Is Switzerland set for Eurovision success?

Swiss hopes for success at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm on Saturday are pinned on a former beauty queen. Jane Bogaert, voted Miss Switzerland 14 years ago, is competing against singers from 23 other countries.

Bogaert will be singing the Italian-language ballad, “La vita cos’è” (“What is Life?”).

Born in Solothurn, she studied music at Biel Conservatory and the Munich Music School and has toured the world as a singer.

“La vita cos’è” was composed by Bernie Staub with lyrics by Tomas Marin. It was chosen as the Swiss entry during a nationwide television broadcast beset by technical problems.

Results from the tele-voting regions were slow to come in, and when they did it turned out that those from Lugano could not be included because the telephone network became overloaded.

But organisers ruled that any figures from the tele-vote in the Italian-speaking region would have made the winning margin wider, and the result was allowed to stand.

Switzerland was not represented in 1999 because its entry failed to win any points the previous year, ruling it out of competition until this year.

swissinfo with agencies