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    Rosa Mina Schärer born on 3 March 1924 in in Rupperswil, in the North of Switzerland but we all known her simply as Lys Assia. She began her stage career as a dancer, but in 1940’s she changed into singing, after successfully standing in for a female singer.
    Lys was the first winner of the most popular contest in whole world, the Eurovision Song Contest. In 1956 she sang for Switzerland two entries, “Das alte Karussell” in German and the winning “Refrain” in French. She returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 with the song "L'enfant que j'étais" and in 1958 with "Giorgio".

    Her love for the contest brought her back to the National Final of Switzerland in 2011 with the song "C'était ma vie" written by Ralph Siegel and Jean Paul Cara, a song for the Eurovision Song Contest Baku 2012. While she didn’t have the chance to represent her country one more time, she attended the event in Baku as a guest of honour.

    Lys was always great supporter of the Eurovision Song Contest, she was being guest of honour in in Gothenburg in 1985 when Eurovision was celebrating its 30th edition, in 2005, she performed in the Congratulations, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest and in 2008 she started the voting in Belgrade, and in 2014 she was the Queen of Eurovision Song Contest's Greatest Hits, the celebration of the 60 years of the contest.
    Lys was and will remain the Icon of the contest, for most of the fans her name it means Eurovision itself. The love she inspires for music, art, life and Eurovision will remain always indelibly in our hearts. Lys Assia died on the 24th of March 2018 at Zürich's Zollikerberg Hospital, having recently turned 94.

(photo source: eurovision.tv)