France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

France participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "Je veux donner ma voix" written by Pascal Graczyk, René Colombies, Gilles Arcens and Luigi Rutigliano. The song was performed by Nayah. The French broadcaster France Télévisions in collaboration with the television channel France 3 organised the national final Eurovision 1999: la sélection in order to select the French entry for the 1999 contest in Jerusalem, Israel. Twelve songs competed in the national final on 2 March 1999 where "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public vote.

As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing during the show in position 10, France placed nineteenth out of the 23 participating countries with 14 points.

Background
Prior to the 1999 Contest, France had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest forty-one times since its debut as one of seven countries to take part in. France first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "L'oiseau et l'enfant". France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. In 1998, the nation finished in twenty-fourth place with the song "Où aller" performed by Marie Line.

The French national broadcaster, France Télévisions, broadcasts the event within France and opted to delegate the selection of the nation's entry to the television channel France 3; since 1993, France 2 had been responsible of selecting and organising the French entry and broadcasting the contest in France, however, they were unable to broadcast the 1999 contest due to its date conflicting with the French Rugby League Championship. The French broadcaster had used both national finals and internal selection to choose the French entry in the past. From 1988 to 1998, the broadcaster opted to internally select the French entry. The 1999 French entry was selected via a national final which featured several competing acts, marking the first time since 1987 that a national final was organised to select the French entry.

Eurovision 1999: la sélection
Eurovision 1999: la sélection was the national final organised by France 3 to select France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. A two-member selection committee consisting of former RTL Head of Musical Programming Monique Le Marcis and M6 music programmer Catherine Régnier selected twelve entries to compete the national final from 600 submissions, and songs in Arabic (Israhn), Basque (Kukumiku), Breton (Alex) and Hebrew (Anath) were also featured in addition to French.

The national final took place on 2 March 1999 at the L'Olympia in Paris, hosted by Julien Lepers and Karen Cheryl and was broadcast on France 3. The twelve finalists performed their entries together with an orchestra conducted by Réné Coll and the winner, "Je veux donner ma voix" performed by Nayah, was selected by the combination of public voting via telephone and Minitel (50%) and a jury panel (50%). The jury panel consisted of Gilbert Bécaud, Marie Myriam, Jocelyne Béroard, Lââm, Sandy Valentino, Richard Cocciante, Jean-Pierre Bouryayre, Laurent Petitguillaume, Jean-Michel Boris and Jean Réveillon. The rankings of each half were used to calculate the result; hence, the song with the lowest total won. There was a tie for first place between Ginie Line and Nayah; however, Nayah won as she received the most votes from the public. The national final was watched by 4.996 million viewers in France with a market share of 20.6%.

At Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest 1999 took place at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, Israel, on 29 May 1999. According to the Eurovision rules, the 23-country participant list for the contest was composed of: the previous year's winning country and host nation, the seventeen countries which had obtained the highest average points total over the preceding five contests, and any eligible countries which did not compete in the 1998 contest. As a member of the "Big Four", France automatically qualified to compete in the contest. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and France was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Denmark and before the entry from the Netherlands. France finished in nineteenth place with 14 points.

In France, the contest was broadcast on France 3 as well as on a 3 hour and 5 minute delay via TV5 with commentary by Julien Lepers. The French spokesperson, who announced the French votes during the show, was Marie Myriam who won the contest for France in 1977. The France 3 broadcast reached 4.2 million viewers within France, representing a 27.9% market share.

Voting
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to France and awarded by France in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Portugal in the contest.