First Eurovision Song Contest - May 24, 1956

On this day in 1956, the first Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio Welcome Back to This Day in History Class,
where we reveal a new piece of history every day.
Today is May nineteen. The day was made nineteen fifty six,

(00:27):
the first ever Eurovision song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland.
The contest was a talent competition, but it was also
a bit to bring together the countries in the European
Broadcasting Union in alliance of public service media through technology.
In the wake of World War Two, Europe had a

(00:48):
lot of rebuilding to do. In February of nineteen fifty
the European Broadcasting Union or EBU was created, but it
was difficult to organize international TV program exchanges. TV networks
used different picture standards and there were legal and financial concerns,

(01:08):
but plans for an international newscast and television program exchange
were brewing. In nineteen fifty two, the first official program
exchange both ways between London and Paris was made successfully.
English journalist George camp Be coined the term Eurovision in
the nineteen fifty one article Can't Be Said The following.

(01:31):
Eurovision is a system of cooperation for the exchange of
television programs between the countries of Western Europe, including Britain,
and in nineteen fifty four, e b U members organized
a summer of European television exchanges known as the Real Experiment,
where links were established between eight countries via terrestrial transmitters.

(01:54):
The television network Eurovision was born. After the television exchange
proved successful, it was decided that there should be an
annual event to promote television, so in January of nineteen
fifty five, the e b U Program Committee, meeting in
Monte Carlo, approved a European Song Contest and a Eurovision

(02:15):
Cup for amateur variety artists called the Top Town program.
The latter idea did not gain any traction, but the
song contest had support. On October nineteenth, nineteen fifty five,
and e BU General Assembly, meeting in the Corsini Palace
in Rome, approved the creation of a Grand Prix of

(02:35):
European Song. The contest, inspired by the Italian Saremo Music Festival,
would be held in Lugano in spring of nineteen fifty six.
The director of the EBU Administrative Office created the rules
for the contest and the planning subgroup introduced amendments. The
performance could not be any longer than three and a

(02:56):
half minutes, and the backing orchestra would be made up
of twenty four musicians. Rehearsals for the contest began on
May one, nineteen fifty six, at the Teatro Corsal. Flowers
were placed throughout the theater to add a little more
interest to the visuals of the broadcast. In the beginning,
the contest was known as the Year of Vision Grand Prix.

(03:19):
The first year of Vision Grand Prix was broadcast live
on May nineteen fifty six to ten countries. The contestants
were singers from seven different countries. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France,
Luxembourg and Italy. Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom were

(03:40):
participants initially, but they were disqualified from entering the contest
when they registered after the deadline. Each of the contestants
performed two songs. A jury made of two delegates from
each competing country awarded each song between one and ten points.
Swiss singer Lease Assia won the first year of a

(04:00):
Song contest with a song called Refrain. She did not
get a physical award, as medals weren't introduced in the
contest until later, during her encore, les Assa forgot some
of the words to her song and improvised. The next year,
the Eurovision Grand Prix was hosted in West Germany and

(04:20):
the rules were changed to one song per participants. Over
the next several decades, the contest was staged in different countries,
the voting system changed, and more rules changed for contestants.
Notable winners of the Eurovision Song Contests include Abba and
Selene Dion. Winner of the inaugural Eurovision Song Contests, les

(04:43):
Assia died at age ninety four. I'm Eve Stefcote and
hopefully you know a little more about history today than
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(05:11):
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