The first ever Eurovision winner, Lys Assia, has passed away aged 94

Lys Assia, the first ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest for Switzerland, has sadly passed away aged 94 in Zollikerberg Hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. Rosa Mina Scharer, or Lys Assia as most people know her, was born on 3rd March 1924 in Rupperswil, Switzerland. She began her stage career as a dancer but then became a singer in 1940. Since then, she has had a very successful career, scoring her first recording contract when she was still a teenager.

Back in Lugano in 1956, Lys performed both of Switzerland's entries in the contest - "Das alte Karussell" (The old carousel) and "Refrain". The full results of the first contest have all been unknown and will most likely be unknown forever, however, what we do know is Lys walked away with the victory with her second song "Refrain". A classic chanson in the French language, it has gone down as a classic Eurovision song.

In 1957, when the contest was hosted in Frankfurt, Lys returned to the contest with another French-language song - "L'enfant que j'étais" (The child that I was). The song did not fare as well as "Refrain" the year before, and finished in 8th place with 5 points.

Despite Lys' poor result in 1957, she still returned to the contest in 1958, this time with a German-Italian song, titled "Giorgio". The song finished in 2nd place, only 3 points behind the winners, France, with a respectable 24 points.

In the decades that followed her Eurovision participation, Lys remained a keen fan of the contest, appearing at the contest as a special guest on many occasions. She was first a special guest at the 1985 contest in Gothenburg, when Eurovision celebrated its 30th edition. Since then, she appeared via a satellite link from Cyprus in the 2003 contest in Riga, she performed in the Congratulations 50th anniversary special in 2005 and she opened the voting at the 2008 contest in Belgrade.

In 2011, Lys entered the Swiss national selection for the 2012 Eurovision with her song, "C'etait ma vie" (That was my life). In a hard-fought national final, Lys finished 8th out of 14 entries, with Sinplus winning the selection and representing Switzerland in Baku. A year later, Lys returned to the Eurovision world for one last time, entering the Swiss national final again, this time with the song "All In Your Head", featuring hip-hop band, New Jack. Unlike Lys' national final entry in 2012, she sadly failed to make the final of the selection.

Despite her deteriorating health, Lys was still able to make it to Kyiv last year to attend the grand final of the contest, which sadly was her last ever chance to watch the contest. Today, we are very sad to hear the passing of such a legend in the Eurovision family and Lys will be missed by many. We would like to send our best wishes and deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Lys in the very sad time.

Lys Assia, 1924-2018.