Scott (right) with Jennie Veeninga and Rob de Nijs during a television broadcast in 1963
Marion Henriëtte Louise Molly (born 29 December 1933),[1] known professionally as Milly Scott, is a Dutch singer and actress of Surinamese origin, best known for her participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 1966. She is recognised as the first black singer to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest.[2]
Early life
Scott was born in Den Helder, the main base of the Royal Netherlands Navy, where her father was stationed as a marine.[3] Both her parents were immigrants from the Dutch colony of Surinam, while her paternal grandfather was originally from North Brabant.[1] As the first black family in Den Helder and the only black child in kindergarten, she often experienced discrimination while growing up.[1][3]
Having learned to play the piano during the war, Scott started giving performances to financially support her mother after her father's death.[1] At the age of 14, she began singing in amateur bands and was eventually given a scholarship to study at the conservatory in Amsterdam.[3] However, she dropped out due to the intense racism and bullying she experienced during her studies.[1][3]
Career
Early career
In 1953, at the age of 19, Scott was asked by Dutch comedian Toon Hermans to perform in one of his shows.[3] According to Hermans, the name Milly suited her better than her birth name Marion.[3] Following her mother's advice not to use her real surname, she then came up with the stage name Milly Scott.[3] After performing in front of a big audience for the first time, she quickly built up a career as a jazz singer, with Lou van Rees as her impresario.[3]
Scott owes her successes in the Netherlands to the influential entertainment journalist Henk van der Meijden, who had found out about her career in Sweden and wrote an article about her in De Telegraaf.[3][4] This led to numerous appearances on national television and she was even given her own television show in 1965, named Scott in de roos (after the phrase schot in de roos, meaning "bullseye").[3][4]
In 1966, Scott was asked to participate in the Nationaal Songfestival, the Dutch national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.[3] She went on to win the national final with the song "Fernando en Filippo", written by Gerrit den Braber and composed by Kees de Bruyn. This gave her the right to represent the Netherlands in the eleventh edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Luxembourg City. Her entry received a total of two points from the international juries, placing fifteenth out of eighteen songs.[5]
Although "Fernando en Filippo" was something of a novelty song (and was also performed as such) at a time when ballads dominated in the competition, Scott would later claim that her disappointing result was attributable, at least in part, to racism on the part of the voting jurors.[3][6]
After Eurovision
Scott as Baby Miller in 1994
Although Scott never produced any hit records, her jazz-based singing career brought her to Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom in later years. She also branched out into acting and appeared in many theater and television shows, her best-known role being in the RTL 4 drama series Vrouwenvleugel (1993–95) in which she played Baby Miller, a prisoner trying to come to terms with her racial identity.[4][7]
