Lys Assia

Lys Assia, born Rosa Mina Schärer on March 3 1926, Rupperswil, Aargau, Switzerland, is a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. When Lys Assia was a young girl she was a dancer. In 1940, however, she stood in for a female singer. People who heard her singing liked it, so she changed from dancing to singing.

In 1950 Lys had her first success with the song O Mein Papa from the musical Feuerwerk.

In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang the song Refrain for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year. She returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958. In 1957 she came 8th out of 10 with L'enfant Que J'étais but in 1958 she came 2nd with the song Giorgio.

After her last hit in 1962, Sterne Von Syrakus, she stopped her singing career to spend more time with her family. In 2002 she made her comeback and gave a couple of concerts and performed in many TV shows. In 2003 and 2005 Lys released a couple of successful cd's. In 2008 she started the voting procedure during the Grand Final of the ESC in Belgrade and in 2009 she handed over the trophy for winning the ESC to Alexande Rybak.

In September 2011, Lys Assia entered her song C'était Ma Vie written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan.