The History of Switzerland at Eurovision - Part 1: From Lys Assia to Céline Dion

Steven Perkins: 00:00:01

Hello, London, we are ready for your vote. Hello, I'm Stephen Perkins and this is douzepois, the Eurovision podcast from the team behind Binge watch.

th of January: 2025

But let's start, as always, with with a look at the latest headlines. There's big drama in Germany already as it emerges that they are going all out to win the contest this year.

As we reported a few months back, Germany has taken the slightly unusual step of uniting public broadcaster ARD with commercial broadcaster RTL for their selection process. Scheffsacke ase Zweithhausen von van Schwanzisch.

We are synced for Deutschland, but ARD programme director Christina Strobel has said it will be a one and done offering if Germany doesn't win the contest this year. Strobel, our goal is and remains victory. We are not thinking about what will happen if it doesn't work out.

I am confident that the partnership will work. Nothing less than victory justifies such a collaboration.

ing to Germany for Eurovision: 2026

Their national final, Etnikos Tilikos, is scheduled for 30 January and the current fan favourites seem to be Evangelia with Wale and Klavd with Astaromata. The decision will be determined 50% by public voting, 25% by a Greek jury and 25% by an international jury.

So watch this space for the results later on this month.

Finally, former X Factor runner up Rebecca Ferguson has hinted on TikTok that she's been approached to sing in Eurovision, but not by the United Kingdom.

She was asked by a fan if she'd ever considered taking part in the contest and stated that she has had offers from other countries to perform, but as part of a duo rather than a solo artist.

She didn't specify which countries and she said that it was a tricky decision because, and I quote, I'm patriotic to me own country, but me own country hasn't asked me. So there you go, BBC, you know where to find her if you're interested.

We thought it would be fitting for our first deep dive feature of the year to take a Closer look at Switzerland in their position as the reigning champs of Eurovision and this year's host nation. But they have been at this business for quite some time and it is far too much to cover properly in one episode. So we're making this a two parter.

tory prior to this One was in: 1988

the very first Eurovision in: 1956

won a total of three times in: 1956

in English,: 1212

all countries taking part in: 1956

And then in: 1958

received zero points on three: 1964

particularly grim period from: 2007

But since: 2019

We could attempt it chronologically, like I normally would do, but when I was researching, I found some quite interesting patterns and a lot of repetition in terms of artists.

So I thought it made more sense to try and group together particular years that have a given connection, and then we can fill in the gaps in between where necessary. So let's start with the first ever winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Lise Assia.

ked about this before, but in: 1956

Ruffran was the winner of the: 1956

finish in second place in the: 1958

Giorgio, by the way, is a bit of a bop with a cantering rhythm and a really fun talky bit. There's a link to her performance in the episode description, so do check it out later.

To have one actor represent your country four times is impressive, but to have two, that's another feat altogether.

witzerland four times between: 1971

eone try. They started out in: 1971

It gets off to a bit of a slow start, admittedly, but it does really pick up towards the end and is impeccably sung and orchestrated throughout. I think, on balance, this is my favourite of their four attempts, but to their credit, the songs are all of a pretty high standard.

They returned in: 1976

I'm assuming it's Mark because he's the one on the right, but perhaps it's Peter was dressed as a clown of the most unsettling variety, which is enough to rank this as my least favourite of their four entries, even though the song itself is actually pretty decent. And they finished that year in fourth place.

ally, they came back again in: 1979

This time they were singing in German and Trudler is the German word for a second hand dealer, so they paid homage to that by attempting to play household objects like watering cans as a musical instrument on the stage. It's very odd, but it's still a fun performance, even if it feels more like the theme tune to a sitcom than a Eurovision entry.

Their final turn came in: 1981

Switzerland one more time in: 1987

Nobody else has managed to display the same level of commitment to representing Switzerland at Eurovision as Lise Assia or Peter Sue Ann Marc. But there have been a few faces who have cropped up more than once.

a Traversi first took part in: 1960

But to be fair to Anita, and to put that into context, this was under a scoring system where each country only had either one, three or five points to award to their top three songs. So it was very easy to score no points in that system, as did three other countries that year, Germany, Portugal and Yugoslavia.

st represented Switzerland in: 1969

ll have noticed that this was: 1969

She came back again in: 1980

But here's the kicker.

d Switzerland as an artist in: 1972

re represented Switzerland in: 1983

nhard band with Swiss lady in: 1977

Their song together was called Piano Piano, which despite the title was again actually a German language track.

It's definitely a better track for her, if not for him, and it feels very of its time, complete with the staging, which involves the two of them leaning on a post and attempting to flirt with each other. It still wasn't a huge success with the juries though, finishing 12th in a field of 19.

OK, so that's all of our recurring presences from this era taken care of. Now it's time for the most noteworthy of the remaining entries.

Apologies if I do end up skipping over your favourite, but we do still have quite a lot of ground to cover and I have to get this episode finished before this year's contest begins.

I think we should start with: 1961

itzerland's best finish since: 1958

When Norway came to give their votes, they announced them in a non standard format and when host Katie Boyle asked if they could confirm the votes for clarity, Norway asked if Katie could come back to them after all the other countries votes were in.

She did, and when she spoke to the head juror from Norway for the second time, the votes were different, giving Denmark the victory at Switzerland's expense. The Swiss broadcaster SRGSSR was naturally displeased by this turn of events and complained to the ebu.

But an investigation determined that the first set of votes had been incorrect, as the Norwegian jury's votes were still being tallied when Katie called and the scores that were given at the end denying Switzerland the victory were in fact their original official votes.

hich harp when you break from: 1967

In: 1982

She finished in third place and that was unfortunately followed by three consecutive finishes outside the top 10.

But in: 1986

a lacklustre finish again in: 1987

That does feel a bit weird to say, because obviously at the time Celine Dion was an unknown 20 year old just starting out on her career in the music business with nobody knowing the international success that lay ahead for her in the very near future.

And she also wasn't even Switzerland's secret weapon to lay claim to either, being French Canadian who had reportedly never even been to Switzerland before that year's national final. But of course you can't deny that she is a powerhouse performer.

And despite an ill advised stage outfit that was part tuxedo, part tutu, she brought the house down in Dublin with Ne pas tait pas san moi or Don't Leave Without Me and scooped the victory for Switzerland for the second time in a truly nail biting climax where she beat the UK's Scott Fitzgerald by a single point, with the winner being determined in the very last round of votes where Yugoslavia awarded Switzerland six points and the UK nothing at all. Ok, we're going to leave it there for this week. Thank you for listening.

a week's time to take us from: 1989

If you haven't done so already, you can follow me on bluesky at stephenperkins Bsky Social and producer Liam at thisisthehef Bsky Social. Until next time, goodnight Europe and good morning Australia.