France have also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990 and Amina in 1991, who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break.

In 2020, the nation was set to be represented by the song "Mon alliée (The Best in Me)" performed by Tom Leeb before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[3] The competition took place on 30 January 2021 at the France Télévisions studio in Paris, hosted by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini.

[8] Between 16 and 27 December 2020, the competing artists and their entries were presented to the public through television specials titled Eurovision France, les finalistes.

"Magique" performed by LMK was awarded the wildcard by a Francophone and international ten-member jury panel from the remaining five entries to proceed to the superfinal.

Immediately after the artists concluded their performances, a number was shown which denoted the amount of jury members who liked the song, however the results were symbolic and did not affect the voting.

In the superfinal, the winner, "Voilà" performed by Barbara Pravi, was determined by the combination of public televoting and the ten-member jury.

Jury member Amir performed a medley of his songs from his three French language albums as the interval act of the show.

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

In accordance with the allocation draw conducted on 28 January 2020 and carried over to 2021, France was assigned to broadcast and vote in the second semi-final on 20 May 2021.

The running order for the semi-finals and final was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other.

The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.

[11] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially.