Eurovision Song Contest 1956
| Eurovision Song Contest 1956 |
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| Dates | |
| Final date | 24 May 1956 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Teatro Kursaal Lugano, Switzerland |
| Presenter(s) | Lohengrin Filipello |
| Conductor | Fernando Paggi |
| Director | Franco Marazzi |
| Host broadcaster |  RTSI |
| Interval act | Les Joyeux Rossignols & Les Trois Ménestrels |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 14 |
| Debuting countries |  Belgium France Germany Italy Luxembourg Netherlands Switzerland |
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Participation map
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| Vote | |
| Winning song | Switzerland "Refrain" |
| Eurovision Song Contest | |
.svg){kind=small} 1957► |
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on 24 May 1956. It was won by the host country Switzerland with "Refrain", performed by Lys Assia.[1]
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[edit] History
Inspired by the Italian Sanremo Festival, the idea to organise a pan-European competition for light music was born at a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in Monaco, back in 1955. It was decided that the first ever Eurovision Song Contest would be hosted the following year in the Swiss resort of Lugano. 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. The interval act, whistling by the Joyeux Rossignols, had to be extended due to a delay in the voting procedure.
This first contest was mainly a radio programme, though there were cameras in the studio for the benefit of the few Europeans who had television. The backdrops behind the singers were, perhaps understandably, not very lavish. Unlike more recent competitions, each country was allowed to enter two songs rather than one.
No video recording of the entire event is known to have survived, although an audio recording does exist (although 20 minutes is missing from the end of the first part of the interval act till the start of the announcement of the winner). Newsreel footage of Lys Assia's encore performance of "Refrain" appears to be the only known video from the contest.
[edit] Rules
Only solo artists were allowed to enter the contest. Groups were banned - a rule which would only be abolished in the 1970s.
One rule of this contest is that every country had to have a national final, this rule was dropped in future years and some countries chose to choose a song internally. It had been strongly recommended that each participating country have a preliminary national song contest. Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom were disqualified from the final contest, however, as all of them registered after the official deadline. The BBC's Festival of British Popular Song, which had been intended to choose the United Kingdom entry, was in the end not held until after the Eurovision contest.
[edit] Voting controversy
All participating countries sent two jury members to Lugano to vote secretly on the songs, except for Luxembourg whose jury members could not make it to Lugano. The voting system at this Contest allowed juries to vote for any competing song, including those of their own country. Additionally, the Swiss jury was allowed by the EBU to vote on behalf of the Luxembourg delegation. This is a system which was not repeated, and is believed by some[citation needed] to have tipped the result in Lys Assia's favour.
[edit] Results
Except for the winning song, the results have never been published. Simon Barclay's book The Complete and Independent Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 includes a table with what appears to be the results, but the author doesn't give a source and under the chart he writes that "[t]he votes awarded have never been disclosed." [2]
[edit] Commentators
Netherlands – Piet te Nuyl (NTS)[4]
Switzerland - Georges Hardy (TSR)
Belgium - Janine Lambotte (INR), Nand Baert (NIR)[5]
Germany - Lou van Burg (Deutsches Fernsehen) (also provided commentary for viewers in Austria via ORF)[5]
France - Michèle Rebel (RTF)[6]
Luxembourg - Jacques Navadic (Télé-Luxembourg)
Italy - Bianca Maria Piccinino (Programma Nazionale)
Denmark (non participating country) - Gunnar Hansen (Statsradiofonien TV)[5]
United Kingdom (non participating country) - Wilfred Thomas (BBC Television Service)[5]
[edit] References
- ^ "Eurovision History - Lugano 1956". European Broadcasting Union. http://www.eurovision.tv/page/history/by-year/contest?event=273#Participants. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ Barclay, Simon (June 17, 2010). The Complete and Independent Guide to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Silverthorn Press. p. 24. ISBN 9781445784151. http://books.google.com/books?id=BfuBF7fOnyoC&source=gbs_navlinks_s.
- ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1956". The Diggiloo Thrush. http://www.diggiloo.net/?1956. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
- ^ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival" (in Dutch). Eurovision Artists. http://www.eurovisionartists.nl/index.htm?content/esf480.asp.
- ^ a b c d "Eurovision 1956 Cast and Crew Details". IMDb. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313343/. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
- ^ "Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1956" (in French). Songcontest.free.fr. 23 March 2008. http://songcontest.free.fr/bdd/cec1956.htm. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
[edit] External links
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