Udo Jürgens was an Austrian-Swiss singer and composer whose career spanned five decades with sales of more that 100 million records. He is credited with broadening German-language pop music beyond the traditional "Schlager" in the 1950s.
A three-time participant in Eurovision, the most frequent for his home country, he was first selected for the Eurovision Song Contest 1964 in Copenhagen with the song "Warum nur, warum?", finishing in 6th place with 11 points.
His second attempt came the following year in Naples when he represented his home country with the song "Sag ihr, ich lass sie grüßen", improving on the previous year by finishing in 4th place with 16 points.
His final attempt was to prove his most successful when he was internally selected to represent his home country in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 in Luxembourg City with the song "Merci, chérie", giving the country its first-ever victory with 31 points. This would remain the country's only victory until the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 when Conchita Wurst emerged victorious with the song "Rise Like a Phoenix", setting a record for the longest gap between wins.
He continued to perform right up to his death of acute heart failure on 21 December 2014 aged 80.