<\/p>\n
Celebrating 70 Years of being United by Music with the release of two extra-special films<\/p>\n
70 years ago, on 24 May 1956, artists representing seven broadcasters gathered at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland, for a bold new experiment in live television and cultural collaboration: the very first Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n
In 2026, we celebrate the 70th anniversary of what has since grown to become the world\u2019s largest live music event – a Contest that has united hundreds of millions of viewers through music, creativity and shared moments for seven decades. And to mark the occasion, we’ve released two very special pieces of film celebrating the Contest\u2019s remarkable history.<\/p>\n
In collaboration with Swiss broadcaster RSI, part of SRG SSR, the EBU has digitally restored and remastered the only known surviving footage of the winning entry from the very first Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n
Shot by photographer Vincenzo Vicari, the footage captures Switzerland\u2019s Lys Assia reprising her song Refrain<\/i> on stage at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano on 24 May 1956, giving a rare and precious glimpse into the beginnings of the Eurovision Song Contest.<\/p>\n
The film negatives have been carefully preserved in the archives of RSI but have not been digitized since the 1990s. As technology has advanced majorly since then, the EBU approached RSI to have the negatives rescanned, graded and digitally restored in ultra-high definition (4K), allowing audiences to experience one of the Contest\u2019s most historic moments with unprecedented clarity.<\/p>\n
In addition, the Eurodex archive<\/a> on eurovision.com has been updated with a collection of Vicari\u2019s photographs of the 1956 Contest, provided by the historical archives of the City of Lugano and now viewable on the Participants page of Lugano 1956<\/a>.<\/p>\n