France again appears in our Eurovision Top 100 countdown, as “Le Chant de Mallory” comes in at number 96 on the list.
You already know that France is on this list five times, and one is on the board already, so you may infer that we regard this as the fourth-best French entry ever. That information will come in handy when we do each country’s top ten songs someday. (Though in fairness to “L’Oiseau et l’Enfant,” a winning song, they got the same score and it came down to tiebreakers.)
Rachel appeared at the Eurovision Song Contest on behalf of France in 1964, and I wish I could tell you how this looked on stage, but unless you watched it live 60 years ago, you would not know. Why is that? Much like Eurovision 1956, the contest’s first edition, there are no existing tapes. Audio recordings exist, which is how we were able to score it, but let’s be honest: Staging was a very minor factor at this point, anyway.
Vital Information: “Le Chant de Mallory”
| Song | Le Chant de Mallory |
| English Translation | Mallory’s Song |
| Performed By | Rachel Ros |
| Written By | Pierre Cour & André Popp |
| Country | France |
| Year | 1964 |
| Language(s) Performed In | French |
| How It Fared | 4th Place (14 points) |
| Was It Fair? | Should have been at least one higher |
What I Liked
A song does not have to be fast-paced with a good beat to be catchy. “Le Chant de Mallory” proves that. The melody is very pleasant and it is a well-composed song. Lyrically, it’s not bad at all. The imagery it paints is touching: That of a young Irish love who came in with the wind and disappeared with it.
Rachel was a good singer. In watching and reviewing this performance several times, I had no notes or critiques.
Other Facts
- Rachel kept a streak going of at least eight years in a row of France finishing in the top five. (We have no idea if they did in 1956, nor does anyone else who is alive and willing to speak of it.) They would not finish outside the top five for the first time until 1966.
- The songwriters for “Le Chant de Mallory,” Pierre Cour and André Popp, each contributed to numerous French-language Eurovision songs from the 1950s to well into the 1970s. This song was not their only collaboration. Cour wrote and Popp composed France’s 1960 winning song, “Tom Pillibi.”
- Rachel performed seventh in the running order out of 16 songs.
- Just one country, Monaco, gave France the maximum allowed five points under this scoring system. Five other countries gave them points.
Well, You Can’t Watch “Le Chant de Mallory,” But…
You can hear the Eurovision performance from 1964 on YouTube.
