France Sends Opera in Corsican and Finishes 15th

MAY 15 2011 · 12:00

Amaury Vassili · "Sognu" · France · 2011 Placement: 15 · Score: 82 · Language: Corsican · Composers: Quentin Bachelet, Jean-Pierre Marcellesi, Daniel Moyne · Venue: Esprit Arena · Host: Düsseldorf, Germany · Type: language rule break · Broadcast: streaming era Vassili — 21-year-old French tenor operatic in training and delivery — takes the Düsseldorf stage in formal black tie and performs 'Sognu' in Corsican, the Romance language of Corsica. The delivery is conservatory-quality. France was the pre-contest favorite in several bookmaker markets. 15th place with 82 points. Azerbaijan's Ell & Nikki win with 'Running Scared'. Context France's choice of Corsican was deliberate — one of France's constitutionally recognized regional languages, rarely heard outside the island. Quentin Bachelet, the composer, was a young French operatic producer. Vassili had broken into the French charts the previous year with a debut album that had gone gold. Legacy Vassili's Corsican-language Eurovision entry is now cited in academic studies of Eurovision as a minority-language platform. He continued a French operatic-pop career through the 2020s. 'Sognu' is played at Corsican cultural festivals as a pride object. The 15th-place result was considered a sharp defeat at the time; revisionist fan polls now place it top-10 retrospectively.