France has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 64 times since its debut at the first contest in 1956. France is one of only seven countries to be present at the first contest, and has been absent from only two contests in its history, missing the 1974 and 1982 contests. Along with , , , and the , France is one of the "Big Five" countries that are automatically prequalified for the final, due to being the largest financial contributors to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). France has won the contest five times. France first won the contest in 1958 with "" performed by André Claveau. Three more victories followed in the 1960s, with "" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962 and "" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. France's fifth victory came in 1977, when Marie Myriam won with the song "". During its successful run in the 20th century, France has also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins (1957), Catherine Ferry (1976), Joëlle Ursull (1990) and Amina (1991), who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break. After reaching the top five in 24 contests in the 20th century, France has had less success in the 21st century, only making the top five three times, with Natasha St-Pier fourth (), Sandrine François fifth () and Barbara Pravi second (). France's other top 10 results in the century are Patricia Kaas's eighth place in and Amir's sixth place in . France finished last for the first time in , when Twin Twin received only two points. Organisation Several French broadcasters have been used to present Eurovision in the country, formerly RTF (1956–1964), ORTF (1965–1974), TF1 (1975–1981) and (1983–1992). Since 1993, has been responsible for France's participation in the contest, with the final being broadcast on France 2 (1993–98, 2015–present) and France 3 (1999–2014), and the semi-final which France votes in was broadcast on France 4 (2005–2010, 2016–19), later France Ô (2011–15) and since 2021, . The semi-final in 2004 was not broadcast. The viewers which were close enough to Monaco, were able to see the semi-final via TMC Monte-Carlo. Radio coverage has been provided, although not every year or since 2013, by from 1971 to 1998 and from 2001 to 2012, (also in 1976). In 1982, RTL