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The Decade Of

1950s

Decade Introduction

1956 - 1959

Although Marcel Bezençon is credited with creating the Eurovision Song Contest, much of the format that we recognise today came from the British actor Michael Brennan, who in March, 1954 came up with the idea of a song contest which featured regional juries and a scoreboard. This idea eventually became the Festival Of British Popular Songs, which was first screened on the 7th May, 1956.

Seven countries took part in the first edition, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and Italy, with each country presenting two songs.

  • The Decade in review

    Meanwhile in the 1950s

  • Post World War II

    After the end of another World War that halted global development in its tracks, the 1950s lay the foundations for a new, yet divided Europe.

  • The European Economic Community (EEC)

    While the east seeks cooperation under the Warsaw Pact (1955), the west comes together in the newly formed European Economic Community (1957).

  • The Rise of Television

    As television starts to complement radio as widely popular media channel, colour-TV is introduced in the US and European public broadcasters gather in Devon, England, to form the European Broadcasting Union (1950).

  • God Save the Queen

    Its first major event is the coronation of Elizabeth II (1952), which goes out to an estimated 20 million people across the continent. It would take until 1955 before the idea of a pan-European song contest would emerge.

  • The Space Race

    The USA and the USSR start to look at new horizons as NASA is established and the Sputnik is launched into space - a development that paved the way for satellites that would later make global communications much easier.

  • The Birth of Remote Controls

    A remote control would be convenient as well - thankfully invented in 1956.

1956

Host City

Lugano

Inspired by the Sanremo Festival, the vision of a pan-European music competition was born at a EBU meeting in Monaco in 1955.

The 1956 Eurovision Song Contest was primarily a radio show, although some cameras were taping the contest for the few Europeans who had a television set at that time.

Lohengrin Filipello was hosting the programme, which lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes. The seven participating countries were represented with two songs each. The songs of the contest were not to exceed three and a half minutes, and the performers were accompanied by an orchestra of 24 musicians, led by Fernando Paggi.

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  • Interview

    Lys Assia

  • The Eurovision Song Contest

    Audience

Photo Gallery

The highlights

Begin

  • Lys Assia took the stage of Eurovision many times more after she won in 1956.

    The Jury

    Participating Countries

    All participating countries sent two jury members to Lugano in order to vote secretly on the songs. The jury members from Luxembourg could not make it to Lugano, so the EBU allowed Swiss Nationals to vote on their behalf. The juries were allowed to vote for whatever country they wished to, including their own;

    The scores of the voting have never been made public, leaving room for lots of speculation. Attempts to reconstruct the voting by interviewing jury members over the past five decades did not lead to any reliable outcome.

  • Lys Assia celebrates with flowers.

  • Lys Assia.

Fun facts

  1. No.1
  2. No.2
  3. No.3
  4. No.4

  • Lys Assia has taken part 3 times in a row and has aimed for a fourth attempt just in the past years (in her 80s!).

  • Lys Assia is the only Swiss national to have won. Switzerland's other winner is Céline Dion, who is originally Canadian.

  • Austria and Denmark missed the deadline for the first Eurovision Song Contest and only appeared one year later.

  • Only solo artists were allowed to enter the contest. Groups were not - a rule which would be abolished in the 1970s.

Stories worth telling

Lys Assia

Known for having sold millions of records, she has performed to kings and queens all over the world and is the matriarch of the Eurovision Song Contest royal family.

Ladies and gentlemen, the very first winner of the contest, Lys Assia!

Having enchanted audiences since the 1940s, she’s famous for her trademark black dress and a tiny dog called Cindy as well as her incredible charm. You might also remember her from the past few contests where she’s been called up as a guest of honour and has waved to some 180 million people on live TV.

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1957

Host City

Frankfurt

The 1957 Eurovision Song Contest was hosted by the Hessischer Rundfunk on behalf of Deutsches Fernsehen ARD.

This year, Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom entered the contest for the first time, joining the other seven participating countries from the previous year. Despite the fact that an increasing number of Europeans had had access to television, the contest was still mainly a radio programme.

As a change to the contest the year before, duos were allowed into the competition with the first being the Danish entry by Birthe Wilke and Gustav Winckler. The couple gave viewers the longest on-stage kiss in the history of the contest to date, but it was not enough to win and they ended third.

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Photo Gallery

The highlights

Begin

  • The scoreboard of 1957.

    Rules

    Song Duration

    The participating countries were represented by one song each, but the duration of the songs varied. The UK entry lasted for only 1:52 minutes, whereas the Italian lasted for 5:09 minutes. Even though the rules suggested that a song should not exceed three minutes, the Italian entry was not disqualified despite heavy protests. The incident lead to the restriction of each song to last a maximum of three minutes. Another change was that the National juries could not vote for their own song anymore, a rule that still applies today.

scoreboard

1957 results

The Netherlands

points

play on youtube

Stories worth telling

Corry Brokken

For the first time, the Netherlands won the contest with the song Net Als Toen, performed by Corry Brokken who also represented her country in Lugano the year before.

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1958

Host City

Hilversum

The Netherlands had the honour of hosting the third Eurovision Song Contest.

The 1958 contest took place at the television studios in Hilversum, the 'media capital' of the Netherlands. For the occasion, the venue was decorated with thousands of tulips.

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Photo Gallery

The highlights

Begin

  • Domenico Modugno became a worldwide hit.

    Participants

    Familiar faces

    Despite ending third, the Italian entry Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu by Domenico Modugno became a worldwide hit and to date, it is one of the most successful songs in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest even if it is better known under the title Volare. Domenico even managed to reach the No.1 spot in the US-American Billboard Charts with his song and was also awarded three Grammies. Domenico Modugno came back to the contest twice: in 1959 with Piove (or Ciao, Ciao Bambina), and in 1966 with Dio, Come Ti Amo.

  • Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu is better known as Volare.

  • André Claveau from France wins in 1958.

  • The orchestra performs.

  • The orchestra performs.

  • The 1958 scoreboard.

  • Drawing from preparations in the Netherlands.

  • Drawing from preparations in the Netherlands.

Fun facts

  1. No.1
  2. No.2
  3. No.3

  • The Swiss winner of 1956, Lys Assia, represented her native country again and missed out a second victory by 3 points.

  • After winning the Eurovision Song Contest the year before, Corry Brokken came last on home soil.

  • Corry Brokken would return to the Eurovision Song Contest stage as a presenter in 1976.

scoreboard

1958 results

France

points

play on youtube

Stories worth telling

About the Winner

Sweden entered the contest for the first time with one of their biggest stars, Alice Babs.

But it was not enough to stop France from getting the trophy with the song Dors, Mon Amour, performed by André Claveau.

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1959

Host City

Cannes

73 minutes live from Cannes. The Eurovision Song Contest of 1959 welcomed the small principality of Monaco.

Moreover, the United Kingdom re-entered the contest after one year of absence, and Luxembourg decided not to participate.

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Fun facts

  1. No.1
  2. No.2

  • A new rule was introduced to the 4th contest; music experts were not allowed into the National juries any longer.

  • This year only, not just the winning song by Teddy Scholten got a reprise at the end, but also the 2nd and 3rd finalists.

scoreboard

1959 results

The Netherlands

points

play on youtube

Stories worth telling

Teddy Scholten

The Netherlands won for already the second time in the short history of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Een Beetje performed by Teddy Scholten.

The lyrics of the song were written by Willy van Hemert, who also wrote the winning song of 1957. The winner was once again outscored by Domenico Modugno though who got yet another world-wide hit with his Italian entry Piove - which is better known under the title Ciao Ciao Bambina.

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Next Decade

1960s

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Eurovision

Credits

Project & Content Manager

Marieke Duijts

Editorial contributions

Victor Escudero
Olena Omelyanchuk
Gordon Roxburgh
Jarmo Siim

Concept

Scrn

Technical supervision

Wouter van Vliet

Digital Production

Elespacio - Lucas Onofre

Art Direction & Design

Elespacio - Brijan Powell
Elespacio - Samuel Hoh
Elespacio - Pavel Proshin

Development

Elespacio - Jacek Zakowicz
Elespacio - Cristina Franco
Elespacio - Jonathan Icicson

Photo & video credits

Getty Images
Beeld & Geluid (Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision)
BBC Photo Library
ORF/Thomas Ramstorfer
EBU
Stijn Smulders
Jan Demulder
Wim Dehandschutter
Femke de Laat
Andres Putting
Thomas Hanses
Dennis Stachel
Sander Hesterman
Elke Roels
Marieke Duijts
Indrek Galetin
Alain Douit
Kenneth Thorén (SVT)
SurFeRGiRL30
James Morley
Anthony Kelly
Sam Shaw
Peter Mackey
Philippe Schlesser
Polfoto - Jacob Maarbjerg
Jacinta lluch Valero
Gage Skidmore
Gustavo Devito
Robert Scoble
R Barraez D´Lucca
Asim Bijarani
Chris - RMS Olympic Broadside View Post-Titanic
Kamil Porembiński - RBMK-1000, Chernobyl
Dan Queiroz
François Péladeau / Vancityhotshots
NASA image acquired April 16, 2010
Julian Burgess
Alex Hill
Bryan Dorrough
South African Tourism
Maxwell Hamilton
Paisley Scotland
Alf Melin
Ross Fowler
Cliff
Yukiko Matsuoka
Irish Typepad
hobvias sudoneighm

Special thanks to

Samuel Andersson (SVT)
Stephanie Caflisch (EBU)
Jeroen Depraetere
Maartje Jansma (Beeld & Geluid)
Gijs Kimenai (Beeld & Geluid)
Maiken Maimets (OGAE)
Helen Ridell (BBC)
Sarah Sadek (EBU)
Jon Ola Sand (EBU)
Dave Goodman (EBU)
David A Allan

A special thanks to all Heads of Delegations, members of the Reference Group, EBU Member Broadcaster representatives and fans who have contributed to this project.

Project Supervisor

Sietse Bakker


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With thanks

Eurovision Song Contest, Scrn, Elespacio