France was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Voilà", written by Barbara Pravi, Lili Poe, and Igit, and performed by Pravi herself. The French participating broadcaster, France Télévisions, organised the national final Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez ! in order to select its entry for the contest. Twelve songs competed in the national final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, eight entries were selected to advance to the second round: seven entries selected a public vote and one entry selected by a ten-member jury panel. In the second round, "Voilà" performed by Barbara Pravi was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a ten-member jury panel and a public vote.

As a member of the "Big Five", France automatically qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Performing in position 20, France placed second out of the 26 participating countries with 499 points.

Prior to the 2021 contest, France Télévisions and its predecessor national broadcasters have participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing France sixty-two times since RTF's debut in the inaugural contest. They first won the contest in 1958 with "Dors, mon amour" performed by André Claveau. In the 1960s, they won three times, with "Tom Pillibi" performed by Jacqueline Boyer in 1960, "Un premier amour" performed by Isabelle Aubret in 1962, and "Un jour, un enfant" performed by Frida Boccara, who won in 1969 in a four-way tie with the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Their fifth – and so far latest – victory came in 1977 with "L'oiseau et l'enfant" performed by Marie Myriam. France has also finished second four times, with Paule Desjardins in 1957, Catherine Ferry in 1976, Joëlle Ursull in 1990, and Amina in 1991 (who lost out to Sweden's Carola in a tie-break). In the 21st century, France has had less success, only making the top ten four times, with Natasha St-Pier finishing fourth in 2001, Sandrine François finishing fifth in 2002, Patricia Kaas finishing eighth in 2009, Amir finishing sixth in 2016. In 2020, they were set to be represented by the song "Mon alliée (The Best in Me)" performed by Tom Leeb before the event's cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, France Télévisions organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country through France 2. The broadcaster confirmed that it would participate in the 2021 contest on 22 June 2020. The French broadcasters had used both national finals and internal selection to choose its entry in the past. In 2018 and 2019, the broadcaster selected its entries via the national final Destination Eurovision. In 2020, France Télévisions opted to internally select its entry, however it announced in June 2020 that the 2021 entry would be selected via a new national final format.

Eurovision France, c'est vous qui décidez ! ("Eurovision France, it's you who decide!") was the national final staged by France 2 to select the French entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition took place on 30 January 2021 at the France Télévisions studio in Paris, hosted by Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini. The show was broadcast on France 2, TV5Monde and TV5 Québec Canada on a time delay as well as online via the broadcaster's official website france.tv. The national final was watched by 2.37 million viewers in France with a market share of 12.3%.

The format of the national final consisted of a live final on 30 January 2021 where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. Twelve entries competed in the first round, from which seven were selected exclusively by public televoting to advance to the second round, the superfinal. A ten-member Francophone and international jury panel then selected a wildcard entry from the remaining five entries to proceed to the superfinal. In the superfinal, the winner was determined by the combination of public televoting (50%) and the ten-member jury panel (50%). The public and the juries each had a total of 420 points to award, with each jury member awarding 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 points to their top six entries. Viewers were able to vote via telephone and SMS voting which also accepted international votes, with the public vote awarding 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 100 points to their top eight songs.

The jury panel consisted of:

France 2 opened a submission period on 29 June 2020 in order for interested artists and songwriters to submit their proposals through an online submission form up until the deadline on 30 September 2020. Songs were required to contain a majority of French language or French regional language lyrics with a free language allowance for the remaining lyrics. At the closing of the deadline, the French broadcaster received 700 submissions. Auditions which featured 20 entries shortlisted from the received submissions took place at the Apollo Theatre in Paris and the twelve entries selected to compete in the national final were announced on 9 December 2020. Between 16 and 27 December 2020, the competing artists and their entries were presented to the public through television specials titled Eurovision France, les finalistes.