France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

Amandine Bourgeois was internally selected to represent France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013

France 3 announced in late 2012 that the French entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest would be selected internally. The organisation of the internal selection was headed by the newly appointed French Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest Frédéric Valencak.[3] The broadcaster received 150 submissions from record companies, music publishers, artist managers as well as artists and songwriters themselves and a five-member selection committee shortlisted 18 entries to advance to the next stage, which involved an alternate fourteen-member committee consisting of representatives of France Télévisions and music industry professionals that considered five entries following a blind audio listening before finalising their decision internally in early 2013.[4] The second selection committee consisted of:[5][6]

On 22 January 2013, France 3 announced that the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 would be "L'enfer et moi" performed by Amandine Bourgeois. The song was written by Boris Bergman and David Salkin.[7] The entry was released on 13 March 2013 via the streaming service Spotify, and was formally presented to the public on 14 March 2013 during the France 5 programme C à vous, hosted by Alessandra Sublet.[8]

Amandine Bourgeois during a rehearsal before the final

Amandine Bourgeois took part in technical rehearsals on 12 and 15 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May. This included the jury final on 17 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries. After technical rehearsals were held on 15 May, the "Big 5" countries and host nation Denmark held a press conference. As part of this press conference, the artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. France was drawn to compete in the first half.[12] Following the conclusion of the second semi-final, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final. The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. France was subsequently placed to open the show and perform in position 1, before the entry from Lithuania.[13]

The French performance featured Amandine Bourgeois on stage wearing a grey dress and black high heels designed by French designer Jean-Claude Jitrois and performing the song at a microphone stand. The stage colours were predominately red with red, yellow and orange lighting and the stage projections displayed flames and steam on a black background. About the performance and song, France 3 entertainment director Marie Claire Mezerette stated: "In this case simplicity is the key. It is a simple, but still powerful rock love song. We don't need to make it complicated. She wants to express how angry she is with what happened in that love story, Amandine is singing about."[14][15] Amandine Bourgeois was joined on stage by three backing vocalists: Fanny Llado, Guillaume Eyango and Judith Flessel-Toto.[16] France placed twenty-third in the final, scoring 23 points.[17]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that France had placed twenty-fifth with the public televote and twelfth with the jury vote. In the public vote, France received an average rank of 21.68 and in the jury vote the nation received an average rank of 10.95.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows: