Lys Assia (born March 3, 1926), original name Rosa Mina Schärer, was born in Lenzburg, Canton of Aargau, Switzerland.

As a young girl she was a dancer, but stood in for a female singer in 1940. People who heard her singing liked it, so she changed from dancing to singing.

In 1956 she was the winner of the very first Eurovision Song Contest, in which she sang for Switzerland. She had also been in the German national final of that year (see: Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1956); she returned to the contest again for Switzerland in 1957 and 1958.