Anggun was officially announced by France 3 as the French entrant on 29 November 2011 and later the song was presented to the public as the contest entry during a press conference on 29 January 2012.

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.

[2][3] On 29 November 2011, France 3 announced that the French entrant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 would be Indonesian-French singer Anggun.

[4] Her song "Echo (You and I)" was written by William Rousseau, Jean-Pierre Pilot and Anggun and contains lyrics in a bilingual mix of French and English.

[5] The entry was formally presented to the public on 29 January 2012 during a press conference held at the Blue Lounge of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

[13] On 21 April, Anggun performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Ruth Jacott.

[16] 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.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.