Eurovision, the biggest music competition in the world, is celebrating its 68th birthday this year. Over the past seven decades, more than 1,500 songs have been sung at the competition, more than fifty countries have presented themselves, and it all started in 1956, as a technological experiment.
At that time, many households still did not have television, broadcasts were in black and white, and the creators of Eurovision wanted to try something new. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy competed at the first Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Lugano, Switzerland.
Lys Assia / Photo 1995 |
The Swiss won Lys Assia with the song ‘Refrain’, and the voting was secret. Each competing country sent two members of its team to Switzerland, and it is interesting that the representatives of Luxembourg did not manage to come, so the Swiss voted instead. Žiri could vote for anyone, even for a representative from his country.
Lys Assia was 32 years old when she won the first Eurovision Song Contest, and the singer died in 2018 at the age of 94. Assia participated in that competition in 1957 and 1958 without winning, but in 1958 with the song ‘Giorgio’ she was highly placed in second place.
Each country presented itself with two songs, and the audience primarily listened to the competition on the radio. The program was led by Lohengrin Filipello, then a famous Swiss presenter, while the competition was accompanied by an orchestra.
It is interesting that at the first Eurovision, groups were not allowed to perform, only individuals, and it remained that way until 1970. Yugoslavia did not compete in the first čfour contests, and the first representative was Ljiljana Petrović with the song ‘Neke davne zvezde’ in 1961.
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