Eurovision Song Contest 1968

13th Eurovision Song Contest
date	April 6, 1968
Host country	United Kingdom
venue	Royal Albert Hall , London
Broadcasting television station
Moderation	Katie Boyle
Pause filler	London impressions in picture and sound
participating countries	17th
winner	Spain
Voting rule	Each country provided 10 judges. Each jury member voted with one point for a single title.
◄ ESC 1967 • ESC 1969 ►

The 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was the 13th since the start of this music competition between the Eurovision countries . It took place on April 6, 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall in London , as last year's winner Sandie Shaw had come from the United Kingdom. The Spaniard Massiel won with her song La, la, la . The event, which was broadcast in color for the first time , was hosted by Katie Boyle .

Massiel was the first Eurovision winner to present her song at the Siegesreprise in a bilingual version, in Spanish and English. The English version of “La, la, la” is entitled “He gives me love” and was also released as a vinyl single (and meanwhile also on CD).

particularities

Originally, the later winning song was supposed to be performed by the Catalan Joan Manuel Serrat . However, since he insisted on singing in Catalan , the Spanish dictator Franco forbade him to take part, and so Massiel, already popular in Spain and Latin America, took over. A television documentary also claims that Franco bought jury votes to win Allow Spain.

Interestingly, the winning title should be subsequently disqualified because of a plagiarism allegation: Both the melody and parts of the text are therefore taken from the song Death of a Clown by Ray Davies and Dave Davies . The whole thing came to nothing.

Although the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast live in black and white, it was the first contest to be broadcast in color thanks to a color change.

In addition, the competition was broadcast live for the first time from all Intervision countries in the Eastern Bloc. Tunisia, an associate member of the EBU, also broadcast the show live.

Some actors on a BBC comedy series dressed up and claimed to be Albania's delegation. You were actually granted probationary time. The dizziness was only revealed when they sang a jazz version of the British contribution Congratulations on stage .

Attendees

participating countries

Countries that had participated in a previous ESC, but not in 1968

As in the previous year, seventeen countries took part in the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 in London.

Voting procedure

The same voting procedure was used as in the previous year. In each country there were again 10 jury members who were each allowed to give one vote to a song. The results were communicated by telephone and publicly.

Placements

space	Start number	country	Interpreter	Title (M = music; T = text)	language	translation	Points
01.	15th	Spain	Massiel	La, la, la M / T: Manuel de la Calva, Ramón Arcusa	Spanish	-	29
02.	12	United Kingdom	Cliff Richard	Congratulations M / T: Bill Martin, Phil Coulter	English	Congratulations	28
03.	10	France	Isabelle Aubret	La source M: Daniel Faure; T: Henri Dijan, Guy Bonnet	French	The source	20th
04th	14th	Ireland	Pat McGeegan	Chance of a Lifetime M / T: John Kennedy	English	Chance of a life	18th
05.	08th	Sweden	Claes-Göran Hederström	Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej M / T: Peter Himmelstrand	Swedish	Damn it's starting to look like love	15th
06th	16	BR Germany	Wencke Myhre	A high of love M: Horst Jankowski ; T: Carl J. Schäuble	German	-	11
07th	03	Belgium	Claude Lombard	Quand tu reviendras M: Jo van Wetter; T: Roland Dero	French	When you come back	08th
07th	07th	Monaco	Line & Willy	À chacun sa chanson M: Jean-Claude Oliver; T: Rolande Valade	French	Each his own song	08th
07th	17th	Yugoslavia	Luci & Hamo	Jedan dan M: Djelo Jusić, Stipica Kalogjera; T: Stijepo Strazicic	Croatian	A single day	08th
10.	11	Italy	Sergio Endrigo	Marianne M / T: Sergio Endrigo	Italian	-	07th
11.	01	Portugal	Carlos Mendes	Verão M: Pedro Osório; T: José Alberto Diogo	Portuguese	summer	05
11.	05	Luxembourg	Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel	Nous vivrons d'amour M: Carlos Leresche; T: Jacques Demarny	French	We will live on love	05
13.	04th	Austria	Karel Gott	Thousand Windows M: Udo Jürgens ; T: Walter Brandin	German	-	02
13.	06th	Switzerland	Gianni Mascolo	Guardando il sole M: Aldo D'Addario; T: Sanzio Chiesa	Italian	Looking at the sun	02
13.	13	Norway	Odd Børre	Stress M: Tor Hultin; T: Ola B. Johannessen	Norwegian	-	02
16.	02	Netherlands	Ronnie Tober	Tomorrow M: Johnny Holshuyzen; T: Gerrit the Braber	Dutch	-	01
16.	09	Finland	Kristina Hautala	Kun kello käy M: Esko Linnavalli; T: Juha Vainio	Finnish	When the time goes by	01

Scoring

Sustaining land		Forgiving country
country	Total	POR	NLD	BEL	AUT	LUX	SUI	MCO	SWE	FIN	FRA	ITA	GBR	NOR	IRL	ESP	GER	YUG
Portugal	05	-												2		3
Netherlands	01		-									1
Belgium	08th	1		-						1	1	3	1			1
Austria	02				-												2
Luxembourg	05		1		1	-		1			1		1
Switzerland**	02						-											2
Monaco	08th		2			1		-		3			1		1
Sweden	15th	1	1						-	1			2	6th	4th
Finland	01									-				1
France	20th		3	6th	2	3	3		1		-	2
Italy	07th	1					2					-				2		2
United Kingdom	28	1	2	2		1	4th	5	3	2	4th	1	-		1		2
Norway	02					1								-		1
Ireland	18th	1	1	1	4th	1			4th						-			6th
Spain	29	4th			2	1		4th		3	4th	3		1	1	-	6th
BR Germany	11					1	1		2				5			2	-
Yugoslavia	08th	1		1	1	1									3	1		-

* The table is arranged vertically according to the order of appearance, horizontally according to the chronological scoring.

• • There was a display error in the scoring that was caused by the "programmers".

See also

• List of winners and events of the Eurovision Song Contest

Web links

• Eurovision.tv
• Eurovision.de
• diggiloo.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sir Cliff Richard was cheated of victory in the Eurovision Song Contest of 1968 by General Franco's fascist regime which rigged the contest to boost Spain's image, a documentary has claimed
2. ↑ Sir Cliff Richard was robbed of 1968 Eurovision glory by fascist Franco, claims film-maker
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jan Feddersen: A song can be a bridge . 1st edition. Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-455-09350-7 . P. 94.