Since their 2024 return to the Eurovision Song Contest, after a hiatus of over 30 years, Luxembourg have used the national final Luxembourg Song Contest to select their entrant.
In 2025, with seven entries eligible to represent Luxembourg at Basel, far and away the bookies’ favourite to win became Laura Thorn with the song ‘La poupée monte le son’. The song quickly established itself as both a call-back to and modern reworking of Luxembourg’s 1965 winning entry, ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’, sung by France Gall. It clearly worked as Thorn dominated the jury vote and placed second with televoters, earning the honour of representing her country at Eurovision this May.
However, while some will undoubtedly be delighted to see a modern play on a classic Eurovision entry in Basel, others may wonder if this is evidence that – when it comes to the contest – Luxembourg are more concerned with being stuck in the past instead of looking forward. Additionally, some might question if ‘La poupée monte le son’ is really as progressive as it sets out to be. In this article, we’ll be comparing the two songs, diving deeper into their lyrics and history, and exploring how Thorn’s song might fare at Eurovision.
Eurovision 1965 and the Gall of Gainsbourg
To understand the significance of both France Gall and Laura Thorn’s Eurovision entries, one has to understand the songwriter of Gall’s ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’. This, of course, is Serge Gainsbourg, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop.
Having started his musical career as a pianist and chanson singer, Gainsbourg soon became renowned for his own songs, which were laden with puns, word-play and double entendres. He would also become known for his relationships and duets with famous actresses Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, birthing the hits ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ and the sexually explicit ‘Je t’aime…moi non plus’ (‘I Love You…Me Neither’) with each one respectively. In the late 1970s, Gainsbourg released a reggae version of French national anthem ‘La Marseillaise’ which led to him receiving death threats from French right-wing soldiers. In 1984, Gainsbourg released the song ‘Lemon Incest’ with the music video featuring him lying half-naked on a bed with his teenage daughter. Two years later, he would drunkenly declare on a live Saturday evening television show that he wanted to “fuck” fellow guest Whitney Houston. In short, for all his undoubtedly important contributions to French pop music, Gainsbourg was no stranger to controversy at any point in his career.
In 1965, 36-year-old Gainsbourg was a well-known songwriter in the yé-yé genre, a style of French pop typically sung by young female singers. One such singer was the then 17-year-old France Gall, who had already lended her voice to the Gainsbourg-penned songs ‘N’écoute pas les idoles’ (‘Don’t Listen to Idols’) and ‘Laisse tomber les filles‘ (‘Drop It With the Girls’).
As with many of Gainsbourg’s songs, the 1965 Luxembourgish Eurovision entry ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ is filled with self-referentiality and double meanings. The title of the song translates as either ‘Wax Doll, Rag Doll’ or ‘Wax Doll, Sound Doll’ and, according to Sylvie Simmons in her biography ‘Serge Gainsbourg: A Fistful of Gitanes’, the tune “was catchy, and on the surface pretty annoying – perfect Eurovision fodder, in other words – but closer examination revealed perspicacious lyrics about the ironies and incongruities inherent in baby–pop.”
Indeed, the song is sung from the perspective of a “wax doll, a rag doll” (or “sound doll”) whose “heart is engraved in my songs”. However, despite this she questions whether she is “worse than a fashion doll”. Some of the lyrics seem to directly reference Gall herself:
Alone, I sometimes sigh
Thinking, what’s the point
Of singing love like this, without reason
Without knowing anything about boys?
I’m only a wax doll
Only a rag doll
Under the sun of my blonde hair
Wax doll, rag doll
France Gall, ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’
‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ went on to win Eurovision and became a huge hit in France. However, despite this, the teenage Gall had little idea what she was singing about. In short, she was the singing doll Gainsbourg wrote about: a young girl singing songs created by adult men she would at best partially understand the meaning of.
This would go one step further in 1966 when Gall sang another song written by Gainsbourg entitled ‘Les Sucettes’, which translates as ‘Lollipops’. Extremely sexually suggestive for its time, even by Gainsbourg’s standards, the song was on its surface about a girl called Annie who loves anise-flavoured lollipops. However, it was laden with references to oral sex, such as a line about barley sugar running down the girl’s throat and leaving her “in paradise”, as well as a play on the words ‘pennies’ and ‘penis’. If the lyrics left listeners in any doubt about the song’s subtext, the music video hammered it home, featuring dancers in phallic lollipop costumes and models suggestively sucking on lollipops. A separate music video featured the now 18-year-old Gall singing the song in a school uniform.
Gall has maintained that, as with ‘Poupée de cire…’, she had no idea what the song was really about and was horrified when she learned the true meaning of ‘Les Sucettes’. In Simmon’s biography of Gainsbourg, Gall said that when she found out she was “mortified, hiding herself away for weeks, refusing to face anyone” and “was pained to then learn that he [Gainsbourg] had turned the situation to his advantage, mocking me.” Gall disassociated herself from the Eurovision Song Contest, refusing to perform ‘Poupée de cire…’ live in later years. In a 2001 television interview, she explained that she felt “betrayed by the adults around me” when looking back at that time.
‘La poupée monte le son’ – A Feminist Reworking?
With the history of ‘Poupée de cire…’ and Gainsbourg’s relationship with Gall in mind, some might argue that if any Eurovision entry is in need of a modern spin it’s this one. Enter ‘La poupée monte le son’, performed by Luxembourgish singer and music teacher Laura Thorn and composed by Christophe Houssin and Julien Salvia, the latter of whom is a French composer and performer of musical theatre.
Lyrically, the song subverts the passivity displayed by the ‘doll’ of ‘Poupée de cire…’ straight away, with Thorn telling the listener:
If you see me as a perfect doll
Laura Thorn, ‘La poupée monte le son’
Who smiles and then shuts up whenever you wish
Forget me, I’m not your puppet
Instead, ‘La poupée…’ gives its ‘doll’ not only agency but also total control, with the song’s title and hook translating as ‘The doll turns up the sound’. Essentially, unlike the doll in Gall’s song, who sings “without reason” or experience, the doll in Thorn’s song chooses her own destiny and is responsible for the “sound” the listeners are hearing. In the song’s bridge, she cements herself as “the echo of a new generation” who “leads the music” herself rather than being controlled by others.
The message of ‘La poupée…’ was underpinned by its staging at the Luxembourg Song Contest. Before the song begins, footage of Gall performing ‘Poupée de cire…’ at Eurovision is displayed before the frame ‘burns’, revealing Thorn sporting a pink and white costume resembling a doll’s dress, joined by three male backing dancers. As she sings, Thorn dances and poses in a manner reminiscent of a doll in a music box, with the male dancers leading her around the stage. However, as the song progresses, Thorn breaks away from the dancers and in the bridge she casts off her dress to reveal a silver glittering bodysuit. The male dancers fall to the floor and are replaced by female backing dancers instead, who join Thorn for the final chorus.
Progressive or Derivative?
Given its reception at the Luxembourg Song Contest, it’s safe to say that jurors and televoters alike loved what ‘La poupée…’ had to offer. However, a closer look at its overall package might leave some wondering whether the song is really as progressive as it sets out to be, either musically or in terms of Luxembourg and Eurovision’s overall timeline.
For starters, although the song displays a bold, feminist message that women can take control of their own music and destiny, it is penned by two men. Does this imply that, for all its attempts to do the opposite, Thorn is – like Gall – merely a vehicle for two men to make their music heard? Might some argue that Thorn is simply another “sound doll”, as Gall was all the way back in 1965?
On the other hand, others might see this interpretation as being somewhat unfair: just because the songwriters of ‘La poupée…’ are men does not mean they cannot wholeheartedly believe in the message they are promoting. Additionally, Thorn could have had much more input into the writing and/or presentation of the song than we are currently aware of and even if she hasn’t it does not mean she is not a vocal proponent of its ideas. Indeed, without Thorn’s voice, the message of ‘La poupée…’ might never be heard!
However, another criticism of ‘La poupée…’ might come from the very matter of its references to ‘Poupée de cire…’, ironically making it almost as self-referential as Gainsbourg’s own songs. Since their return to Eurovision in 2024, many have been disappointed with Luxembourg’s national final offerings, seeing them as either dated and/or derivative, with many of them coming from songwriting camps overseas and therefore not reflecting the Luxembourgish cultural scene. One might wonder if an entry that makes direct reference to a Luxembourgish entry that won Eurovision 60 years ago is more evidence that Luxembourg are not ready to bring something new and fresh to the contest, instead preferring to stay in the past.
With just under four months to go until the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, it remains to be seen how ‘La poupée monte le son’ will fare at Eurovision. Will its message be positively received? Will viewers love its references to ‘Poupée de cire, poupée de son’ or will it simply be perceived as a gimmick? Only time will tell but in the meantime, let us know what you think of the song and don’t forget to follow our socials!
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