• Dates – Grand Final: Saturday, 06 April 1968 – 20:00 CET
• Host – Venue & Location: Royal Albert Hall, London, 🇬🇧 United Kindom
• Presenter (s): Katie Boyle 
• Musical Director: Norrie Paramor
• Director: Stewart Morris
• Executive Producer: Clifford Brown
• Executive Supervisor: Tom Sloan
• Multicamera Director: Stewart Morris
• Host broadcaster: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• Interval Act: Impressions from London
• Participants – Number of entries: 17 [🇧🇪 Belgium (13ª), 🇫🇷 France (13ª), 🇩🇪 Germany (13ª), 🇮🇹 Italy (13ª), 🇳🇱 The Netherlands (13ª), 🇨🇭 Switzerland (13ª), 🇦🇹 Austria (12ª), 🇬🇧 United Kindom (11ª), 🇲🇨Monaco (10ª), 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (12ª), 🇳🇴 Norway (9ª), 🇫🇮 Finland (8ª), 🇪🇸 Spain (8ª),  Yugoslavia (8ª), 🇵🇹 Portugal (5ª), 🇮🇪 Ireland (4ª), 🇸🇪 Sweden (10ª)]
• Debuting countries: —
• Return: —
• Non-returning countries: —
• Vote – Voting system: Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. Each participating country had 10 jury members, and each jury member could award one point to one song.
• Nil Points: —
• Winning song: “La, la, la” – Massiel – 🇪🇸 Spagna (1ª)

About. The thirteenth Eurovision Song Contest which took place in the Royal Albert Hall in London was the first Eurovision Song Contest to be broadcast in colour. The bookmakers were sure of another British victory since Cliff Richard – who had dominated the European charts for several years already – decided to represent his native country.

Congratulations… with your second place!. France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom broadcast the 1968 contest in colour despite the fact that very few TV-viewers at home owned a colour TV set. However, colour was here to stay and all song contests since then have been broadcast primarily in colour. Some countries hired foreign singers to sing for them: Germany was represented by Norwegian Wenche Myhre and Austria’s entry was performed by Karel Gott from Prague.

About the winner. The 1968 Eurovision Song Contest turned out to have a nailbiting finish when the United Kingdom entry and big favourite Congratulations by Cliff Richard was beaten by just one point by Spain’s Massiel. Originally Massiel’s song “La La La” was supposed to be sung by Spanish singer Joan Manuel Serrat who wanted perfom the song in Catalan. At the request of Spanish officials, Juan Manuel was replaced by Massiel who sang the same song in Spanish.

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 would also do!

o/r	country	participant (s)	song – translage – language	Points	rank
01	🇵🇹 Portugal RTP	Carlos Mendes	Verão (Summer) Portuguese	005	01
02	🇳🇱 The Netherlands NTS	Ronnie Tober	Morgen (Tomorrow) Dutch	001	16
03	🇧🇪 Belgium RTB	Claude Lombard	Quand tu reviendras (When you come back) French	008	07
04	🇦🇹 Austria ÖRF	Karel Gott	Tausend fenster (One thousand windows) German	002	13
05	🇱🇺 Luxembourg CLT	Chris Baldo & Sophie Garel	Nous vivrons d’amour (We will live by love) French	005	11
06	🇨🇭 Switzerland SSR SRG	Gianni Mascolo	Guardando il sole (Looking into the sun) Italian	002	13
07	🇲🇨 Monaco TMC	Line & Willy	À chacun sa chanson (To everyone his song) French	008	07
08	🇸🇪 Sweden SR	Claes-Göran Hederström	Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej (It’s beginning to look like love, damn it) Swedish	015	05
09	🇫🇮 Finland YLE	Kristina Hautala	Kun kello käy (When time goes by) Finnish	001	16
10	🇫🇷 France ORTF	Isabelle Aubret	La source (The source) French	020	03
11	🇮🇹 Italy RAI	Sergio Endrigo	Marianne Italian	007	10
12	🇬🇧 United Kindom BBC	Cliff Richard	Congratulations English	028	02
13	🇳🇴 Norway NRK	Odd Børre	Stress Norwegian	002	13
14	🇮🇪 Ireland RTÉ	Pat McGeegan	Chance of a lifetime English	018	04
15	🇪🇸 Spain TVE	Massiel	La, la, la Spanish	029	01
16	🇩🇪 Germany ARD	Wencke Myhre	Ein hoch der liebe (A toast to love) German	011	06
17	Yugoslavia JRT	Dubrovački Trubaduri (Дубровачки трубадури, Luciano ‘Lući’ Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić)	Jedan dan (Један дан, One day) Serbo-Croatian	008	07

Partecipazione mancate

• 🇳🇴 Norway: “Jag Har Aldri Vært Så Glad I No’en Som Deg” (Norwegian) – Odd Børre. “Stress” originally finished second in the 1968 Melodi Grand Prix on 3 March, but was promoted to the Norwegian entry when the winning song “Jag har aldri vært så glad i no’en som deg” was withdrawn from the contest by its composer amid persistent allegations that it plagiarised the 1963 hit “Summer Holiday” by Cliff Richard – who ironically was the United Kingdom’s singer in the 1968 contest. This is the only occasion on which the MGP winner did not go forward to Eurovision.

• 🇪🇸 Spain: “La la la” (Spanish – Catalan) – Joan Manuel Serrat. Originally, the artist chosen to perform “La, la, la” at Eurovision was singer-songwriter Joan Manuel Serrat. However, he intended to sing the song in Catalan. The Franco dictatorship would not allow this – and insisted that the entry should be performed in Spanish, official language for all the territories of Spain, although Serrat wanted to claim for the other regional languages of this country, repressed under the Franco dictatorship. On 29 March 1968, one week before the contest, Massiel was asked to replace Joan Manuel Serrat as Spain’s representative at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Participation map

Participating countries   Countries that participated in the past but not in 1968

ESC 1968 Scoreboard Ι Detailed voting results:

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.

1.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.

2.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).

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

3.1.Conductors. Each performance had a maestro who conducted the orchestra.

3.2.Returning artists.

Artist	Country	Previous year(s)
Isabelle Aubret	🇫🇷 France	1962

3.3.Participants and results.

3.4.All the national selections for Eurovision Song Contest 1968: 

• National Selections in 1968:

COUNTRY	EVENT	WINNER
🇧🇪 Belgium	Eurosong 1968	Claude Lombard – “Quand tu reviendras“
🇫🇮 Finland	(Finnish Selection 1968)	Kristina Hautala – “Kun kello käy“
🇮🇪 Ireland	(Irish Selection 1968)	Pat McGeegan – “Chance of a Lifetime”
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nationaal Songfestival 1968	Ronnie Tober – “Morgen“
🇳🇴 Norway	Melodi Grand Prix 1968	Odd Børre – “Stress”
🇵🇹 Portugal	Grande Prémio TV da Canção 1968	Carlos Mendes – “Verão“
🇸🇪 Sweden	Melodifestival 1968	Claes-Göran Hederström – “Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig“
🇨🇭 Switzerland	Concours Eurovision 1968	Gianni Mascolo – “Guardando il sole“
🇬🇧 United Kindom	A Song for Europe 1968 (song selection) [a]	Cliff Richard – “Congratulations”
Yugoslavia	Jugovizija 1968	Dubrovački Trubaduri (Luci Capurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić) – “Jedan dan” (Један дан)

• Internal Selections in 1968: 

3.5.Connections:

4.Voting. 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

		Total score
C o n t e s t a n t s	🇵🇹 Portugal	5													2		3
	🇳🇱 The 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 Kindom	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

4.1.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.

5.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)	–
🇦🇹 Austria	FS1	Willy Kralik
🇧🇪 Belgium	RTB	French: Paule Herreman
	BRT	Dutch: Herman Verelst
🇫🇮 Finland	TV-ohjelma 1	Aarno Walli
🇫🇷 France	Deuxième Chaîne ORTF	Pierre Tchernia	–
🇩🇪 Germany	Deutsches Fernsehen	Hans-Joachim Rauschenbach
🇮🇪 Ireland	RTÉ	Brendan O’Reilly
	RTÉ Radio	Kevin Roche
🇮🇹 Italy	Secondo Programma	Renato Tagliani
🇱🇺 Luxembourg	Télé-Luxembourg	Jacques Navadic
🇲🇨 Monaco	Télé Monte Carlo	Pierre Tchernia
🇳🇱 The Netherlands	Nederland 1	Elles Berger
🇳🇴 Norway	NRK	Roald Øyen
🇵🇹 Portugal	RTP	Fialho Gouveia
🇪🇸 Spain	Primera Cadena	Federico Gallo
	Radio Nacional	José María Íñigo	–
🇸🇪 Sweden	Sveriges TV	Christina Hansegård	–
🇨🇭 Switzerland	TV DRS	German: Theodor Haller
	TSR	French: Georges Hardy
	TSI	Italian: Giovanni Bertini
🇬🇧 United Kindom	BBC1	No commentary	–
	BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2	Pete Murray	–
Yugoslavia	Televizija Beograd	Serbo-Croatian: Miloje Orlović
	Televizija Zagreb	Serbo-Croatian: Mladen Delić
	Televizija Ljubljana	Slovene: Tomaž Terček

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	–
🇧🇬 Bulgaria	BT	Unknown	–
🇨🇿 CZECHOSLOVAKIA	ČST	Unknown	–
East Germany	Deutscher Fernsehfunk	Unknown	–
🇭🇺 Hungary	RTV	Unknown	–
🇵🇱 POLAND	TVP	Unknown	–
🇷🇴 ROMANIA	TVR	Unknown	–
Soviet Union	CT USSR	Igor Kirillov	–
Tunisia	RTT	Unknown	–

6.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)

7.Incidents.

7.1.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.

7.2.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.^[20] 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.

6.Notes.

• [a] Cliff Richard was internally selected to represent United Kingdom at Eurovision 1968. Richard performed all six songs on the show A Song for Europe 1968, and the public could vote via postcards. The result was announced one week later.

7.Trivial / Fun facts.

• Spain’s cleverly titled, La La La from 1968 contained no fewer than 138 la’s; The first Eurovision that was broadcast in color, was the 1968 contest at the Royal Albert Hall.
• The 1968 contest was not just broadcast in the participating countries. Eastern Europe and Tunisia could also watch.
• For Katie Boyle, it was already her third contest as a presenter, but not her last.
• Mrs. Boyle would return for yet another contest as would the unlucky Cliff Richard!

← Eurovision Song Contest 1967 • Eurovision Song Contest 1968 • Eurovision Song Contest 1969 →
Countries (in order of appearance)
Final	Portugal ⦁ The Netherlands ⦁ Belgium ⦁ Austria ⦁ Luxembourg ⦁ Switzerland ⦁ Monaco ⦁ Sweden ⦁ Finland ⦁ France • Italy ⦁ United Kingdom ⦁ Norway ⦁ Ireland ⦁ Spain (winner) ⦁ Germany • Yugoslavia
Artists (in order of appearance)
Final	Carlos Mendes ⦁ Ronnie Tober ⦁ Claude Lombard ⦁ Karel Gott ⦁ Gianni Mascolo ⦁ Claes-Göran Hederström ⦁ Kristina Hautala ⦁ Isabelle Aubret • Sergio Endrigo ⦁ Cliff Richard ⦁ Odd Børre ⦁ Pat McGeegan ⦁ Massiel (winner) ⦁ Wencke Myrhe • Luci Capurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić
Songs (in order of appearance)
Final	“Verão” ⦁ “Morgen” ⦁ “Quand tu reviendras” ⦁ “Tausend Fenster” ⦁ “Nous vivrons d’amour” ⦁ “Guardando il sole” ⦁ “À chacun sa chanson” ⦁ “Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig” ⦁ “Kun kello käy” ⦁ “La source” • “Marianne” ⦁ “Congratulations” ⦁ “Stress” ⦁ “Chance of a Lifetime” ⦁ “La, la, la” (winner) ⦁ “Ein Hoch der Liebe” • “Jedan dan” (Један дан)
Non-participating entries: Norway: Odd Børre – “Jag Har Aldri Vært Så Glad I No’en Som Deg” ⦁ Spain: Joan Manuel Serrat – “La la la”