When you're a fan of Eurovision, you see connections to it in all sorts of places.

Travelling through Germany earlier this year, in just a few weeks, I saw several connections in 'real life' - a 2025 presenter on a magazine cover, a poster for an Italian act's tour or someone wearing a Spanish act's merch t-shirt.

And, of course, museums can be full of Eurovision references. Although museums frequently focus on 'high' art and less often on popular culture, there are still plenty of connections to be found.

This will be a regular series in this newsletter, and today, we begin with some stories from the 1950s and 1960s.

First, here is the dress worn by Sandie Shaw when she won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 with Puppet on a String. It's on display at the V&A Museum in London, in the Theatre & Performance galleries.

It is a lovely surprise to see that this dress is pink. The contest was broadcast in black and white back in 1967, so its colour wasn't immediately obvious.

The V&A have also released a video about how they have conserved and preserved the dress.

It might not seem like there is a lot of crossover between football and Eurovision. But at the German Football Museum in Dortmund, another Eurovision winner can be found.

The museum displays this video of 1966 Eurovision winner from Austria, Udo Jürgens, serenading the retiring German football manager Helmut Schön during a televised gala in 1978.

Dutch singer Teddy Scholten won the Eurovision in 1959 with the song Een beetje. She lived most of her life in the Dutch town Rijswijk. So in 2021, the local museum dedicated an exhibition to her and her life’s achievements. After her victory at the Eurovision Song Contest, she became a regular face on TV in the Netherlands through the 1960s. Sadly, the exhibition at Museum Rijswijk was in 2021, during the pandemic, so I wasn’t able to visit.

Three more contests + championships tickling me.

Thank you for reading + until next time,