French Singer La Zarra Emerges as Eurovision 2023 Frontrunner

Whose real name is Fatima Zahra Hafdi, La Zarra will wear a very glamorous long black dress during this evening and will appear on the Eurovision stage on a moving cylindrical platform, three meters high. "There is a whole mechanism that will make her go up and down. La Zarra will have a safety belt, which she will have to detach when she finds herself on the ground, then reattach to go back up. Everything is meticulously thought out for her, so that the performance is iconic," confides to 20 minutes, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French delegation to Eurovision.

"With the right staging, she can sneak through. She will please the jury because of her voice and she will please the people because she comes from the people. She has the attitude of a drag queen, this confidence that seems to say: I don’t care what you think of me..." explains for his part William Lee Adams, Eurovision expert and creator of the Wiwibloggs site. According to the latest bookmakers’ forecasts, the 35-year-old singer would be the third favorite of this contest, behind Sweden and Finland. For the BBC, La Zarra is one of the potential winners of Eurovision.

France is really counting on La Zarra to win this contest that it has not won since Marie Myriam in 1977. Three weeks ago, the singer of Moroccan origin had missed concerts organized in Amsterdam, in preparation for Eurovision, arousing a wave of reactions. "It’s the home stretch and I am more determined than ever to proudly and lovingly carry the colors of France. We will make the Liverpool stage sparkle. We have prepared a dazzling, dangerous and "so chic" French show," she reacted on her social networks.

Exceptionally this year, there was no preliminary competition to designate France’s representative at Eurovision. "In the case of La Zarra, I think she was really chosen for her talent. The French team is hungry. She wants to win the contest more than any other country. So I would tend to believe that her choice was motivated by quality..." concludes William Lee Adams.