Country:	:	United Kingdom
City	:	London
Date	:	Saturday 6 April 1968
Location	:	Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom
Broadcaster	:	BBC
Host	:	Catherine (Katie) Boyle
Executive Producer	:	Tom Sloan
EBU Scrutineer	:	Clifford Brown
Director	:	Stewart Morris
Winner	:	Massiel from Spain

The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in London, United Kingdom, following the country’s first victory at the 1967 contest with the song „Puppet on a String“ by Sandie Shaw. Despite having won for the first time the year before, it was actually the third time that the United Kingdom had hosted the competition, having previously done so in 1960 and 1963, both of which also took place in London. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the contest was held at Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 6 April 1968, and was hosted by Katie Boyle for the third time. It was notably also the first time that the contest was broadcast in colour.

Seventeen countries participated in the contest, the same countries that had participated the previous year.

The winner was Spain with the song „La, la, la“ 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. With her winning reprise, she became the first winner to perform part of her song in English, in addition to the original version.

Location

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. All of Eastern Europe as well as Tunisia broadcast the contest as well.

Prior to the contest, the bookmakers were sure of another british victory, as the English singer Cliff Richard, who was already dominating the music charts at that time, was hotly tipped as the favourite to win, but in the end he lost out to Spain’s song by a margin of just one point.

Originally Massiel’s song La La La was supposed to be sung by Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat who wanted to perform the song in Catalan. At the request of Spanish officials, however, Juan Manuel was replaced by Massiel who sang the same song in Castilian (Spanish).

Participating countries

All countries that had participated in 1967 also participated in 1968.

Conductors

Each performance had a maestro who conducted the orchestra.

•  Portugal – Joaquim Luís Gomes 
•  Netherlands – Dolf van der Linden
•  Belgium – Henri Segers
•  Austria – Robert Opratko
•  Luxembourg – André Borly
•   Switzerland – Mario Robbiani
•  Monaco – Michel Colombier
•  Sweden – Mats Olsson
•  Finland – Ossi Runne
•  France – Alain Goraguer
•  Italy – Giancarlo Chiaramello
•  United Kingdom – Norrie Paramor
•  Norway – Øivind Bergh
•  Ireland – Noel Kelehan
•  Spain – Rafael Ibarbia 
•  Germany – Horst Jankowski
•  Yugoslavia – Miljenko Prohaska

Returning artists

Bold indicates a previous winner.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Isabelle Aubret	France	1962

#	Representing country	Performer(s)	Song title, writer(s) and composer(s)	Points	Place
01	PortugalRTP	Carlos Mendes	Verão	005	11
02	The NetherlandsNTS	Ronnie Tober	Morgen	001	16
03	BelgiumRTB	Claude Lombard	Quand Tu Reviendras	008	07
04	AustriaORF	Karel Gott	Tausend Fenster	002	13
05	LuxembourgCLT	Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel	Nous Vivrons D’amour	005	11
06	SwitzerlandSSR SRG	Gianni Mascolo	Guardando Il Sole	002	13
07	MonacoTMC	Line and Willy	A Chacun Sa Chanson	008	07
08	SwedenSR	Claes-Göran Hederström	Det Börjar Verka Kärlek, Banne Mej	015	05
09	FinlandYLE	Kristina Hautala	Kun Kello Käy	001	16
10	FranceORTF	Isabelle Aubret	La Source	020	03
11	ItalyRAI	Sergio Endrigo	Marianne	007	10
12	United KingdomBBC	Cliff Richard	Congratulations	028	02
13	NorwayNRK	Odd Børre	Stress	002	13
14	IrelandRTÉ	Pat McGeegan	Chance Of A Lifetime	018	04
15	SpainTVE	Massiel	La, La, La…	029	01
16	GermanyARD	Wencke Myhre	Ein Hoch Der Liebe	011	06
17	YugoslaviaJRT	Luci Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodzic	Jedan Dan	008	07

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.

Participant																		Points	Place
Portugal										2		3						5	11
The Netherlands							1											1	16
Belgium			1	1			3				1	1				1		8	7
Austria					2													2	13
Luxembourg	1			1					1						1	1		5	11
Switzerland																	2	2	13
Monaco			3			1		1							2	1		8	7
Sweden			1			4				6	1				1	2		15	5
Finland										1								1	16
France	2	6					2	3					1	3	3			20	3
Italy											1	2		2			2	7	10
United Kingdom		2	2	4	2	1	1	1	5		1		3	4	2			28	2
Norway								1				1						2	13
Ireland	4	1						1			1		4		1		6	18	4
Spain	2		3	4	6	1	3	1	4	1	4							29	1
Germany								1				2	2	1		5		11	6
Yugoslavia	1	1				3		1			1	1						8	7

Facts & figures

• The 1968 Eurovision Song Contest was not only broadcast in the participating countries, but also all of Eastern Europe and Tunisia could follow it;
• For Katie Boyle, it was already her third Eurovision Song Contest as a presenter, but not her last: Mrs. Boyle would return for yet another contest just as the unlucky Cliff Richard!

Incidents
Spanish artist replacement
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. Therefore Massiel, who was on tour in Mexico, was brought in as a late replacement. In just two weeks, she had to rush back to Spain, learn the song, record it in several languages, travel to Paris to get a dress and go to London for rehearsals. She sang the song in the contest in Spanish with the new arrangement made to fit her. In her winning reprise, she performed part of her song in English, in addition to the original version, becoming the first winner to do so.

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, 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. 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.).

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. 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.