1950s
Inspired by the Italian Sanremo Festival, the idea of organizing a pan-European competition for light music was born at a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in 1955. It was decided that the first ever Eurovision Song Contest would be hosted the following year in the Swiss resort of Lugano.
Due to that historical decision Refrain by Lys Assia became the first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. It was chosen by a jury but the scores of the voting have never been made public, leaving room for lots of speculation throughout the history of the contest.
In the first few years the Eurovision Song Contest was mostly a radio show due to the fact that not many European families had a television set at that time. The first show lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes and it remained about the same length until the end of the decade.
There was no rule about the length of the songs until it was decided in 1957 that the songs could be no longer than 3 minutes. Another rule was that only solo artists or duets could take part, a rule that persisted until 1971.
The next few years brought more participants - from the original 7 countries to 11 countries - and thus more excitement and of course, new winners. Allthough some of the songs did not win, they became worldwide hits instead - the Italian entries Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (more commonly known as Volare) by Domenico Modugno and Domenico Modugno's Piove (famous as Ciao Ciao Bambina) to name a few from that decade.
Due to that historical decision Refrain by Lys Assia became the first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. It was chosen by a jury but the scores of the voting have never been made public, leaving room for lots of speculation throughout the history of the contest.
In the first few years the Eurovision Song Contest was mostly a radio show due to the fact that not many European families had a television set at that time. The first show lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes and it remained about the same length until the end of the decade.
There was no rule about the length of the songs until it was decided in 1957 that the songs could be no longer than 3 minutes. Another rule was that only solo artists or duets could take part, a rule that persisted until 1971.
The next few years brought more participants - from the original 7 countries to 11 countries - and thus more excitement and of course, new winners. Allthough some of the songs did not win, they became worldwide hits instead - the Italian entries Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (more commonly known as Volare) by Domenico Modugno and Domenico Modugno's Piove (famous as Ciao Ciao Bambina) to name a few from that decade.