User:EurovisionLibrarian/Sandbox/1957fr

Germany held a national final to select the song that would represent Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest 1957. The winner was Margot Hielscher with the song "Telefon, Telefon".

Sept villes, une chanson
Sept villes, une chanson was aired on French Television every two weeks on Fridays between 21 December 1956 and ? at 20:40 CET. It was directed by Igor Barrère and presented by Robert Beauvais in a studio in Paris.

In each show, a selection of new songs was presented. The songs were arranged by Armand Migiani, and accompanied by an orchestra under the direction of Paul Durand. Each song was presented twice, once sung, and once in an instrumental version.

Seven juries sitting in seven French cities chose a winner in each show, with the seventh and last jury to give its vote being assembled in Paris. The shows broadcast on 1 February and 15 February only featured six juries and therefore were called Six villes... une chanson. Robert Beauvais called the juries on telephone and oversaw the voting with the help of a scoreboard in the studio.

Sept villes, une chanson was aired on 21 December 1957, 4 January 1957 , 18 January 1957 , 1 February 1957 , 15 February 1957.

Juries of 1 February 1957: Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence, Arras, Mulhouse, Marseille and Paris.

Reception in the French press was mixed: Nice-Matin criticised the programme for its camera placements leading to cut frames.

Selection of the French entry
Both the singer (Paule Desjardins) and the composer (Guy Lafarge) had been chosen by 21 February: On that day, Deutsches Fernsehen published a press release on the upcoming contest, saying that Paule Desjardins would sing a song by Guy Lafarge for France.

"La Belle Amour" was written by Guy Lafarge (music) and Francis Carco (lyrics).

At Eurovision
At the Eurovision Song Contest held on 3 March 1957 in Frankfurt, Paule Desjardins performed eight, following the and preceding. "La Belle Amour" was conducted by Paul Durand. The song received 17 points, placing second in a field of ten. It was succeeded as French representative at the 1958 contest by André Claveau, with "Dors mon amour".

Voting
Every country had a jury of ten people. Every jury member could give one point to their favourite song.