Thierry Saidi.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first ever Eurovision.

In an interview with Eurovision.tv in 2013, Jean-François Copé confirmed there was a huge demand for new singer in the country of France, as it’s now one of the most successful Eurovision Song Contest countries.

His remarks were translated, with permission, by BBC Trending.

“The new singer who is gonna sing is not my idea, it was suggested by a lot of fans,” Copé told Trending.

Copé added: “We are not going to do a female singer, we do have this new singer, we are not going to do [our current singer] for this competition anymore.”

Copé is currently preparing for the French national Eurovision Song Contest, at the end of December.

French Eurovision Song Contest official site

(Original French, translated by Twitter user Frits Van)

The 2013 Eurovision Song Contest drew an amazing 22 million viewers!

On the other end of the scale, the Australian contest, which also drew a record 22 million Australians, failed to get to the final. Of course, there were quite a few other countries in the top 10 – Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Ireland were all in the top 10, with England in 11th.