For the seventh year in a row we present the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award – the award for the best song lyrics of the Eurovision year. Previous awards were won by Ukraine (2016), France (2017, 2018) and Italy (2019, 2021, 2022). This year four entries are nominated. They are revealed one by one, and Saskia Halfmouw gives us a unique visual interpretation of each song.

The fourth nominee for the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award 2023 is: France.

Country: France
Title: Évidemment
Artist: La Zarra
Lyricists: Ahmed Saghir, Fatima Zahra Hafdi, Yannick Rastogi, Zacharie Raymond

Jury report
Singer La Zarra sings a song about a deep disappointment. The complaint about life and love starts of in a fairly desperate state: ‘My heart, my hands, my eyes, my hips; nothing belongs to me anymore.’ And a little further on, this poetic line: ‘In my hellish garden flowers grow that I water with my dreams and my tears.’ Another example: ‘You may be on top of the world, but your fingers still can’t touch the sky.’ The lyrics are filled with disenchantment and even cynicism (‘It’s always too good to be true, but never too ugly to be unreal.’) but in the bridge La Zarra addresses her listeners directly: ‘I stand here before you, naked. Give me a chance!’ And suddenly she lifts her lyrics to the here and now, to Eurovision, to what she is doing right in front of us, on stage, by literally asking: ‘Did I succeed in singing [for] the great France?’

Excerpt from Évidemment (translated into English at Eurovision.tv)

My heart, my hand, my eyes, my hips
Nothing’s mine anymore
I kill myself
To give them life
And act like it was nothing
In my hell garden
The plants are watered with the dreams and tears
Even at the top of the highest mountain, you still can’t touch the sky

Obviously
All these promises I hear are passing like the wind
Obviously
It’s always quiet before the storm, don’t you forget

It’s always too good to be true
But never too ugly to be unreal
This girl little that I was will never be the same

I trade my future, to get my past back
But time is treacherous
I look for love
But never find it
Like a lost key

The complete lyrics for this song can be found here.

How do we determine the winner?
As in previous years the winner of the Eurostory Best Lyrics Award will be determined by an international expert jury of published book writers, journalists, editors, songwriters, translators and former Eurovision participants from different countries, as well as by public vote at eurostory.nl. The winner will be announced during the Eurovision week in May. Keep track of our website for the latest news!