1956 – The first ever Eurovision Song Contest! Each country is permitted to enter two songs, as otherwise the show would be quite short. Lys Assia shows no signs of her future career in hip-hop and skateboarding, but her ballad “Refrain” goes down in ESC history as the first winner anyway. Unfortunately, no one seems to realise the importance of the moment enough to keep the television recording, so most of the show exists in audio only.

The team’s top 3

Germany: Walter Andreas Schwarz – Im Wartesaal zum großen Glück

Felix: What a mysterious song from my country! Strange text, unusual song structure, but musically more pleasant than most of the other entries. Of course, it’s not quite light entertainment. Or am I overthinking this one? How much art is there really, in this song? Either there’s a lot, or there’s not and I don’t care. It’s a nice and intriguing piece of music, a truly remarkable first entry from Germany.

Italy: Tonina Torielli – Amami se vuoi

Martin: I first encountered this song on a Fiat Punto advert on British TV in the late 1990s and knew I recognised it, I just couldn’t work out from where. It took a chance re-encounter with my ESC 1956 audio cassette to answer the question. To be fair, most Italians don’t know it’s an ESC entry either – to them it’s just a Sanremo classic, and understandably so, with its gorgeous melodic sweeps and swoops over a classic orchestration that always warms my heart.

France: Dany Dauberson – Il est là

Shi: The winner aside, I never really had a chance to stumble upon any song from this year until I decided that as a Eurovision fan I need to have a better grasp of its history. When listening to the 1956 songs for the first time, in one playlist, this was my immediate favorite. I’ve been a Francophone when it comes to music for a long time, and there are many songs in Israel, my native nation, that have been influenced by French music. While I couldn’t tell you what this reminds me of, I know I’ve heard songs that were similar musically both in French and in Hebrew, and it makes me feel nostalgic and a bit sad, even, as if it brings me some old memory that I can’t quite hold on to strongly enough to recognize but it makes me miss it anyway.

How do you like ESC 1956? Give us your stars!

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All escgo! Eurovision reviews:

1956 | 1962