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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio Welcome Back to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: where we reveal a new piece of history every day.

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Speaker 1: Today is May nineteen. The day was made nineteen fifty six,

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Speaker 1: the first ever Eurovision song contest took place in Lugano, Switzerland.

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Speaker 1: The contest was a talent competition, but it was also

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Speaker 1: a bit to bring together the countries in the European

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Speaker 1: Broadcasting Union in alliance of public service media through technology.

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Speaker 1: In the wake of World War Two, Europe had a

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Speaker 1: lot of rebuilding to do. In February of nineteen fifty

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Speaker 1: the European Broadcasting Union or EBU was created, but it

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Speaker 1: was difficult to organize international TV program exchanges. TV networks

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Speaker 1: used different picture standards and there were legal and financial concerns,

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Speaker 1: but plans for an international newscast and television program exchange

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Speaker 1: were brewing. In nineteen fifty two, the first official program

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Speaker 1: exchange both ways between London and Paris was made successfully.

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Speaker 1: English journalist George camp Be coined the term Eurovision in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen fifty one article Can't Be Said The following.

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Speaker 1: Eurovision is a system of cooperation for the exchange of

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Speaker 1: television programs between the countries of Western Europe, including Britain,

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Speaker 1: and in nineteen fifty four, e b U members organized

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Speaker 1: a summer of European television exchanges known as the Real Experiment,

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Speaker 1: where links were established between eight countries via terrestrial transmitters.

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Speaker 1: The television network Eurovision was born. After the television exchange

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Speaker 1: proved successful, it was decided that there should be an

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Speaker 1: annual event to promote television, so in January of nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty five, the e b U Program Committee, meeting in

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Speaker 1: Monte Carlo, approved a European Song Contest and a Eurovision

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Speaker 1: Cup for amateur variety artists called the Top Town program.

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Speaker 1: The latter idea did not gain any traction, but the

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Speaker 1: song contest had support. On October nineteenth, nineteen fifty five,

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Speaker 1: and e BU General Assembly, meeting in the Corsini Palace

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Speaker 1: in Rome, approved the creation of a Grand Prix of

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Speaker 1: European Song. The contest, inspired by the Italian Saremo Music Festival,

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Speaker 1: would be held in Lugano in spring of nineteen fifty six.

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Speaker 1: The director of the EBU Administrative Office created the rules

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Speaker 1: for the contest and the planning subgroup introduced amendments. The

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Speaker 1: performance could not be any longer than three and a

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Speaker 1: half minutes, and the backing orchestra would be made up

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Speaker 1: of twenty four musicians. Rehearsals for the contest began on

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Speaker 1: May one, nineteen fifty six, at the Teatro Corsal. Flowers

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Speaker 1: were placed throughout the theater to add a little more

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Speaker 1: interest to the visuals of the broadcast. In the beginning,

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Speaker 1: the contest was known as the Year of Vision Grand Prix.

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Speaker 1: The first year of Vision Grand Prix was broadcast live

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Speaker 1: on May nineteen fifty six to ten countries. The contestants

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Speaker 1: were singers from seven different countries. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, France,

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Speaker 1: Luxembourg and Italy. Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom were

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Speaker 1: participants initially, but they were disqualified from entering the contest

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Speaker 1: when they registered after the deadline. Each of the contestants

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Speaker 1: performed two songs. A jury made of two delegates from

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Speaker 1: each competing country awarded each song between one and ten points.

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Speaker 1: Swiss singer Lease Assia won the first year of a

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Speaker 1: Song contest with a song called Refrain. She did not

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Speaker 1: get a physical award, as medals weren't introduced in the

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Speaker 1: contest until later, during her encore, les Assa forgot some

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Speaker 1: of the words to her song and improvised. The next year,

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Speaker 1: the Eurovision Grand Prix was hosted in West Germany and

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Speaker 1: the rules were changed to one song per participants. Over

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Speaker 1: the next several decades, the contest was staged in different countries,

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Speaker 1: the voting system changed, and more rules changed for contestants.

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Speaker 1: Notable winners of the Eurovision Song Contests include Abba and

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Speaker 1: Selene Dion. Winner of the inaugural Eurovision Song Contests, les

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Speaker 1: Assia died at age ninety four. I'm Eve Stefcote and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. Keep up with us on Twitter, Instagram

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