A brand new photo reconstruction of the very first Eurovision Song Contest. It was held on 24 May 1956 at the Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, Switzerland. Sadly only the audio of the show exists, taken from a repeat radio broadcast. This broadcast excluded the 2nd interval act and the Eurovision ident at the beginning and end... both have been restored for this reconstruction!

This reconstruction is the most extensive of it's kind, including hundreds of original photographs taken on 24 May 1956 at the Teatro Kursaal, newsreel footage of the winner's reprise and the restoration of the 2nd Interval Act using an alternative audio source of the performers.

The interval acts are a strange case. We have the original audio for the first interval act, but we don't have any photographs at all... and then we have three photographs of the second interval act, but we don't have any of the original audio. For the first time, though, both are presented in a reconstruction of Eurovision 1956. For the first interval act, I was inspired by the 1977 postcards and used a montage of shots of the audience looking bored (it was the best I could achieve!)... for the second interval act, I managed to find a recording of the song performed, by the group who performed it at Eurovision 1956, and I spliced that into the show. It's not ideal, as it's not the original performance, but it's a lot closer to the original show than it would've been without including it. This performance features the three surviving photographs of the original performance over it.

Additionally, I've taken the liberty of roughly translating everything the presenter, Lohengrin Filipello, says and dubbing it over in English. You can still line up the original audio, from the show, if you wish to have the reconstruction in Italian. The translation is not exact, but I have tried to get it as close as possible while also conveying the general gist of what Filipello is telling viewers on the night in clear English.

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