Eurovision Song Contest 1968

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Eurovision Song Contest 1968
ESC 1968 logo.png
Dates
Final6 April 1968
Host
VenueRoyal Albert Hall
London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s)Katie Boyle
Musical directorNorrie Paramor
Directed byStewart Morris
Executive supervisorClifford Brown
Executive producerTom Sloan
Host broadcasterBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval actImpressions from London
Websiteeurovision.tv/event/london-1968 Edit this at Wikidata
Participants
Number of entries17
Debuting countriesNone
Returning countriesNone
Non-returning countriesNone
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Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Switzerland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Monaco in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Luxembourg in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Finland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968Denmark in the Eurovision Song ContestA coloured map of the countries of Europe
    About this image
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1968
Vote
Voting systemTen-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs.
Nul pointsNone
Winning song Spain
"La, la, la"
1967 ← Eurovision Song Contest → 1969

The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country's victory at the 1967 contest with the song "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw. It was the third time the event took place in the UK; after the 1960 and 1963 editions, both of which also took place in London. The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 6 April 1968, and was hosted by Katie Boyle (for the third time). Seventeen countries participated in the contest.

The winner was Spain with the song "La, la, la", performed by Massiel, and written/composed by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa. This was Spain's first victory - and their first ever top five placing - in the contest. This was also first victory for the country from the Iberian Peninsula.

Prior to the contest, the United Kingdom's entry, Cliff Richard with the song "Congratulations", was hotly tipped as the favourite to win, but lost out to Spain's Massiel by a margin of just one point. Originally Spain entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing "La La La", but his demand to sing in Catalan was an affront to the Francoist State dictatorship. Serrat was replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish.[1]

Location[]

Royal Albert Hall, London - host venue of the 1968 contest.

The contest was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The Royal Albert Hall is known for hosting the world's leading artists from several performance genres, sports, award ceremonies, the annual summer Proms concerts and other events since its opening in 1871, and has become one of the United Kingdom's most treasured and distinctive buildings.

Format[]

1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour. The countries that broadcast it in colour were France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom, although in the UK it was broadcast as an encore presentation in colour on BBC Two the next day. Also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia broadcast the contest. Katie Boyle hosted the contest for a third time.[1]

Vote rigging allegations[]

In May 2008, a documentary by Spanish film-maker Montse Fernández Villa, 1968. Yo viví el mayo español, centred on the effects of May 1968 in Francoist Spain,[2] and alleged that the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was rigged by the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco, who would have sent state television officials across Europe offering cash and promising to buy television series and contract unknown artists.[3] The allegation was based on a testimony by journalist José María Íñigo, a TVE employee at the time, who claimed the rigging was common knowledge and suggested that Spanish record label representatives offered to release albums by Bulgarian and Czech artists (neither Bulgaria nor Czechoslovakia were members of the European Broadcasting Union at the time, though in the 1968 Contest, Austria was represented by Karel Gott, who was from Czechoslovakia.).[4]

The documentary claimed that the contest should in fact have been won by the United Kingdom's entry – "Congratulations" performed by Cliff Richard – which finished second by one vote.[5] Massiel, the performer of the winning entry, was outraged by the allegations, and claimed that if there had been fixes, "other singers, who were more keen on Francoist Spain, would have benefited". José María Iñigo, author of the statement in the documentary, personally apologized to Massiel and said that he had repeated a widespread rumour. Both Massiel and Iñigo accused television channel La Sexta, broadcaster of the documentary, of manufacturing the scandal.[6]

Participating countries[]

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest

All countries that participated in 1967 also participated in 1968.[1]

Conductors[]

Each performance had a maestro who conducted the orchestra.[7][8]

Returning artists[]

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Artist Country Previous year(s)
Isabelle Aubret  France 1962

Results[]

Draw Country Artist Song Language[9][10] Place[11] Points
01  Portugal Carlos Mendes "Verão" Portuguese 11 5
02  Netherlands Ronnie Tober "Morgen" Dutch 16 1
03  Belgium Claude Lombard "Quand tu reviendras" French 7 8
04  Austria Karel Gott "Tausend Fenster" German 13 2
05  Luxembourg Chris Baldo and "Nous vivrons d'amour" French 11 5
06   Switzerland Gianni Mascolo "Guardando il sole" Italian 13 2
07  Monaco "À chacun sa chanson" French 7 8
08  Sweden Claes-Göran Hederström "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig" Swedish 5 15
09  Finland Kristina Hautala "Kun kello käy" Finnish 16 1
10  France Isabelle Aubret "La source" French 3 20
11  Italy Sergio Endrigo "Marianne" Italian 10 7
12  United Kingdom Cliff Richard "Congratulations" English 2 28
13  Norway Odd Børre "Stress" Norwegian 13 2
14  Ireland Pat McGuigan "Chance of a Lifetime" English 4 18
15  Spain Massiel "La, la, la" Spanish 1 29
16  Germany Wenche Myhre "Ein Hoch der Liebe" German 6 11
17  Yugoslavia Luci Capurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić "Jedan dan" (Један дан) Serbo-Croatian 7 8

Scoreboard[]

Due to a misunderstanding by the hostess, Katie Boyle, Switzerland were erroneously awarded 3 points by Yugoslavia, instead of 2. The scrutineer asked for the Yugoslav votes from TV Skopje to be announced a second time.

Voting results[12][13]
Total score
Portugal
Netherlands
Belgium
Austria
Luxembourg
Switzerland
Monaco
Sweden
Finland
France
Italy
United Kingdom
Norway
Ireland
Spain
Germany
Yugoslavia
Contestants
 Portugal 5 2 3
Netherlands 1 1
Belgium 8 1 1 1 3 1 1
Austria 2 2
Luxembourg 5 1 1 1 1 1
Switzerland 2 2
Monaco 8 2 1 3 1 1
Sweden 15 1 1 1 2 6 4
Finland 1 1
France 20 3 6 2 3 3 1 2
Italy 7 1 2 2 2
United Kingdom 28 1 2 2 1 4 5 3 2 4 1 1 2
Norway 2 1 1
Ireland 18 1 1 1 4 1 4 6
Spain 29 4 2 1 4 3 4 3 1 1 6
Germany 11 1 1 2 5 2
Yugoslavia 8 1 1 1 1 3 1

Spokespersons[]

Listed below is the order in which votes were cast during the 1968 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

  1.  Portugal – Maria Manuela Furtado
  2.  Netherlands – Warry van Kampen[14]
  3.  Belgium – André Hagon
  4.  Austria –  [de]
  5.  Luxembourg – TBC
  6.   Switzerland –  [fr]
  7.  Monaco – TBC
  8.  Sweden –  [sv][15]
  9.  Finland –  [fi][16]
  10.  France –  [fr][17]
  11.  Italy – Mike Bongiorno
  12.  United Kingdom – Michael Aspel[8]
  13.  Norway –  [no][18]
  14.  Ireland – Gay Byrne
  15.  Spain – Ramón Rivera
  16.  Germany –  [de]
  17.  Yugoslavia – Snežana Lipkovska-Hadžinaumova

Broadcasts[]

Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria FS1  [de]
 Belgium RTB French: Paule Herreman
BRT Dutch:  [nl]
 Finland TV-ohjelma 1  [fi]
 France Deuxième Chaîne ORTF Pierre Tchernia [19]
 Germany Deutsches Fernsehen  [de]
 Ireland RTÉ Brendan O'Reilly
RTÉ Radio Kevin Roche
 Italy Secondo Programma  [it]
 Luxembourg Télé-Luxembourg Jacques Navadic
 Monaco Télé Monte Carlo Pierre Tchernia
 Netherlands Nederland 1  [nl]
 Norway NRK Roald Øyen
 Portugal RTP Fialho Gouveia
 Spain Primera Cadena  [es]
Radio Nacional José María Íñigo [20]
 Sweden Sveriges TV  [sv] [21]
  Switzerland TV DRS German:  [de]
TSR French:  [fr]
TSI Italian: Giovanni Bertini
 United Kingdom BBC1 No commentary [8]
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray [8]
 Yugoslavia Televizija Beograd Serbo-Croatian:  [sr]
Televizija Zagreb Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Delić
Televizija Ljubljana Slovene:  [sl]
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Bulgaria BT Unknown [8]
 Czechoslovakia ČST Unknown [8]
 East Germany Deutscher Fernsehfunk Unknown [8]
 Hungary RTV Unknown [8]
 Poland TVP Unknown [8]
 Romania TVR Unknown [8]
 Soviet Union CT USSR Unknown [8]
 Tunisia RTT Unknown [8]

National jury members[]

  •  Portugal – Maria Helena Oliveira Simões (housewife), Madalena Iglésias (singer), Maria João Aguiar (TV and radio presenter), Isabel Maria Spencer Vieira Martins (college student), António Reis (publishing director), José Joaquim Machado Leite (office secretary), António Moniz Pereira (member of the group Quarteto 1111), Bernardo Manuel Palma Mira Delgado (mechanical engineer), Luís Fernando Cardoso Nandim de Carvalho (university student), Pedro Manuel Mota Vaz do Castelo (radio presenter)[22]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Eurovision Song Contest 1968". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  2. ^ "Massiel sí, Madelman no: así fue el Mayo del 68 en España". Público (in Spanish). 3 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  3. ^ "TVE 'compró' los votos para que Massiel ganará Eurovisión". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 5 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  4. ^ "Vea el vídeo donde José Maríá Iñigo 'descubre' a Massiel". 20 minutos (in Spanish). 5 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  5. ^ Govan, Fiona (4 May 2008). "How Franco cheated Cliff out of Eurovision title". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  6. ^ "Massiel e Iñigo acusan a La Sexta de "urdir todo para favorecer a Chiquilicuatre"". El Mundo (in Spanish). 6 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  7. ^ "And the conductor is..." Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l Roxburgh, Gordon (2012). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume One: The 1950s and 1960s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp. 454–470. ISBN 978-1-84583-065-6.
  9. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1968". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1968". 4Lyrics.eu. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  11. ^ "Final of London 1968". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  12. ^ "Results of the Final of London 1968". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 8 April 2021. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1968 – Scoreboard". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 9 July 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Songfestival eindigde in mineur bij BBC". Het Parool. 8 April 1968. p. 4. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  15. ^ Infosajten.com Archived 18 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? (in Finnish) Viisukuppila, 18 April 2005
  17. ^ Tchernia, Pierre et al. (6 April 1968). 13ème Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1969 [13th Eurovision Song Contest 1968] (Television production). United Kingdom: BBC, ORTF (commentary).
  18. ^ Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  19. ^ CONCOURS EUROVISION DE LA CHANSON 1968 (in French) SongContest
  20. ^ Escudero, Victor M. (5 May 2018). "Spanish commentator José María Iñigo passed away". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  21. ^ Thorsson, Leif (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna [Melodifestivalen through time]. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. p. 74. ISBN 91-89136-29-2.
  22. ^ "06586.124.22144". casacomum.org. Retrieved 23 August 2021.

External links[]

Coordinates: 51°30′03.40″N 00°10′38.77″W / 51.5009444°N 0.1774361°W / 51.5009444; -0.1774361

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