Patricia Kaas, one of France's most successful musical artists, represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 on 16 May 2009 in Moscow, Russia. The French broadcaster France Télévisions once again used an internal selection as it had in the past to choose the song "Et s'il fallait le faire", which was the first single from Kaas's next album, Kabaret.

France was one of the seven countries to compete in the very first contest in 1956. The country's first win came in 1958, with André Claveau's "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep, my love). France is one of Eurovision's most successful countries, having won the contest five times in total. However, its last victory came in 1977, over 30 years ago, and more recent French entries in the contest have been less successful, with very few entries reaching the top 5 since the 1980s.

France has been represented at Eurovision by a total of four different broadcasting organisation: Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (RTF) was the first French broadcaster to organise the French Eurovision participation; RTF was dissolved in 1964, and was replaced by Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF), who took over in 1965. In 1974 ORTF was also dissolved, and was replaced by seven different institutions. Télévision Française 1 took over the French Eurovision participation in 1975, and continued until 1982, when the broadcaster withdrew voluntarily from the 1982 contest. The head of entertainment at the time, Pierre Bouteiller, said, "The absence of talent and the mediocrity of the songs were where annoyance set in. [Eurovision is] a monument to inanity [sometimes translated as 'drivel']."Antenne 2 took over from TF1 in 1983, and its current incarnation, France Télévisions, has continued to organise France's Eurovision entry since.

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