Is That A Fact!?

Aubrey Beardsley’s “On This Day” Fun Facts and Trivia

On this day, in 1956, the very first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Switzerland.

And it’s also International Tiara Day!

In the 1950s, Europe was recovering from the devastation of World War II. And the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and its President, Marcel Bezençon, wanted to find ways to bring the countries together through entertainment! They decided on an international song contest that would be shown to all the countries of the broadcasting union at the same time. And Eurovision was born!

At this very first Eurovision, seven countries participated, and Lys Assia won for Switzerland, performing on her birthday! Now 93, Lys Assia is a super fan of Eurovision and hasn’t ruled out entering for 2018. In 2011 she entered her song “C’était ma vie”, but it missed out and Sinplus with “Unbreakable” won the national final, but didn’t qualify for the Eurovision finals.. And in 2012 she entered again to represent Switzerland with a hip hop number, “All In Your Head”, but the national final went on to be won by Heilsarmee with “You and Me” which again didn’t qualify for the 2013 Eurovision finals. They should have stuck with Lys! Can’t wait to see if she makes a comeback for 2018!

These days, all the countries in the EBU and Council of Europe, as well as some wild cards (hello Australia!) enter the competition. And this year it was watched by 180 million people (and an unrecorded number of dogs). Ireland is the most successful Eurovision country and has won 7 times (although, inexplicably, not for My Lovely Horse). And in 1969 there was a four-way tie with the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, and France all declared the winner! Now they have tie rules to stop that level of excitement from happening ever again.

It’s quite fitting that the first Eurovision happened on what is International Tiara Day, because you have not seen sparkle until you’ve seen a Eurovision. And today is also National Brothers Day in the United States. Maybe this date was inspired by Eurovision! Because with fans around the world, the splendour of Eurovision brings together “everyone and their brother”! And that ain’t bad.

And that’s a fact!

Happy National Brothers Day! From the Brotherhood of Be That Dog!