Bilal Hassani

Bilal Hassani (Arabic: بلال حسني, romanized: Bilāl Ḥasnī; born 9 September 1999) is a French singer-songwriter and YouTuber. He represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Roi", finishing in 16th place. Hassani was born in Orsay, Paris Region to a Moroccan family from Casablanca. His mother is a French citizen, while his father lives in Singapore. He has an older brother, Taha, who was born in 1995. He obtained his literary baccalaureate in 2017. In 2005, at the age of five, Hassani began singing lessons. In 2015, encouraged by his friend Nemo Schiffman, a finalist of the first season, Hassani participated in the second season of The Voice Kids and introduced himself in the blind auditions by singing a cover of "Rise Like a Phoenix" by Conchita Wurst, a singer whom he admires. He joined the team of judge Patrick Fiori. He was eliminated during the battle rounds by Swany Patrac. In 2018, the LGBT magazine Têtu designated Hassani as one of the "30 LGBT+ [people] who move France". The magazine described him as "an icon for French LGBT+ youth". On 6 December 2018, Hassani was announced to be among the 18 candidates participating in Destination Eurovision, the French national selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest which was broadcast on France 2, with this edition choosing the representative of France at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, which took place in Tel Aviv, Israel in May 2019. On 20 December 2018, an excerpt from his song for th…