The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland on Thursday 24th May 1956. The idea behind the contest was to unite the televisual corners of Europe through the medium of song. There were 10 countries wanting to take part but only 7 actually entered - the remaining 3 countries all entered the following year. With 7 countries taking part all were asked to send 2 songs for the judges. Each nation was also to supply 2 judges to judge the songs. Luxembourg could not send judges so used 2 Swiss judges instead. The full results were never made known for the 1956 contest. Only the winner was ever revealed, although there was rumour that Lys Assia remembers that one of the German entries finished 2nd.

Nr. crt.	Country	Song	Artist
1	The Netherlands	De Vogels Van Holland	Jetty Paerl
2	Switzerland	Das Alte Karusel	Lys Assia
3	Belgium	Messieurs les noyés de la Seine	Fud Leclerc
4	Germany	Im Wartesaal zum grossen Glück	Walter Andreas Schwarz
5	France	Le temps perdu	Mathé Altéry
6	Luxembourg	Ne crois pas	Michèle Arnaud
7	Italy	Aprite le finestre	Franca Raimondi
8	The Netherlands	Voorgoed Voorbij	Corry Brokken
9	Switzerland	Refrain	Lys Assia
10	Belgium	Le plus beau jour de ma vie	Mony Marc
11	Germany	So geht das jede Nacht	Freddy Quinn
12	France	Il est là	Dany Dauberson
13	Luxembourg	Les amants de minuit	Michèle Arnaud
14	Italy	Amami se vuoi	Tonina Torielli