France was represented by Alain Barrière, with the song '"Elle était si jolie", at the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place on 23 March in London. The song was chosen internally by broadcaster RTF.

"Elle était si jolie" became a major domestic hit and served to launch Barrière into stardom in Francophone music markets. The song has never lost its popularity and remains a universally known French standard, although most are unaware of its Eurovision origin.

On the night of the final Barrière performed 11th in the running order, following Switzerland and preceding Spain. Each national jury awarded 5-4-3-2-1 to their top five songs, and at the close "Elle était si jolie" had picked up 25 points (5 from Yugoslavia, 4 from Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, 2 from Austria and Monaco, and 1 from Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain), placing France joint 5th (with Monaco, to whom the French jury had awarded its 5 points) of the 16 entries.

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