Milly Scott is a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 singer and actress of Suriname

Suriname

Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...

se origin, best known for her participation in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest. Scott is recognised as the first black singer to take part in Eurovision.

Eurovision Song Contest

Scott had built up a career as a successful nightclub jazz singer, which led to her being given her own TV show, Scott in de Roos, in 1965. As a result, in 1966, she was given the chance to take part in the Dutch Eurovision selection, where her song "Fernando en Filippo

Fernando En Filippo

"Fernando en Filippo" was the Dutch entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966, performed in Dutch by Milly Scott.The song tells the story of the title characters...

" was a clear winner. Scott went forward to the 11th Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1966

The Eurovision Song Contest 1966 was the 11th edition and was held on 5 March 1966 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. The rule stating that a country could only sing in any of its national languages was originally created in this year. This was possibly created due to the 1965 Swedish entry, "Absent...

, held in Luxembourg City on 5 March, where "Fernando en Filippo" ended the evening in 15th place of 18 entries with votes only from the UK and Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, continuing a run of poor Dutch results dating back to 1960. Although "Fernando en Filippo" was something of a novelty song

Novelty song

A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions...

 (and was performed as such) at a time when ballads dominated Eurovision, Scott would subsequently claim controversially that her disappointing result was attributable, at least in part, to racism on the part of the voting jurors.

Later career

Although she was never a maker of hit records, Scott's jazz-based singing career took her to England, Germany and Sweden in later years. She branched out into acting, and appeared in many stage and television shows, her best-known role being in the 1990s television prison drama Vrouwenvleugel in which she played Baby Miller, a woman trying to come to terms with her racial identity.

External links

• 1966 page at Dingadong.nl (Dutch)