Happy birthday, Eurovision!

Happy birthday, Eurovision Song Contest. Today it is 66 years ago that the first Eurovision song contest was held.

The Eurovision Song Contest was created after the coronation of the British Queen Elizabeth II was broadcast on French television. They wanted to use the equipment purchased for this for other events. A song contest, modeled after the Italian festival of Sanremo, was one of the ideas.

The first song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland. Ten countries wanted to participate, in the end there were seven. They each presented two songs. There was no voting as we know it now. The jury consisted of two members from each country. Remarkable: Luxembourg had no jury, two Swiss did the honors for that country. At the end of the evening, chairman Rolf Liebermann only announced that the song “Refrain” had won. That was one of Lys Assia‘s two Swiss entries.

Little image has been preserved of the first Eurovision; only a part of the reprise, when Lys Assia had won.

Wanna know more? Have a look at our 1956 page!

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