World Song Contest

Once again the record of participantion was broken with this edition of the World Song Contest. WSC .19 started in September 2006 and subscription were sent untill the last day. With new players joining, you could expect new countries. And it was the case. Three countries made their first appearance in this edition. If someone thought there were enough European countries, well... it's was far from truth as Liechtenstein and Czech Republic decided to join the contest. The thrid country came from Latin America, . With North, Central and South American countries, Asian countries, European countries and Australia (for Oceania), only Africa was not represented. This became an habits. This time Namibia showed its interest but the entry wasn't found in time. Maybe next time !

English is the language used in most of the entries. But this time, we had 5 songs sung in Spanish, this was a new record. Andorra, Spain and Venezuela were joined by Chile and Mexico. Among the 44 entries of this edition, 21 were sung in another language than English.

Some surprise in this edition with Sweden which didn't reach the top 20 or Monaco which failed to make another top 10 position after some great results in the previous editions. Winner of WSC .18, Italy, didn't manage to reach the top 30. Portugal, after two top 10 position, was back in the bottom while Bulgaria and Estonia had another disappointing result. The good surpises came from Japan, back in the top 10 and Turkey reached the 6th position for the 5th time. A record (all positions included) which is followed by the 4th victory of Russia, and the four times Sweden finished 6th.

Unlike WSC .18, there was no suspense this time as France took the lead after a few votes. Sandrine François, with "Emmène-Moi" gave a first victory to France. Belgium took revenge of the Eurovision Song Contest with Kate Ryan which ended at the second position. The United Kingdom closed the top 3 with Geri Halliwell, one of the most famous name of this edition, with Delta Goodrem (back for the 4th time for Australia) and Anouk for the Netherlands.

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THE WINNER

Country: France
Artist(s): Sandrine François
Song: Emmène-Moi

Sandrine François is a French singer, born December 1980 in Paris. Whitney Houston, Tracy Chapman and Aretha Franklin were her early inspirations. She was discovered singing in a pub and invited to sing on the television show of Mireille Dumas. This appearance led to a record contract, and to her working with producer-writer-arranger Erick Benzi (Jean-Jacques Goldman, Céline Dion). In 2002 François was invited by French television to represent her country in the Eurovision Song Contest. Rick Allison, Marie-Florence Gros and Patrick Bruel wrote a song for her called "Il faut du temps." She reached fifth position with 104 points. Her first album followed.