Milly Scott represented the Netherlands at the 1966 edition of the European Song Contest and made history in the process as the first Black entrant.

The contest that year was won by Austrian entry Udo Jürgens, pipping the United Kingdom entrant Matt Monro into second place, but Milly’s participation, with the song “Fernando en Filippo”, marked an important milestone in the song contest’s history.

In 1964, the Netherlands had previously entered Indonesian singer Anneke Gronloh as the first non-white participant, and Sweden’s singer in 1966 was accompanied by African American jazz musician Sahib Shihab, but Milly’s performance as the first Black headline singer for a country broke boundaries.

The following year Eduardo Nascimento represented Portugal in the 1967 contest but then it wasn’t until a decade later that another Black singer would represent their country when Germany’s Silver Convention took part in 1977 .

Since 1990 onwards, there have been more Black singers who have represented their countries over the years but it all started with the groundbreaking Black icon Milly Scott back in 1966.

Also available as part of a pair of prints.