"J'ai cherché" (, ) is a song performed by French-Israeli singer

Amir Haddad Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad (; born 20 June 1984), better known as Amir Haddad () or simply as Amir, is a French people, French-Israeli singer-songwriter and actor. He took part in 2006 in the Israeli music competition ''Kokhav Nolad'', ...

. The song represented France in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2016 The Eurovision Song Contest 2016 was the 61st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Stockholm, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Heroes (Måns Zelmerlöw song), Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. Organis ...

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. The song finished 6th overall in the grand final, with 257 points, finishing 3rd with the juries and 9th in the televote,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

's best result since 2002. It was written by Haddad along with Johan Errami and Nazim Khaled, while Khaled produced the track along with Silvio Lisbonne and Skydancers. The song was released as a digital download on 15 January 2016 through Sash Productions.J'ai cherché - Single by Amir on iTunes
/ref> The song was released as the second single from his second studio album '' Au cœur de moi'' (2016).

Eurovision Song Contest

On 29 February 2016, the French broadcaster announced that Haddad would perform the song "J'ai cherché" as the country's

entry. Being a member of the " Big Five", he automatically advanced to the final. He performed the song during the first semi-final on 10 May 2016. The song finished 6th overall in the grand final, with 257 points, finishing 3rd with the juries and 9th in the televote, France's best result since 2002.

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "J'ai cherché" was first released onto Amir's YouTube channel on 3 March 2016 at a total length of three minutes and thirty-two seconds.Amir - J'ai cherché (Clip officiel) -

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

An abridged version of the video was uploaded to the Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel on 13 March 2016 with an alternate lyrics and a total length of 2:59 minutes. It has since received over 18 million views and is one of the most positively received among all of the 2016 participants, and his first version of the song has received over 100 million views on his own channel on YouTube.

Reception

Since its release to French radio in January 2016, the song has received largely positive feedback from the public. The song reached number two on the

French Singles Chart SNEP (, in English National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing) is the inter-professional organisation that protects the interests of the French record industry. Originally known under the acronym SNICOP, the organisation was established in ...

, on 20 May 2016, behind "

Can't Stop the Feeling! "Can't Stop the Feeling!" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake. It was released on May 6, 2016, as the lead single of the soundtrack to the film ''Trolls'' (2016), in which Timberlake voiced the character "Branch" ...

" by

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

. Many of these fans were pleased when it was chosen to represent France at Eurovision, leading much of the media covering the contest to believe that this was the first French contest entry in recent memory to be positively backed by its own public. The song has been listened to on radio over 1.2 billion times, earning Amir the first W9 Gold Award on 11 December 2016 for the most listened-to French song on radio. The single was certified platinum in France in October 2016. In August 2022, it was certified Diamond.

Other versions

After the good reception of the song, two different versions of J'ai cherché were released, one in English and one in Spanish. One month after the release of "J'ai cherché", Haddad released the all-English version of the song, titled "Looking for You". On 10 May 2016, in the morning of the very first Semi-final the Spanish version of the song was uploaded to his YouTube channel, titled "Yo Busqué". This last version was made with the help of the Spanish representative of Eurovision that year (2016), Barei, after they both formed a strong friendship in the Eurovision Tour around Europe, where they sang the early version of the song together in the streets of London.Amir y Barei - Yo busqué (J'ai cherché Versión en Español) - Eurovision 201

YouTube Both the English and Spanish versions of the song were released on the special edition of Amir's album ''Au cœur de moi'' on November 11

Track listing

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Awards and nominations

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:J'ai cherche Eurovision songs of France Eurovision songs of 2016 2016 songs 2016 singles Amir Haddad songs Songs written by Nazim Khaled Songs written by Amir Haddad