On Saturday 5th March the Swiss broadcasters SF DRS, TSR and TSI will be presenting a spectacular show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest. Hosting the evening on SF1, Sandra Studer will be welcoming guests who have gone down in Swiss Eurovision history and Vanilla Ninja will be premiering their Swiss song for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.

Congratulations � 50 years Eurovision Song Contest
In the Saturday evening prime-time show Congratulations � 50 years Eurovision Song Contest on 5th March SF DRS, TSR and TSI will be showing the top highlights of the competition's 50-year history. At 20:05 CET on SF1, Sandra Studer will be inviting viewers to sit back and enjoy an evening of songs and anthems that have had the whole of Europe tapping its feet. On the Swiss French television TSR the show will be presented by Jean-Marc Richard and on the Swiss Italian television TSI by Marco Blaser.

Swiss people have helped to shape the Eurovision Song Contest, and the Eurovision Song Contest has helped to shape music in Switzerland. From the many highs and occasional lows have emerged icons of Swiss musical history. Switzerland was a founder member of the Eurovision Song Contest. In fact, the first Contest was held in 1956 in the Swiss town of Lugano and the first winner was the Swiss singer Lys Assia. In addition to Assia, Sandra Studer will be welcoming guests including Paola, Peter Reber, Pepe Lienhard and Francine Jordi, not to mention last year's candidate Piero Esteriore.

Vanilla Ninja to present song for Kiev
The grand finale of Congratulations � 50 years Eurovision Song Contest will feature the premiere of Estonian girl band Vanilla Ninja's Swiss song for this year's Eurovision Contest in Kiev. The song has been written and produced by Basel-born David Brandes.

Vanilla Ninja � Piret, Katrin, Lenna and Triinu � have enjoyed success throughout Europe. In Germany, for example, their album Traces of Sadness went straight in to the charts at number three and has since gone platinum.