Alaska's Winner: 1956 Lugano

Who would have thought that from humble beginnings as a radio program in the mid 1950s, the Eurovision Song Contest would go on to enthrall people throughout the world? 
Yet somehow, the idea of Marcel Benzençon, a Swiss telecommunications manager, of creating a "light entertainment program" in the style of the San Remo Song Festival, that could be broadcast to all the member nations of the European Broadcasting Union back in 1955 had continued to this day.

The first Eurovison Song Contest was much different than the current spectacle.  Instead of the 43 countries participating in this year's contest, only 7 countries competed in Lugano, Switzerland, each entering two songs.

After all 14 songs were performed, the judges--two for each country--voted, selecting:

Lys Assia  "Refrain"   Switzerland

Unfortunately, the rest of the placings are unknown, the results of the voting never released, so we have no idea who actually won the contest.

However, when a group of Alaska's voted, poor Lys was left out in the cold--coming in fourth place.

A score sheet was sent out to a number of Alaskans along with a link to the fourteen songs in running order.  They were asked to score the songs on both performance and lyrics on a scale from one to ten, with the worst score being 2 and the best being 20.

The results of the poll brought a very different winner.

Freddy Quinn  "So geht das jede Nacht"    Germany

 

Freddy's song was the the only song that was popular with all the voters, scoring well with all the judges.  So, congratulations to Germany and Freddy Quinn, the first Alaska's Choice in the Eurovision Song contest.

But don't feel too sorry for Lys Assia.  She's still around, in fact she entered this year's Swiss finals with this number.

Lys Assia  "C'était ma vie"

 

She didn't win, but you have to admire her chutzpah.