Monroe France sends 17-year-old Utah singer to Eurovision
monroe france reached Vienna this week when Monroe Rigby, the 17-year-old singer from Utah who performs as Monroe, had her first rehearsal for the 70th annual Eurovision Song Contest. France selected her to sing its entry, Regarde!, and she is now moving through the final stretch before the grand finale.
Rigby grew up near Salt Lake City and won France’s Prodiges competition at 16 with Mozart’s The Magic Flute aria Queen of the Night. That victory led to a record deal with Warner Classics and a debut album, Monroe, released last year.
Vienna rehearsal for France
Rigby spoke on Friday from Vienna, the day after the rehearsal, and said, “We’re just having the time of our lives right now.” She added, “It’s all about this idea of finding strength and finding love and reassurance within us,” describing the message behind France’s Eurovision entry.
France’s official song, Regarde!, has already drawn more than 2 million views on YouTube. Rigby will perform it on Saturday, May 16, during the Eurovision grand finale, a broadcast she described this way: “After the Super Bowl, it’s the biggest show,”
France and Alexandra Redde
Alexandra Redde, the chief of delegation for France at the Eurovision Song Contest, worked with Rigby after the Prodiges win linked the two. Their collaboration carried Rigby from a French TV competition into a contest that reached 166 million viewers last year and now includes 35 countries.
Rigby said the path has felt wider than one performance, but the next step is narrower and more concrete: the grand finale in Vienna, where France will put Regarde! in front of the contest’s biggest audience of the season. For viewers following monroe france, the rehearsal showed that her role is no longer about arrival, but delivery.
Regarde! and the finale
Rigby said, “I don’t know if I’m good yet,” before adding, “But you always just keep growing. That’s life, you know. I just wanted to do it because I love it. I loved it then, I love it now, and I’ll love it for a lot longer.”
That sense of motion now meets a fixed date. France’s entry goes out on Saturday, May 16, and Rigby’s first rehearsal in Vienna placed her one step closer to a performance that will be judged alongside the other 35 countries in the contest.
