27 May – The blackbird, the thrush and the nightingale

In a change to celebrating birthdays of performers still with us, we’ve got the birthday of someone who died in 2013. You may wonder why, but we do have the Eurovision trailblazer of trailblazers.

Dutchwoman Jetty Paerl came second in the first ever National Songfestivaal. However, both her and the singer that beat her went off to the first ever Eurovision Song Contest in Lugano. We don’t know the results other than the winner, but Jetty made history as the first ever performer of the first ever Eurovision song. So you can forget your first ever winners for Sweden, or your first ever performers in German. Jetty is the one.

Jetty would have been 100 today.