Very sad news: Swiss legend Lys Assia, the first-ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, has passed away aged 94.
She won over Europe at the inaugural contest in 1956 with her French-language song “Refrain”, which explored love, loss and the memory of what was. Today, as friends, family and Eurovision fans mourn her loss, the themes of her song— melancholy and remembrance — come into sharper focus.
The days are gone and we have grown
Love hurt us, time healed us
But only and without spring
I run in vain, in the woods, the fields
Telling me to remember you, our love of another time
Born Rosa Mina Schärer on March 3, 1924, she was the youngest of twelve siblings. She took ballet and attended a conservatory, landing her first recording contract while she was still a teenager.
Known for her confidence and her charm in equal measure, she later said she entered Eurovision as a curiosity. She wasn’t particularly surprised she won.
“I was the best. I also looked good,” she said. “And my song was the best, the most beautiful of them all. No rock ‘n’roll, but plain and simple: text and melody. Finished.”
That experience sparked a life-long love of Eurovision.
She returned to the contest again in 1957, placing eighth of ten acts, and in 1958, when she placed second.