Eurovision Song Contest 1968

Eurovision Song Contest 1968
Dates
Final 6 April 1968
Host
Venue Royal Albert Hall
London, United Kingdom
Presenter(s) Katie Boyle
Conductor Norrie Paramor
Director Stewart Morris
Executive supervisor Clifford Brown
Host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Interval act Impressions from London
Participants
Number of entries 17
Debuting countries None
Returning countries None
Withdrawing countries None
Participation map
  • Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 France in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Italy in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Netherlands in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Denmark 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 system Each country had 10 jury members who each cast one vote for their favourite song
Nul points None
Winning song  Spain
"La, la, la"
Eurovision Song Contest
◄1967 • 1968 • 1969►

The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song "La, la, la", performed by Massiel, closely followed by the United Kingdom and Cliff Richard with "Congratulations!" with 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 Francoist Spain. Serrat was withdrawn and replaced by Massiel, who sang the same song in Spanish.[1]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, 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 dictator 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).[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 Franco's regime, 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

There were no withdrawing, returning, or débutantes in the 1968 contest.[1]

Conductors

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

  •  Portugal - Joaquim Luís Gomes
  •  Netherlands - Dolf van der Linden
  •  Belgium - Henri Segers
  •  Austria - Robert Opratko
  •  Luxembourg - André Borly
  •   Switzerland - Mario Robbiani

Returning artists

Only one artist returned in this year's contest. The winner of the 1962 contest, Isabelle Aubret, returned once more for France.[1]

Results

Draw Country Artist Song Language[8] Place Votes
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 & Sophie Garel "Nous vivrons d'amour" French 11 5
06   Switzerland Gianni Mascolo "Guardando il sole" Italian 13 2
07  Monaco Line & Willy "À chacun sa chanson" French 7 8
08  Sweden Claes-Göran Hederström "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej" 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 Dubrovački trubaduri "Jedan dan" Croatian 7 8

Scoreboard

Results
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

International broadcasts and voting

The table below shows 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. Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.[1]

Voting order Country Spokespersons Commentator Broadcaster
01  Portugal Maria Manuela Furtado Fialho Gouveia RTP
02  Netherlands Willem Duys Elles Berger Nederland 1[9]
03  Belgium André Hagon Janine Lambotte RTB)
Herman Verelst BRT
04  Austria Walter Richard Langer Willy Kralick ORF
05  Luxembourg TBC Jacques Navadic Télé-Luxembourg
06   Switzerland Alexandre Burger Theodor Haller TV DRS
Georges Hardy TSR)
Giovanni Bertini TSI
07  Monaco TBC Pierre Tchernia Télé Monte Carlo
08  Sweden Edvard Matz[10] Christina Hansegård[11] Sveriges Radio-TV
09  Finland Poppe Berg[12] Aarno Walli[13] TV-ohjelma 1
10  France Jean-Claude Massoulier[14] Pierre Tchernia[15] Deuxième Chaîne ORTF
11  Italy Mike Bongiorno Renato Tagliani Secondo Programma
12  United Kingdom Michael Aspel No commentator BBC1
Pete Murray[16] BBC Radio 1
13  Norway Sverre Christophersen[17] Roald Øyen NRK[17][18]
14  Ireland Gay Byrne Brendan O'Reilly RTÉ Television
Kevin Roche Radio Éireann
15  Spain Joaquín Prat Federico Gallo TVE1[19]
16  Germany Hans-Otto Grünefeldt Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach[20] ARD Deutsches Fernsehen
17  Yugoslavia Snežana Lipkovska-Hadžinaumova Miloje Orlović Televizija Beograd
Mladen Delić Televizija Zagreb
Tomaž Terček Televizija Ljubljana

Non-participating countries

Several non-participating countries also decided to broadcast the contest on their respective television stations.
  •  Poland - TBC (TVP)
  •  Romania - TBC (TVR1)
  •  Soviet Union - TBC (CT USSR)
  •  Tunisia - TBC (ERTT)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Eurovision Song Contest 1968". EBU. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  2. ↑ "Massiel sí, Madelman no: así fue el Mayo del 68 en España" (in Spanish). Público. 3 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  3. ↑ "TVE 'compró' los votos para que Massiel ganará Eurovisión" (in Spanish). 20 minutos. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  4. ↑ "Vea el vídeo donde José Maríá Iñigo 'descubre' a Massiel" (in Spanish). 20 minutos. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  5. ↑ Govan, Fiona (4 May 2008). "How Franco cheated Cliff out of Eurovision title". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  6. ↑ "Massiel e Iñigo acusan a La Sexta de "urdir todo para favorecer a Chiquilicuatre"" (in Spanish). El Mundo. 6 May 2008. Retrieved 3 December 2009.
  7. ↑ "Conductors 1968". 4Lyrics.com. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Eurovision Song Contest 1968". The Diggiloo Thrush. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  9. ↑ "Nederlandse televisiecommentatoren bij het Eurovisie Songfestival". Eurovision Artists (in Dutch).
  10. ↑ Infosajten.com Archived 18 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ Leif Thorsson. Melodifestivalen genom tiderna ["Melodifestivalen through time"] (2006), p. 74. Stockholm: Premium Publishing AB. ISBN 91-89136-29-2
  12. ↑ Selostajat ja taustalaulajat läpi vuosien? (Finnish) Viisukuppila, 18 April 2005
  13. ↑ The Eurovision Song Contest (1968) - Full cast and crew IMDb
  14. ↑ Tchernia, Pierre et al. (April 6, 1968). 13ème Concours Eurovision de la Chanson 1969 [13th Eurovision Song Contest 1968] (Television production). United Kingdom: BBC, ORTF (commentary).
  15. ↑ CONCOURS EUROVISION DE LA CHANSON 1968 (French) SongContest
  16. ↑ Eurovision Song Contest 1968 Songs4Europe.com
  17. 1 2 Dyrseth, Seppo (OGAE Norway)
  18. ↑ NRK.no
  19. ↑ Uribarri comentarista Eurovision 2010 (Spanish) FORO FESTIVAL DE EUROVISIÓN
  20. ↑ Rau, Oliver (OGAE Germany)

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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