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The first act to win the Eurovision Song Contest was Lys Assia, who competed in the 1956 televised competition.

Lys rose to victory for Switzerland with her hit song Refrain.

She was born Rosa Mina Scharer in Rupperswil in 1924 and was the youngest of 12 children.

Lys was initially a dancer before making the decision to change careers in 1940.

Express.co.uk has everything you need to know about Lys Assia since winning Eurovision.

After winning the first-ever Eurovision Song Contest, Lys represented Switzerland the following two years after her successful debut.

At the time, Lys detailed why she ended up winning the singing competition.

She told the press: “I was the best, I also looked good and my song was the best, the most beautiful of them all.”

Years after winning, Lys was still part of the Eurovision family and often made guest appearances.

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She had also been in the German national final of that year and returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958.

In 2012, Lys attempted to represent Switzerland again with the song C’etait Ma Vie but she sadly failed to make it through to the national finals.

The singer also tried again the following year with her song All In Your Head but was unsuccessful again.

In 2005, the star performed at the Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest event.

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 before she died.

Lys had two husbands in her lifetime, first marrying Johann Heinrich Kunz in 1957. Although he died nine months later following a serious illness.

She then went on to marry Oscar Pedersen in 1963, and they were happily married until he died in 1995.

In March 2018, Lys is said to have died in hospital in Zurich.

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