Rosa Mina Schärer (3 March 1924 – 24 March 2018), known by her stage name Lys Assia, was a Swiss singer who won the first

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

in . Assia was born in

Rupperswil Rupperswil is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Lenzburg (district), Lenzburg in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau in Switzerland. History A partially preserved Switzerland in the Roman era, Roman-era ti ...

Aargau Aargau ( ; ), more formally the Canton of Aargau (; ; ; ), is one of the Canton of Switzerland, 26 cantons forming the Switzerland, Swiss Confederation. It is composed of eleven districts and its capital is Aarau. Aargau is one of the most nort ...

, and began her stage career as a dancer, but changed to singing in 1940 where she met her first musical success in 1950 with " O mein Papa".

Eurovision Song Contest

In , she was the winner of the first

, in which she sang for Switzerland with the song "

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". She returned to the contest again for Switzerland in with "L'Enfant que j'étais" and with "Giorgio" sung in Italian. In , Assia performed at the '' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'' event. In , together with the previous year's winner Dima Bilan, Assia presented the Eurovision trophy to that year's winner

Alexander Rybak Alexander Igorevich Rybak (; born 13 May 1986) or Alyaksandr Iharavich Rybak () is a Belarusian-born Norwegian musician and actor. Based in Oslo, Norway, Rybak extensively worked on television programs and on tours in Europe, particularly in S ...

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

Ralph Siegel Ralph Siegel (born 30 September 1945) is a German record producer and songwriter. Siegel is one of the most notable figures at the Eurovision Song Contest, in which he has participated with 24 songs so far, among them the 1982 winner song Ein ...

and Jean Paul Cara, into the Swiss national selection ''Die grosse Entscheidungs Show'' for the

Eurovision Song Contest 2012 The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the 57th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, following the country's victory at the with the song "Running Scared (Ell & Nikki song), Running Scared" by Ell & Nikki, El ...

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. 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 submitted a song to the Swiss national selection to represent Switzerland in

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

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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 (Loreen song), Euphoria" by Loreen. Organised by the Europea ...

with the song "All in Your Head" featuring the hip-hop rap group New Jack. This entry, however, was not chosen to compete at the national selection. There were rumours of Assia representing

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

, 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 attended the ''

Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits ''Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits'' (also known as ''Eurovision's Greatest Hits'') was a live television concert programme organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and produced by the BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation (BB ...

'' special 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 Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. 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 Schlager musicians French-language singers of Switzerland German-language singers of Switzerland Italian-language singers of Switzerland English-language singers from Switzerland 20th-century Swiss women singers