She is no longer the French representative at Eurovision since the announcement of Slimane's song in November, but she continues to be talked about.
Quebec singer La Zarra notably accused France Télévisions of having forced her to dye herself blonde for Eurovision 2023 to look “less Arab”.
In an interview broadcast this Sunday March 10 on the YouTube channel of influencer Siham Bengoua, La Zarra affirmed that her participation in Eurovision had been “hell” and even “the most traumatic experience” of her life.
She also said she had the feeling of being considered a “doll”, even a “prostitute” by the French delegation.
“I was asked in September 2022, Eurovision is in May, so from September to May, what I did not understand was that I was going to be the slave of France Télévisions.
That I wasn't going to be able to offer what I wanted artistically on stage, that the costs were going to be deducted from my marketing budget for my second album... It was extremely hard.
(…) It was an unpleasant experience,” she summarized.
Blonde hair to make it “less Arab”
She particularly accused the French delegation of having forced her to hastily dye her hair blonde.
“I was dark when they came for me.
But I absolutely had to be blonde, Marilyn Monroe, so there is pressure.
(…) I received a call from the head of the delegation, totally annoyed, in the night:
You need to bleach your hair.
You're Arab, with brown hair you look too Arab, when you're blonde you look less Arab, and the French don't like Arabs
,” she accuses.
“For me, it was racism.
And we tell you that no, in fact, and that
if you don't want to continue it's going to be complicated for us
.
So you’re stuck, you have to finish your
term
,” added the singer.
It is impossible to establish the veracity of these comments, but France Télévisions firmly denied these “defamatory and outrageous” accusations, refusing to make “any further comments” to Le Parisien.
The audiovisual group also indicates that it “will support possible legal actions that the head of the French delegation” would like to take after being accused by the singer.
If we take a closer look at the evolution of the performer's hair style, however, we can note two elements: La Zarra published a first album in 2021, on the cover of which she appears blonde.
It is also her hair color in the music video for the song “Tu t’en iras”, which revealed her and in a photo published on April 1, 2022 on her Instagram account.
On the other hand, she was very brown in October 2022, during the Socan Awards, a Canadian awards ceremony, during which she was crowned French-speaking revelation of the year.
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A candidate who has accumulated controversies
This new release from La Zarra is part of a long list of hiccups that punctuated its participation in Eurovision in Liverpool (United Kingdom).
From the start of the television marathon, La Zarra had been a difficult tornado to channel.
“It was very, very complicated,” admitted a witness the day after Eurovision, who even spoke of a “nightmare”.
Since the missed kick-off in Amsterdam, where La Zarra had canceled a concert for fans an hour before his appearance on stage, the teams had understood that the character was not the easiest to manage.
The Canadian of Moroccan origin, known for her fiery temperament, has exhausted even experienced managers like Sébastien Farran (NTM and Johnny Hallyday) or Indifférence Prod, the agency of Gims, Vitaa and Slimane.
This same Slimane, on whom public broadcasting has chosen to bet for Eurovision 2024. With the song “Mon Amour”, he will represent France during the final of the event, on May 11 in Malmö (Sweden).