered to do Eurovision “explained the artist by presenting this title upstream on Friday to a few journalists and “Eurofans” asked to remain discreet until Sunday evening.
The title of the song sounds like a wish for a self-fulfilling prophecy for France, which has not won Eurovision since Marie Myriam in 1977. “Let’s get this victory! », launches Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French delegation alongside the artist for this private listening.
The introduction of the song is reminiscent of Edith Piaf and by extension of an heiress, Barbara Pravi, French candidate who arrived 2e in 2021. But this is a false lead. Because after a minute electro-disco emerges perched on a plump bass line.
For the text, La Zarra – alias in reference to “La Môme”, nickname of Edith Piaf – mixes themes already irrigating the hit “Tu t’en iras”, which had revealed it in 2021, part of his first album “Treachery” released the same year. Either the accumulation of clouds announcing the rain after a beautiful day, a metaphor for the disillusions of a sentimental or professional life. “Obviously, all these beautiful promises that I hear, it’s just wind,” sings the Quebecer, always mysterious, not disclosing her age.
A “not sad” melancholy
“I always sing melancholy but it’s not sad. I want to move forward despite the false promises, ”develops the singer, black sheath dress and Louboutin pumps on her feet on Friday. The artist promises on this subject “an insane outfit” on D-Day, May 13 in Liverpool. Ukraine won the last edition but cannot host the competition due to the Russian invasion.
“As you know, I am from Quebec, (my family is) of Moroccan origin. When Eurovision came to me, I had this feeling, this need to talk about self-love, universal love. This song came quite easily, in three nights,” she continues.
The artist was chosen after a crush meeting with Alexandra Redde-Amiel, also director of entertainment and games at France Télévisions. The vote of a jury and the public, in use in recent years in France, has therefore been put in brackets. Officially, the poor performance of the French candidates Alvan & Ahez, penultimate in 2022, has nothing to do with it.
“Viscerally artistic”
As a reminder, in 2001, France was represented at Eurovision by the Canadian Natasha St-Pier (4e).
When a journalist, who hears – among other things – like a small echo of Conchita Wurst’s winning song in 2014, asks La Zarra if she was inspired by it, Alexandra Redde-Amiel replies: “It’s a a question that could almost upset her. She is not at all on the inspirations of those who won, she is viscerally an artist. This is what makes all the wealth of La Zarra, it cannot be compared, ”cuts the head of delegation.
“Here, as she said”, is content to add the singer.