winner, 1956
Lys Assia
Lys Assia sang at three Eurovision Song Contests, in 1956, 1957 and 1958, for Switzerland, and won in 1956 with “Refrain”.
- who
- Swiss singer
- born
- 3 March 1924, Rupperswil, Switzerland
- died
- 24 March 2018 (aged 94), Zollikerberg, Switzerland
- contests
- 1956, 1957, 1958
- win
- 1956
- music
- pop
- active
- from 1940
- sang for
- Switzerland
Biography
Lys Assia was a Swiss singer, born in Rupperswil, who started out on stage as a dancer and switched to singing in 1940. The first big success came in 1950 with “O mein Papa”.
In 1956 Assia sang two of the fourteen songs at the first Eurovision Song Contest and won it with “Refrain”. Assia came back for Switzerland in each of the next two years, and finished second in 1958.
Written by ESC Predictions, 8 October 2026. Sources: Wikipedia, “Lys Assia”.
Follow and listen
The act’s own accounts, as listed on Wikidata. If one is wrong or out of date, tell us and we’ll take it down.
At Eurovision
Four songs, oldest first, and what became of each.
-
1956 Lugano
“Das alte Karussell”
Placing not published Only the winner was announced that year. The other placings were never published.
- Sung in
- German
- Written by
- Georg Betz-Stahl
- Conductor
- Fernando Paggi
- Running order
- 2nd of 14
- Age on the night
- 32
- Won that year
- Switzerland: Lys Assia, “Refrain”
The story of Eurovision 1956: Seven countries, fourteen songs, and a result nobody kept
-
1956 Lugano
“Refrain”
Winner Won the contest, ahead of 13 other songs.
- Sung in
- French
- Written by
- Émile Gardaz, Géo Voumard
- Conductor
- Fernando Paggi
- Running order
- 9th of 14
- Age on the night
- 32
Play: Lys Assia — “Refrain”, the winning song at Eurovision 1956 hear it YouTube the contest’s channel Spotify search Apple Music search
The story of Eurovision 1956: Seven countries, fourteen songs, and a result nobody kept
-
1957 Frankfurt
“L'Enfant que j'étais”
8th of 10 Finished 8th of 10, with 5 points.
- Sung in
- French
- Written by
- Émile Gardaz, Géo Voumard
- Conductor
- Willy Berking
- Running order
- 10th of 10
- Age on the night
- 33
- Won that year
- Netherlands: Corry Brokken, “Net als toen”
The story of Eurovision 1957: The scoreboard arrives — and so does a five-minute song
-
1958 Hilversum
“Giorgio”
2nd of 10 Finished 2nd of 10, with 24 points.
- Sung in
- German, Italian
- Written by
- Paul Burkhard, Fridolin Tschudi
- Conductor
- Paul Burkhard
- Running order
- 10th of 10
- Age on the night
- 34
- Won that year
- France: André Claveau, “Dors mon amour”
The story of Eurovision 1958: Italy sang twice, France won, and the world bought “Volare”
In the drama file
The two scenes from our index of scandals, mishaps and lore that Lys Assia is part of.
- 1956 The scores that were lost When it went wrong
- 1956 The winner forgets the words When it went wrong
In our contest stories
What we wrote about Lys Assia, year by year. Follow a link for the rest of that night.
- 1956 Fourteen songs
Seven broadcasters entered: Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Each sent two songs — the only time that has been allowed. Two singers, Switzerland's Lys Assia and Luxembourg's Michèle Arnaud, sang both of their country's entries themselves.
- 1956 The scores that were lost
At the end, the jury's chairman, Rolf Liebermann, announced one thing: the winner was "Refrain", sung by Lys Assia for Switzerland. No second place, no points, no table.
- 1956 The winner forgets the words
Winning meant singing the song again. Assia came back on, was overcome partway through, lost her place in the lyrics, and had to ask the orchestra to start over.
- 1957 Ten countries
Two singers were returning. Lys Assia, the reigning winner, sang for Switzerland again. Corry Brokken, who had sung one of the two Dutch songs in 1956, was back for the Netherlands.
- 1958 Who was there
It was a year of familiar faces. Lys Assia sang for Switzerland for the third contest in a row, and Corry Brokken, the reigning champion, did the same for the Netherlands. Belgium's Fud Leclerc was back from 1956 and Germany's Margot Hielscher from 1957.
- 1958 The result
France won. André Claveau's "Dors mon amour" took 27 of the 100 votes — the first of France's five victories. Lys Assia nearly made it two wins in three years: Switzerland finished second with 24.
- 1985
It was the thirtieth contest. Lys Assia, who had won the first, was in the audience.
- 1989
Switzerland had hosted the first contest in 1956 and had waited 33 years to host another. More than a dozen Swiss cities applied. Lausanne won, and the hall in its Palais de Beaulieu was renamed for the week after Lys Assia, the singer who had won that first contest.
- 1992 The result
Martin joined a small club of her own: only Lys Assia and Gigliola Cinquetti had also finished both first and second.
- 2003 What was new
The stage had a video floor. The scoreboard, for the first time, re-sorted itself as each score came in, so that the leader was always at the top. And the presenters took greetings by satellite from Lys Assia, from Elton John, and from an astronaut and a cosmonaut on the International Space Station.
Results as published by the European Broadcasting Union. Biographical details from Wikidata. The photo is from Wikimedia Commons and is credited beside it. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we'll fix it.