We profile the 2025 entry from France including details on the artist, song, how it was chosen, odds, fan reaction and how the nation has fared at Eurovision.
After a dismal start to the 2010s, four-time Eurovision winners and Big 5 nation France have had a renaissance at Eurovision in the last decade.
While they have not won the Contest since 1977, since 2016 France has become one of the most consistent performers of the Big 5, including with three Top 10 results for Amir's J'ai cherché (2016, 6th place), Slimane's Mon amour (2024, 4th place) and of course Barbara Pravi's Voilà (2021, 2nd place).
Flying the tricolour for France at Eurovision 2025 in Basel, and no doubt hoping to go one better than her illustrious predecessors, is Louane with her song maman.
You can find out more about Louane and her song below!
2025 entry: Louane - maman
Louane is pre-qualified for the Grand Final due to France being a Big 5 country
My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 9th
Odds to win ranking: 4th
(Rankings as of 18 March 2025)
About the artist
28 years old, Louane is an established and well-known part of the French music scene who has been releasing songs for more than a decade.
She first came to prominence aged 16 in 2013's edition of The Voice: La Plus Belle Voix, France's edition of the beloved reality show.
Around the time of her appearance on The Voice, Louane tragically lost both of her parents in the space of slightly over a year, with her father Jean-Pierre passing away in February 2013 and her mother Isabelle also passing away in April 2014.
The loss of her parents deeply affected Louane and has been a theme she has returned to across a lengthy musical career. Since 2013, Louane has released 5 albums and numerous singles, all of which have shot to the top 10 in France and two of which (Chambre 12 and Louane) hit number one in the Hexagon upon release.
Louane also made her screen debut in 2014's La Famille Bélier, for which she received the César du meilleur espoir féminin in 2015, awarded to the best female debutee in a film during the year.
About the song
Maman is a contemporary ballad with lyrics wholly in French. The lyrics are written as a dialogue to Louane's mother Isabelle, who passed away following a battle with cancer in 2014.
During the song, Louane reflects on how she has changed and grown since losing her mother, as well as the experience of becoming a mother herself.
The song was not written specifically for Eurovision, but rather was a song which Louane wrote for her new album which she later decided would be appropriate for the Contest. Louane has described the recording process as being "very intense", even going so far as to reveal that she vomited during recording due to the emotional impact the song had on her.
Interestingly, Louane released another song called Maman earlier in her career. This song, which also is dedicated to and engages with Louane's relationship with her mother, was quietly removed from streaming shortly before the release of her song for Eurovision.
In interviews, Louane has emphasized that her decision to participate in Eurovision is, for her, a way of honouring her mother's memory, who loved the Contest and watched it with Louane when she was a child.
How was Louane chosen for Eurovision?
As with the previous two French entrants for Eurovision (La Zarra and Slimane), Louane was chosen following an internal selection process led by French head of delegation Alexandra Redde-Amiel.
Louane was initially approached in relation to the opportunity in the middle of 2024, but did not agree until later in the year, when she decided that maman was the song she wanted to sing at Eurovision.
In interviews ahead of the song release, Redde-Amiel said she immediately felt the impact of the song on hearing it, saying:
For me, there was what I would call the "12 points hook", an immediate impact. It's that moment where you say to yourself "yeah, we're definitely onto something with this artist".
Unusually, maman was debuted as France's Eurovision entry for 2025 during the half-time show for the rugby Six Nations match between France and Scotland on 15 March 2025. During a spectacular performance, Louane was suspended on a platform 12 metres above the pitch and was joined by a full marching band and strings.
Louane's reveal performance was watched by approximately 9 million French viewers - significantly more than the 5.4 million who watched the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in France!
Reaction video
France will compete in the Grand Final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on 17 May 2025 in Basel.
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