France saw its largest viewing audience for a Grand Final last night since 2009 with just under 5.5 million viewers.
France recorded its second-largest audience for a Eurovision Grand Final in the past twenty years last night, with a total of 5,492,000 viewers tuning in to coverage of France 2. 31.4% of the viewing public watched the contest which saw Barbara Pravi finished second for France with the song “Viola”.
In 2009 5,706,000 viewers watched the contest in Moscow when Patricia Kaas represented the nation, while just over 5.1 million watched the contest in 2018 from Lisbon.
Image Source: EBU / Thomas Hanses | Source: Sebastian Barke
France was one of seven countries to participate in the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Since then they have participated in every contest aside from 1974 and 1982. Their withdrawal in 1974 was caused by the death of President Georges Pompidou, while 1982’s withdrawal was a result of TF1 declining to enter the contest. France has won the contest on five occasions, the most recent being in 1977 when Marie Myriam performed “L’oiseau et l’enfant”. France’s best result of the 2000s came in 2001 when Natasha St-Pier finished 4th in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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