Lys Assia (born Rosa Mina Schärer; 3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018) was a Swiss singer who won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956. Assia was born in Rupperswil,

Aargau Aargau, more formally the Canton of Aargau (german: Kanton Aargau; rm, Chantun Argovia; french: Canton d'Argovie; it, Canton Argovia), is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capit ...

, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 after successfully standing in for a female singer.

Eurovision Song Contest

In 1956 she was the winner of the first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year and returned to the contest again for Switzerland in

1957 1957 (Roman numerals, MCMLVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday, common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, t ...

and 1958. Her Eurovision success was followed by success in Germany with " O mein Papa". In 2005, Assia performed at the '' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'' event. In 2009, together with Dima Bilan ( 2008 winner), Assia presented the Eurovision trophy to that year's winner Alexander Rybak. LysAssia2012october

In September 2011, Assia entered her song "C'était ma vie", written by Ralph Siegel and

Jean Paul Cara Jean-Paul Cara (born 9 September 1948, Montpellier) is a French singer and composer. He has authored several songs that have won prizes at the Eurovision contest, most notably the single '' L'Oiseau et l'Enfant'' in collaboration with Joe Gr ...

, into the Swiss national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The song came eighth in a closely fought national selection. She attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour. In 2012, Assia again entered the Swiss national selection ''Die grosse Entscheidungs Show'' to represent Switzerland in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popula ...

at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2013 The Eurovision Song Contest 2013 was the 58th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Malmö, Sweden, following the country's victory at the with the song "Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union ...

with the song "All in Your Head" featuring the hip-hop band New Jack. There were rumours of Assia representing

San Marino San Marino (, ), officially the Republic of San Marino ( it, Repubblica di San Marino; ), also known as the Most Serene Republic of San Marino ( it, Serenissima Repubblica di San Marino, links=no), is the fifth-smallest country in the world an ...

, but it was announced on 30 January 2013 that Valentina Monetta would do so. She later made a guest appearance during the contest's second semi-final. In 2015, at age 91, Assia was in the audience in London for the special '' Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits'' concert celebrating the Contest's 60th anniversary. This was her last public appearance.

Personal life

Assia married Johann Heinrich Kunz on 11 January 1957 in

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

. Kunz died just nine months later after battling a serious illness. In 1963, she married Danish businessman Oscar Pedersen, who died in 1995. She died on 24 March 2018 in Zürich.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assia, Lys 1924 births 2018 deaths People from Lenzburg District Eurovision Song Contest winners Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Switzerland Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1956 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1957 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1958 Schlager musicians French-language singers of Switzerland German-language singers of Switzerland Italian-language singers of Switzerland 20th-century Swiss women singers