Maman (France 2025)

France is bacon next, with Louane singing a lovely tribute to her Maman!

... and, before we begin, you already know which picture I'm planning to use.

(Source)

Surprise.

Well, we'll get to that one later. But the fact that you probably already knew what I was referring to is kind of an immediate strike against the staging's favour.

Lyrics: 88%
Composition: 95%
Vocals: 92%
Staging: 60%
Vibes: 90%
Overall: 85.5%

Verdict: Good song. Somewhat shit staging.

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LYRICS - Total: 22/25 (88%)
Subject Matter: 7.5/10
Effective Use of Language: 5/5
Clarity: 5/5
Flow: 4.5/5

In general, I score tribute-to-family-members type songs not all that much higher than love songs on the Subject Matter scale - 6, maybe 6.5 if it's more interesting. I mean, sure, they can be very heartfelt, and that's lovely and wonderful and everything - but it's certainly not the most original or the most inspired type of song. That said, this one is different. 

Usually, we get songs like Az én apám (one of my favourites of the parent-child tribute genre, it made me ugly cry a few times), or You Let Me Walk Alone, or even Europapa. But this one isn't quite in the same vein of "they were awesome" or "I love them so much" or "I'm so sad they're gone". This one is fairly introspective, a callback to one of Louane's older songs, and a mark of how she's changed and grown - into her new role as a parent, learning how it feels like to be the parent of a child, and sharing what she's learnt with her departed mother. It's... well, it feels. It feels like an actual love letter. Not a love letter OF her mother, but a love letter TO her mother. And it doesn't feel like we get those very often.

This one hits different.

... I'm tearing up already.

See, I have two kids. My older one turned 3 a few months ago. And when Louane emotes "Mamaaan" during the chorus, I can just imagine my kid screaming "DADDDDDDDYYYYYY" - for all kinds of reasons. Because he wants me to look at what he's doing. Because he's just discovered something that needs my attention. Because his sister is bothering him. Because he's trying to be funny or thinks he's being cute. Because he's gotten stuck somewhere he can't get himself out of. Because he likes the sound of the word. Because he's being a chaos monster.

That one word is the precursor to so many emotions. Excitement. Curiosity. Exasperation. Frustration. Happiness. Worry. Occasionally, panic.

Love.

It reminds me of both my relationship with my parents and my relationship with my son (and daughter, who currently is very mummy-obsessed and who almost never calls me, even though she looks for me sometimes. On very rare occasions. When she does, she still screams "MAMA" and then crawls into my arms, which is quite hilarious.) And the day my son stops trying to get my attention by going "DADDDDDDDYYYYYY", for whatever reason, will be a very sad day.

But yeah. Long story short. Louane knocked this one out of the park. She put all the feels into this bunch of lyrics, this song, and I'm bawling like one of my kids.

The only issue I had was that "Maintenant" in the last line of the chorus sounds a little awkward.

Side note: There's an English version of Maman that feels really, really good. It's not a direct translation, and it's all the better because of that - it's faithful to the ideas of the original French, while also presenting the English lyrics in a way that sounds natural while also fitting the melody. I actually had a chance to ask Louane a question in an AMA on the /r/Eurovision subreddit, and I asked about how she came up with the words for that translation, and she replied! xD 

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COMPOSITION - Total: 19/20 (95%)
Melody/Bass: 5/5
Instrumentation: 5/5
Development: 4.5/5
Coherence: 4.5/5

Great. First thing that came to my mind after the song ended was that it starts off as a quiet reflection of days gone by, of reminiscing and sharing her life with her mother. The really soft, gentle bass in the first chorus perfectly fits the reflective vibes, like footsteps throwing up small puffs of dust of a family house left in the past.

Then we have the "Mamaaaaan" at the end of the first chorus ushering in the second verse which gives it drive; a sense of purpose, of forward movement. It's where she shares her present and her future, where she excitedly calls to her mother so she can share the indelible love she's found, the bond between her and her child, and when the drums cut out and it's only Louane's voice and the piano:

Quand il me tient la main / J'ai plus peur de rien / Et ça m'fait comme avant / Quand toi, tu m'tenais la main

 it's almost like she's cradling her beautiful baby in her arms, gazing lovingly down at them while her mother watches down from above. And that leads into Louane's powerful declarations of finding her place in the world and looking forwards to her future during the chorus. The drums here <3

And then the strings coming in on the last one to just tug and tug and TUGGGG at your heartstrings. And those four "Mamaaaaan"s in the extended 3rd chorus, especially.

Maintenant, c'est moi qu'elle appelle / "Maman, maman, maman, maman / Maman"

I'm imagining my kids calling out for me and damnit I'm crying again. It's so raw, so powerful.

Despite there being only two verses and three choruses, Maman doesn't feel short or repetitive at all. There's something new every time, something else to push it forwards. It's beautiful.

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VOCALS - Total: 23/25 (92%)
Vocals: 18/20
Immersion: 5/5

Almost flawless. And the sheer amount of emotion Louane manages to squeeze into every single "Mamaaaan" feels so plaintive, so beautifully sad, so... perfect. In the beginning I actually wondered if it'd annoy me, but I stand corrected. I could listen to Louane just emote that single word for an entire hour and probably not tire of it.

And her little girl chiming in at the end <3

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STAGING - Total: 15/25 (60%)
The Show: 5.5/10
The Story: 6.5/10
Outfits: 3/5

Unfortunately, this is where it falls flat. France... well, aside from Voilà, which OWNED the 2021 stage, none of the rest of their entries have really impressed me with their staging, and this joins the ranks of French entries with stagings that, while not terrible, were also unimpressive.

I think I can see what most elements of the staging were about. But this is a good example of a staging that, for me, was less than the sum of its parts.

For the individual bits - the hourglass I kinda get. The passing of time has seen Louane's growth from child to adult, from child to parent, from calling for her mother to being called by her child. But I'm not sure why the staging started with something that Saba could've used last year. Was it only so Louane could try to "stop time" by holding her hand up to the stream?

The mirror I kind of get, too, as a reflection of her own past and her current present. And the last bit with the falling "sand" coming down in a spiral helped to center the performance and make it feel much more dynamic.

But taken as a whole... it doesn't feel very accessible. Her movements in the beginning felt kind of jerky and lacking in purpose, and If I didn't understand the lyrics, I don't think I would've gotten what the staging was meant to be. From another reddit comment I made back during the season:

I love Maman, but that staging isn't really working for me. The meaning of the lyrics aren't coming through, I'm getting "someone trapped in an hourglass about to get suffocated and crying desperately for their mother".

I had a more uncharitable intentional misinterpretation of the staging during Eurovision season which is also up on the subreddit somewhere, but I'm not linking that here. Stalk me if you want *shrugs*. 

And let's finally address the elephant in the room.

There's that bit in the middle at the end of the second chorus. With every "Mamaaaaan", there's a cloud of smoke and cork(sand) that blows out backwards from behind her. 

It looked like explosive diarrhea, and I have no idea how NOBODY from the French delegation took a good long look at it and said "hmm, maybe this isn't quite the best idea after all."

For such a great song, the staging was disappointing, at best.

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VIBES - 90%
I love this song. I will happily play it anytime as long as I don't have to watch the music video, because that moment kind ruins the immersion completely.

Not sorry even if you think I'm being childish.