Marcel Bezençon (; 1 May 1907 – 17 February 1981) was a Swiss

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

media executive A media proprietor, media mogul or media tycoon refers to a entrepreneur who controls, through personal ownership or via a dominant position in any media-related company or enterprise, media consumed by many individuals. Those with significant co ...

and the director of the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the C ...

between 1954 and 1970. In 1955, he conceived the idea of the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, based on the famous

Sanremo Music Festival The Sanremo Music Festival, officially the Italian Song Festival () and commonly known as just (), is the most popular Italian song contest and awards ceremony, held annually in the city of Sanremo, Liguria. It is the longest-running annua ...

. Bezençon graduated with a degree in art history from the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

in 1932, and then started work as a freelance art and theater critic before becoming editor of the newspaper Feuille d'Avis. In 1939, he joined Radio suisse romande (RSR), where he served as its director until 1950 when he became Director-General of the

Swiss Broadcasting Corporation The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (german: Schweizerische Radio- und Fernsehgesellschaft; french: Société suisse de radiodiffusion et télévision; it, Società svizzera di radiotelevisione; rm, Societad Svizra da Radio e Televisiun; SRG ...

(SRG SSR), which he served until 1972. Bezençon also sat as a member of the board of directors of the

Swiss Telegraphic Agency The Swiss Telegraphic Agency (German: ''Schweizerische Depeschenagentur'', SDA; French: ''Agence télégraphique suisse'', ATS; Italian: ''Agenzia telegrafica svizzera'', ATS; branded as Keystone-SDA/Keystone-ATS since 27 April 2018) is the natio ...

(SDA ATS) between 1963 and 1972. In 2002, the

Marcel Bezençon Awards The Marcel Bezençon Awards were first handed out during the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn, Estonia honouring the best competing songs in the final. Founded by Christer Björkman (Sweden's representative in the Eurovision Song Contest ...

were founded by

Christer Björkman Christer Samuel Björkman (; born 25 August 1957) is a Swedish singer and television producer. He represented Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1992 with the song " I morgon är en annan dag". From 2002 to 2021, he served as a producer of M ...

(

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; literally "the Melody Festival") is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song C ...

winner and Swedish ESC participant in 1992) and

Richard Herrey Per ''Richard'' Herrey, born 1964 in Strömstad, is a Swedish artist, politician in the Moderate Party, media personality and restaurant manager. Biography Richard Herrey won Melodifestivalen in 1984 together with his brothers Per och Louis as ...

(

and Swedish ESC winner in 1984 as part of the

Herreys Herreys (), sometimes Herrey's or Herrey, is a Swedish pop group, consisting of the three brothers Per Herrey (born 9 August 1958), Richard Herrey (born 19 August 1964), and Louis Herrey (born 3 November 1966). They won the Eurovision Song Con ...

References

1907 births 1981 deaths Eurovision Song Contest people People from Orbe {{Eurovision-stub