Eurovision Song Contest 1968

The XIII Eurovision Song Contest took place on April 6, 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, United Kingdom, organized by the BBC, after the victory of Sandie Shaw, with his song Puppet on a String. The presenter was Katie Boyle and Massiel, who represented Spain, won the contest with the song La, la, la, obtaining 29 points. Second place went to the British representative, Cliff Richard, who with the song Congratulations was one point behind Spain. Isabelle Aubret, representative of France (who had already won the contest in 1962 with the song "Premier Amour" which obtained 26 points), came third with the song "La source" (the source) who got 20 points.

At first, Spain was going to send Joan Manuel Serrat as a representative to sing the song "La, la, la", but TVE withdrew him from the contest, since he refused to sing in Spanish, and do it in Catalan. Later they thought of sending the Dynamic Duo (Ramón Arcusa and Manuel de la Calva) to replace Serrat, since they were the authors of the song "La, la, la" but TVE finally decided to send Massiel, who was on tour in Mexico and only had 10 days to prepare before the contest.

For Yugoslavia, a group, Dubrovački Trubaduri, performed in medieval minstrel costumes. It was a group originally made up of six people. However, the regulations at that time only allowed soloists and duos to compete, so five officially went to London, two of them official interpreters, Luci Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić, and the other three as choir.

The United Kingdom had the vote of the last jury (Yugoslavia) repeated because it gave 11 points instead of 10, which are the points that the voting country has to distribute, since the jury of each country was made up of ten people, the which had to give a point to their favorite song. Even so, Spain was still the winner, as the Yugoslavs voted neither for Richard nor for Massiel.

This edition of the festival was broadcast for the first time in color to West Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland, despite the fact that very few viewers had a color television at home. In addition to the countries participating in the festival, some countries in Eastern Europe, South America and Tunisia broadcast it.

Participants

The months prior to the festival, the participant selection processes were carried out. Of 17 participating countries, 10 organized a national final and 7 chose their representative internally.

Among the best-known representatives were Wencke Myhre, a Norwegian singer who tried several times to represent her country and was ultimately chosen to represent West Germany; Isabelle Aubret, winner of the 1962 festival; Sergio Endrigo, winner of the Sanremo Festival that year; Karel Gott, a Czechoslovakian singer representing Austria; and Cliff Richard, the top favorite to win this festival according to a large part of the European press and who would reach an important international projection. A still not very well known Massiel, although she already had two hits in Mexico and participation in other European festivals, was consolidated in Spain and Latin America after her victory in Eurovision.

The following table summarizes the representatives of each country and the method by which they were chosen:

Country and TV	Original title of the song	Artist	Selection process and date
	Spanish translation	Interpretation languages
Western Germany ARD	Ein Hoch der Liebe	Wencke Myhre	National Final, 16-03-1968
	A toast to love	German
AustriaAustria ORF	Tausend Fenster	Karel Gott	Internal elections
	Thousands of windows	German
BelgiumBelgium RTB	Quand Tu Reviendras	Claude Lombard	Avant-première 1968, 13-02-1968
	When you get back	French
Spain TVE	La, la, la	Massiel	Internal elections
	-	Spanish
FinlandFinland YLE	Kun Kello Käy	Kristina Hautala	Euroviisut 1968, 10-02-1968
	When the clock is on	Finnish
France ORTF	La Source	Isabelle Aubret	Final Nacional 1968
	The source	French
Ireland RTÉ	Chance of a Lifetime	Pat McGeegan	Final Nacional, 03-03-1968
	The opportunity of your life	English
ItalyItaly RAI	Marianne	Sergio Endrigo	Internal elections
	-	Italian
LuxembourgLuxembourg CLT	Nous Vivrons D'Amour	Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel	Internal elections
	We will live love	French
MonacoMonaco TMC	A Chacun Sa Chanson	Line and Willy	Internal elections
	To each his song	French
Norway Norway NRK	Stress	Odd Børre	Melodi Grand-Prix 1968, 03-03-1968
	Stress	Norwegian
NetherlandsNetherlands NTS	Morgen	Ronnie Tober	Nationaal Songfestival 1968, 28-02-1968
	Tomorrow	Dutch
Portugal RTP	Verão	Carlos Mendes	Festival da Canção, 04-03-1968
	Summer	Portuguese
United KingdomUnited Kingdom BBC	Congratulations	Cliff Richard	A Song For Europe, 05-03-1968
	Congratulations.	English
Sweden Sweden SR	Det Börjar Verka Kärlek, Banne Mej	Claes-Göran Hederström	Melodifestivalen 1968, 05-03-1968
	It's starting to look like love, damn it.	Swedish
SwitzerlandSwitzerland SSR SRG	Save Il Sole	Gianni Mascoio	Final Nacional, 27-01-1968
	Looking at the sun	Italian
Yugoslavia JRT	Jedan dan	Luci Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić	Pjesma Eurovizije 1968, 25-02-1968
	One day	Croatian

Results

Massiel, winner of the Festival

The voting for the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was one of the closest on record, with a very close race between Spain and the United Kingdom: Although Spain began leading the ranking, during the first part of the voting it was France that led the ranking. Midway through the voting, the United Kingdom ended up catching up with France and even managed to gain a considerable advantage over the French and Spanish bids. However, when there were two countries left to vote and the United Kingdom was 4 points ahead of Spain, West Germany awarded 2 more points to the British candidacy and 6 points to the Spanish one, placing the latter in first position. Yugoslavia, which was the last country to vote, by not giving any points to Spain or the United Kingdom, ended up facilitating Spain's first victory in the Eurovision Song Contest.

For the first time since 1961, all participating countries scored at least one point.

#	Country	Performer(s)	Song	Place	Points
01	Portugal	Carlos Mendes	«Verão»	11	5
02	NetherlandsNetherlands	Ronnie Tober	«Morgen»	16	1
03	Belgium	Claude Lombard	"Quand Tu Reviendras"	7	8
04	AustriaAustria	Karel Gott	«Tausend Fenster»	13	2
05	Luxembourg	Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel	«Nous Vivrons D'Amour»	11	5
06	Switzerland	Gianni Mascoio	«Save Il Sole»	13	2
07	Monaco	Line and Willy	«A Chacun Sa Chanson»	7	8
08	Sweden Sweden	Claes-Göran Hederström	«Det Börjar Verka Kärlek, Banne Mej»	5	15
09	FinlandFinland	Kristina Hautala	"Kun Kello Käy"	16	1
10	France	Isabelle Aubret	"The Source"	3	20
11	ItalyItaly	Sergio Endrigo	«Marianne»	10	7
12	United KingdomUnited Kingdom	Cliff Richard	«Congratulations»	2	28
13	Norway Norway	Odd Børre	"Stress"	13	2
14	Ireland	Pat McGeegan	"Chance of a Lifetime"	4	18
15	Spain	Massiel	«La, la, la»	1	29
16	Western Germany	Wencke Myhre	«Ein Hoch Der Liebe»	6	11
17	Yugoslavia	Luci Kapurso " Hamo Hajdarhodžić	«Jedan dan»	7	8

Voting Table

		Results
																			Total
Participants	Portugal	-												2		3			5
	Netherlands		-									1							1
	Belgium	1		-						1	1	3	1			1			8
	Austria				-												2		2
	Luxembourg		1		1	-		1			1		1						5
	Switzerland						-											2	2
	Monaco		2			1		-		3			1		1				8
	Sweden	1	1						-	1			2	6	4				15
	Finland									-				1					1
	France		3	6	2	3	3		1		-	2							20
	Italy	1					2					-				2		2	7
	United Kingdom	1	2	2		1	4	5	3	2	4	1	-		1		2		28
	Norway					1								-		1			2
	Ireland	1	1	1	4	1			4						-			6	18
	Spain	4			2	1		4		3	4	3		1	1	-	6		29
	Western Germany					1	1		2				5			2	-		11
	Yugoslavia	1		1	1	1									3	1		-	8
THE TABLA IS PROVIDED BY

Controversies

The possibility of fraud

The Spanish singer's victory at the Festival has retrospectively been the subject of accusations about possible vote-buying by the Franco regime. This information is based on the fact that TVE bought television series and films and promoted singers from various European countries, especially Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia (although they did not actually participate or vote in the Festival. Bulgaria did not participate in the Festival of Eurovision until 2005 and Czechoslovakia never participated as such).

The origin of these speculations were statements by the Spanish journalist, and regular presenter for the public television channel of these festivals, José María Íñigo, which were made public in the documentary I lived the Spanish May of 1968, broadcast by the private television network La Sexta. However, these comments, according to his words and those of the singer Massiel, would have been "perverted, sensationalized and unfocused" by the network with the intention of promoting the program and satisfy the interests of private television (in clear reference to the promotion of Chiki-Chiki played by Rodolfo Chikilicuatre, promoted to Eurovision by a program on the same channel).

All the news made public in the media, including the space that the news of the English channel Channel 4 dedicated to the matter, were made before the broadcast of the documentary on which these accusations were based, later it was verified, focusing the words in the context, that at no time did José María Íñigo insinuate anything similar to a fraud, "if we compare some things and others we see that there is more evidence that shows that there has been no fraud than the mere theories that something strange could happen» he clarified after the controversy.

Map

Countries participating in the festival.Countries participating in previous editions but not in this edition.