The European Broadcasting Union is asking Eurovision fans worldwide for help in locating missing recordings from two of the contest’s earliest editions.
Two Missing Eurovisions
The search focuses on:
- Lugano 1956 — the very first Eurovision Song Contest
- Copenhagen 1964 — one of the contest’s most mysterious editions
Today, no complete recordings are known to exist for either contest. Only fragments, short clips, photographs and audio recordings have survived over the decades.
The EBU is now calling on:
- collectors
- broadcasters
- archivists
- and Eurovision fans
to help uncover any forgotten material that may still exist privately or in archives around the world.
Why are the recordings missing?
The loss of the two editions has become one of Eurovision’s biggest archival mysteries. For 1956, only a short kinescope recording of the winner Lys Assia’s reprise performance is known to survive. The fate of the 1964 contest is even more unclear. Over the years, reports have suggested:
- The tapes may have been wiped
- never recorded properly
- or potentially destroyed later on
Despite this, audio recordings and limited footage fragments from both contests still exist.
Do you have any secret Eurovision tapes in your house? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky as we prepare for Eurovision 2025!
News Source: EBU
Photo Credit: EBU
Rory Gannon 
Samantha