Monroe emerges from a giant flower in Place Sainte-Catherine: a Parisian flash mob to launch "Regarde" before Eurovision

Ten days before the Eurovision Song Contest grand final, scheduled for May 16th in Vienna for the 70th edition of the competition, France has pulled out all the stops. Monroe, a 17-year-old French-American artist who rose to fame on the French television show Prodiges in 2024, took over the Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine in Paris's 4th arrondissement for a flash mob filmed in mid-April and released online this Tuesday. The video, shared by the violin duo Violin Phonix, Christopher Cohen and Maxime Morise, who boast 20 million social media followers, shows around fifty artists, dancers, singers, and musicians gradually filling the public space to the sound of "Regarde," the song Monroe will perform in the competition.

A meticulously planned event, a spectacular entrance from a giant flower

Nothing in this video was left to chance. As Maxime Morise explained to 20 Minutes the day before filming, preparing the flash mob required a good month of work: obtaining permits from the town hall and the prefecture, approaching residents to film from their windows or to arrange for musicians to perform there, and briefing around fifty artists. The sequence opens with Lou Deleuze, winner of the 2025 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, performing the song as an introduction. Then, two men place a giant red flower on the ground, from which Monroe emerges at the opportune moment to take over at the microphone—a staging that inevitably triggered astonishment and a flurry of phone calls on nearby terraces. The Violin Phonix, who co-wrote the song with Monroe, conceived this happening as "a way to bring the song to life, to make it come alive," in Maxime Morise's words to 20 Minutes.

Fifth in the predictions, Monroe is aiming for the Austrian podium

Monroe is no stranger to making headlines: last December, she already caused a stir with a surprise cover of Rosalía's "Berghain" at King's Cross station in London, accompanied by singer Innocent Masuku and pianist Julien Cohen. Just days before the Vienna final, bookmakers have her in fifth place, behind Finland, the favorite. She succeeds Louane, who finished seventh in 2025. The winner to beat is 25-year-old Austrian JJ, whose country is hosting this edition after his victory in the previous one.