Eurovision Song Contest 1956 on:
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A planning sub-group, headed by Eduard Hass of SRG SSR, was subsequently formed following the sign-off on the organisation of the event to build out the rules of the competition. Taking inspiration from the
Two of the performers, Switzerland's
The Eurovision Song Contest 1956 was the first edition of the annual
(BBC) being relayed by Dutch television, and was subsequently used as the title for the union's new Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
, organised by the European Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...
(EBU) and host broadcasters the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...
(SRG SSR) and (RSI). The contest, originally titled the ( it, Gran Premio Eurovisione 1956 della Canzone Europea, i=unset, English: Grand Prix of the Eurovision Song Competition), was held on Thursday 24 May 1956 at the in Lugano
Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populat ...
, Switzerland, and hosted by Swiss television presenter Lohengrin Filipello
Lohengrin Filipello (c. 1918 – 29 December 1993) was a Swiss television presenter.
Biography
Filipello would commentate on behalf of SRG SSR, the main Swiss broadcaster during the 1950s and 1960s, and has made several involvements, such as crea ...
, which remains the only time that the contest has been hosted by a solo male presenter.
Inspired principally by the Italian Sanremo Music Festival
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...
, held annually since 1951, the concept of a televised European song contest, initially proposed by Italian broadcaster RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
, was formulated by an EBU committee led by Swiss broadcaster and executive Marcel Bezençon. Following approval at the EBU's General Assembly in 1955, the rules and structure of the contest were agreed upon. Several of the rules utilised in this first contest would subsequently be altered for future editions, and it remains the only edition in which each country was represented by two songs, with only solo performers allowed to compete, and a voting process which was held in secret and where juries could vote for the entries from their own country.
Seven countries participated in the inaugural edition of the contest, and the first winner was the host country , with the song "" performed by Lys Assia
Lys Assia (born Rosa Mina Schärer; 3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018) was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Assia was born in Rupperswil, Aargau, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 ...
. The result was determined by an assembled jury composed of two jurors from each country, with each juror ranking each song between 1 and 10 points. Only the winning country and song were announced at the conclusion of the event, with the results of the remaining participants unknown. Broadcast on television and radio via the Eurovision network
Eurovision is a pan-European television telecommunications network owned and operated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was founded 1954 in Geneva, Switzerland, and its first official transmission took place on 6 June 1954.
Major tel ...
in ten countries, no video footage of the event is known to exist, bar clips of the reprise performance of the winning song; the majority of the broadcast is, however, available in audio.
Origins
TheEuropean Broadcasting Union
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...
(EBU) was formed in 1950 among 23 organisations with the aim of facilitating creative cooperation and the exchange of television programmes. The word "Eurovision" was first used as a telecommunications term in the United Kingdom in 1951, in reference to a programme by the British Broadcasting Corporation #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...transmission network
Electric power transmission is the bulk movement of electrical energy from a generating site, such as a power plant, to an electrical substation. The interconnected lines that facilitate this movement form a ''transmission network''. This is d ...
upon its creation in 1954. Following the formation of the EBU, a number of notable events were transmitted through its networks in several European countries, including Belgium, France, West Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. A series of international exchange programmes were subsequently organised for 1954, with this "European Television Season" relayed live across Europe through the Eurovision network.
Following this series of transmissions, a "Programme Committee" was set up within the EBU to investigate new initiatives for cooperation between broadcasters each year, with Marcel Bezençon of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...
(SRG SSR) serving as the committee's first president. This committee agreed to study the concept for a new televised European song contest during a meeting in January 1955, a concept initially proposed by the Italian broadcaster RAI
RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...
and inspired by the broadcaster's Sanremo Music Festival
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...
, held annually since 1951. The new European contest was subsequently approved at the EBU's annual General Assembly in October 1955, leading to the creation of the ''European Grand Prix''.
Location
The first Eurovision Song Contest took place inLugano
Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populat ...
, Switzerland; the country was awarded the contest in October 1955 at the EBU's General Assembly following an offer by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation
The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...
(SRG SSR) to stage the event. In addition Switzerland made a logical choice from a technical perspective for the hosting of what was an experiment in live, simultaneous, cross-border transmissions, as its geographically central location in Europe facilitated terrestrial broadcasts across the continent, as well as being the host country for the EBU's headquarters.
Taking its inspiration from the Italian Sanremo Music Festival
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...
and Venice International Song Festival, a similar EBU-organised song contest held in 1955 and broadcast on radio, Lugano in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino
Ticino (), sometimes Tessin (), officially the Republic and Canton of Ticino or less formally the Canton of Ticino,, informally ''Canton Ticino'' ; lmo, Canton Tesin ; german: Kanton Tessin ; french: Canton du Tessin ; rm, Chantun dal Tessin . ...
was chosen as the first host city by SRG SSR, with Italian-language member broadcaster (RSI) in charge of the production. The selected venue for the contest was the , a casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...
and former theatre situated on Lake Lugano
__NOTOC__
Lake Lugano ( it, Lago di Lugano or , from la, Ceresius lacus; lmo, Lagh de Lugan) is a glacial lake which is situated on the border between southern Switzerland and northern Italy. The lake, named after the city of Lugano, is situated ...
. The theatre, used for theatrical and musical performances, ballroom dance
Ballroom dance is a set of partner dances, which are enjoyed both socially and competitively around the world, mostly because of its performance and entertainment aspects. Ballroom dancing is also widely enjoyed on stage, film, and television ...
and other shows, closed shortly after featuring its last performance in April 1997 before being demolished in 2001 to make room for the extension of the casino.
Format
A planning sub-group, headed by Eduard Hass of SRG SSR, was subsequently formed following the sign-off on the organisation of the event to build out the rules of the competition. Taking inspiration from the Sanremo Music Festival
The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...
and the Venice International Song Festival as a basis in planning the new contest, the group made several amendments and additions to these rules to suit its international nature. Ideas suggested but ultimately rejected during this planning phase included featuring each song a second time with a piano accompaniment instead of orchestral backing, as well as technical initiatives such as a separate producer from each participating country involved in the contest's organisation. Prize money for the winners was also ruled out at this stage. The rules of the contest were finalised and distributed to EBU members in early 1956. The rules set out in detail the criteria for the participating songs and performers; production details and requirements; timelines for the submission of materials by the participating broadcasters; the method by which the winning song would be determined; details related to the financing of the event; and the responsibilities which lay with the host broadcaster and the participating broadcasters.
Per the rules of the contest, each participating country, represented by one EBU member organisation, submitted into the contest a maximum of two songs of between three and three-and-a-half minutes in duration, which must have been solely original compositions. Each participating organisation had sole discretion on how to select their entries for the contest but were strongly encouraged by the EBU to hold their own national contests to determine their representatives. Only solo artists were permitted to compete. Following the performance of all songs, the winner was determined by juries from each country composed of two individuals, with each individual member rating secretly each song between one and ten points, including those representing their own country, with higher scores given to more appreciated songs. The jury followed the contest in a separate room in the same venue in Lugano through a small television screen, replicating the conditions as close as possible to how viewers at home would watch the contest. The winning song was thus that which gained the highest score from the votes of all jury members. The jury members from Luxembourg were unable to attend the contest in Lugano, and subsequently the EBU allowed two Swiss nationals to vote in their place. This would remain the only contest in which many of these rules would be utilised, and several changes were made ahead of the 1957 contest. These included restricting each country to only one song, expanding the number of performers allowed to participate for each country, introducing a more visible voting system, and restricting each country from voting for their own entry.
Each song was accompanied by a 24-piece orchestra, with members of the Radiosa Orchestra supplemented by strings of the Italian Swiss Radio Symphony Orchestra, presided over by the contest's musical director, Fernando Paggi. Each participating country was allowed to supplement the orchestra with their own musical director for the performances of their country. Participating broadcasters were required to submit to the EBU by 10 May 1956 scores for the participating songs for use by the orchestra, audio recordings for each participating song, and copies of the song lyrics for each song in the original language, as well as translations into French or English to aid the jury members and commentators. The confirmed selection of each country's musical director (if separate to that of the host) was required to be communicated between 21 and 24 May.
Rehearsals in the contest venue with the competing artists and the orchestra began on 21 May 1956, and the contest was held on 24 May 1956, beginning at 21:00 CET (20:00 UTC) with an approximate duration of 1 hour 40 minutes. The event was hosted in Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
by Lohengrin Filipello
Lohengrin Filipello (c. 1918 – 29 December 1993) was a Swiss television presenter.
Biography
Filipello would commentate on behalf of SRG SSR, the main Swiss broadcaster during the 1950s and 1960s, and has made several involvements, such as crea ...
. This remains the only time in which the contest was hosted by a solo male presenter, and one of only two contests not to feature a female presenter, alongside the held 61 years later. Additionally this would remain the only contest to feature a male presenter for 22 years, when the featured a male and female presenting duo. During the interval between the final competing act and the announcement of the winner, performances by and featured to entertain the audience. Upon the announcement of the results, only the winning song was named, with the full breakdown of the jury votes not revealed. The winning artist then returned to the stage for a reprise performance of the winning song to end the broadcast.
Participating countries
Seven countries participated in this first contest, , , , the , and (identified simply as "Germany" in the contest). and are believed to have also been interested in participating; however, broadcasters from those countries reportedly missed the cut-off point for entry. These two countries, as well as the , would broadcast the contest along with the participating countries, with the United Kingdom's BBC having chosen to not send an entry for this event in favour of organising their own contest, the '' Festival of British Popular Songs''. The order in which the countries and songs were performed was determined artistically by the Swiss broadcasters, with input and support by the musical directors from each country.Conductors
As specified in the rules of the contest, each country was allowed to nominate their own musical director to lead the orchestra during the performance of their country's entries, with the host musical director alsoconducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary dutie ...
for those countries which did not nominate their own conductor. The conductors listed below led the orchestra during both performances for the indicated countries.
* Fernando Paggi
* Fernando Paggi
* Léo Souris
Léo Souris (18 July 1911 — 14 March 1990) was a Belgian composer, arranger, planner and conductor. He was mostly known for conducting Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest Eurovision Song Contest 1956.
In 1928, at the age of 17, he was fou ...
* Fernando Paggi
* Franck Pourcel
Franck Pourcel (14 August 1913 – 12 November 2000) was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music.
Biography Early life
Born in Marseille, France, Pourcel started learning the violin at the age of six. Later, ...
* Jacques Lasry
*
Participants and results
Two of the performers, Switzerland's Lys Assia
Lys Assia (born Rosa Mina Schärer; 3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018) was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Assia was born in Rupperswil, Aargau, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 ...
and Luxembourg's Michèle Arnaud
Michèle Arnaud (, born Micheline Caré; 18 March 1919 – 30 March 1998), was a French singer, recording artist, and director. She was buried on 18 September 1998 at Montparnasse Cemetery. She is the mother of the singer Dominique Walter a ...
, performed both entries for their respective countries. Assia, as well as the Netherlands' Corry Brokken
Cornelia Maria "Corry" Brokken (3 December 1932 – 31 May 2016) was a Dutch singer, television presenter and jurist. In 1957, she won the second edition of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Net als toen", representing the Netherlands. ...
and Belgium's Fud Leclerc
Ferdinand Urbain Dominic Leclerc (, 1924 – 20 September 2010) was a Belgian singer, who was also the pianist of Juliette Gréco. Leclerc had a career as a pianist, accordionist, songwriter and singer before retiring to travel the world. On hi ...
, would return to compete in the contest in future editions, with Assia and Brokken both returning in and and Leclerc in 1958, and .
The winning song was "", composed by Géo Voumard, written by Émile Gardaz, performed by Lys Assia
Lys Assia (born Rosa Mina Schärer; 3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018) was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Assia was born in Rupperswil, Aargau, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 ...
and representing the host country . During the reprise performance of the winning song, Assia became emotional and suffered a lapse in memory of the song's lyrics, subsequently requesting a restart by the orchestra.
The full results of the contest were not revealed and have not been retained by the EBU. Attempts to reconstruct the voting through interviews with jury members have also failed to reveal a reliable result. An article in Italian newspaper published on 25 May 1956, the day after the contest, reported that Switzerland's winning entry received 102 points in total, but this has not been corroborated by the contest organisers.
Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". In addition to the television channels of the seven participating broadcasters and three non-participating passive broadcasters, the contest was also broadcast live on seven radio networks and recorded for later transmission by another 13. The United Kingdom's BBC took only partial live transmission of the event, joining 45 minutes into the contest and only showing the second set of entries from each country. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators, are shown in the tables below. No video footage of the entire contest is known to exist, with the only known footage being clips of the reprise performance of the winning song vianewsreel
A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topical interest, that was prevalent between the 1910s and the mid 1970s. Typically presented in a cinema, newsreels were a source of current affairs, inform ...
and other recordings. As such, this is one of only two editions of the contest, along with the , to not have video recordings of the full event retained. Audio of most of the contest has, however, survived, missing only part of the interval act, and attempts to find audiovisual materials related to the contest have yielded some results in recent years, including a large cache of photographs and some video footage taken by Swiss photographer Vincenzo Vicari from inside the venue.
Notes and references
Notes
References
Bibliography
* *External links
* {{Portal bar, Music1956
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Music festivals in Switzerland
1956 in music
1956 in Switzerland
20th century in Lugano
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May 1956 events in Europe
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