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 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.
| Eurovision Song Contest 1968 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Dates | |
| Final | 6 April 1968 |
| Host | |
| Venue | Royal Albert Hall London, United Kingdom |
| Presenter(s) | Katie Boyle |
| Musical director | Norrie Paramor |
| Directed by | Stewart Morris |
| Executive supervisor | Clifford Brown |
| Executive producer | Tom Sloan |
| Host broadcaster | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Website | eurovision |
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 17 |
| Debuting countries | None |
| Returning countries | None |
| Non-returning countries | None |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. |
| Winning song |  Spain"La La La" |
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.
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. At the time of the contest in 1968, the hall had a capacity of 7,000 seats.[1]
Participating countries
| Eurovision Song Contest 1968 – Participation summaries by country | |
|---|---|
All countries that had participated in 1967 also participated in 1968.[2]
Originally Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) 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 Castilian 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.[2][3]
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Austria | ORF | Karel Gott | "Tausend Fenster" | German |
| Robert Opratko |
 Belgium | RTB | Claude Lombard | "Quand tu reviendras" | French |
| Henri Segers |
 Finland | YLE | Kristina Hautala | "Kun kello käy" | Finnish |
| Ossi Runne |
 France | ORTF | Isabelle Aubret | "La Source" | French |
| Alain Goraguer |
 Germany | HR[a] | Wencke Myhre | "Ein Hoch der Liebe" | German |
| Horst Jankowski |
 Ireland | RTÉ | Pat McGeegan | "Chance of a Lifetime" | English | John Kennedy | Noel Kelehan |
 Italy | RAI | Sergio Endrigo | "Marianne" | Italian | Sergio Endrigo | Giancarlo Chiaramello |
 Luxembourg | CLT | Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel | "Nous vivrons d'amour" | French |
| André Borly |
 Monaco | TMC | Line and Willy | "À chacun sa chanson" | French |
| Michel Colombier |
 Netherlands | NTS | Ronnie Tober | "Morgen" | Dutch |
| Dolf van der Linden |
 Norway | NRK | Odd Børre | "Stress" | Norwegian |
| Øivind Bergh |
 Portugal | RTP | Carlos Mendes | "Verão" | Portuguese |
| Joaquim Luís Gomes |
| Spain | TVE | Massiel | "La La La" | Spanish |
| Rafael Ibarbia |
 Sweden | SR | Claes-Göran Hederström | "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej" | Swedish | Peter Himmelstrand | Mats Olsson |
 Switzerland | SRG SSR | Gianni Mascolo | "Guardando il sole" | Italian |
| Mario Robbiani |
 United Kingdom | BBC | Cliff Richard | "Congratulations" | English | Norrie Paramor | |
 Yugoslavia | JRT | Lući Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić | "Jedan dan" (Један дан) | Serbo-Croatian |
| Miljenko Prohaska |
Returning artists
Bold indicates a previous winner.
| Artist | Country | Previous year(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Isabelle Aubret | France | 1962 |
Format
1968 was the first time that the Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast in colour.[1] 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. Many Eastern European countries as well as Tunisia broadcast the contest.
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.
Contest overview
| R/O | Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Portugal | Carlos Mendes | "Verão" | 5 | 11 |
| 2 | Netherlands | Ronnie Tober | "Morgen" | 1 | 16 |
| 3 | Belgium | Claude Lombard | "Quand tu reviendras" | 8 | 7 |
| 4 | Austria | Karel Gott | "Tausend Fenster" | 2 | 13 |
| 5 | Luxembourg | Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel | "Nous vivrons d'amour" | 5 | 11 |
| 6 | Switzerland | Gianni Mascolo | "Guardando il sole" | 2 | 13 |
| 7 | Monaco | Line and Willy | "À chacun sa chanson" | 8 | 7 |
| 8 | Sweden | Claes-Göran Hederström | "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej" | 15 | 5 |
| 9 | Finland | Kristina Hautala | "Kun kello käy" | 1 | 16 |
| 10 | France | Isabelle Aubret | "La Source" | 20 | 3 |
| 11 | Italy | Sergio Endrigo | "Marianne" | 7 | 10 |
| 12 | United Kingdom | Cliff Richard | "Congratulations" | 28 | 2 |
| 13 | Norway | Odd Børre | "Stress" | 2 | 13 |
| 14 | Ireland | Pat McGeegan | "Chance of a Lifetime" | 18 | 4 |
| 15 | Spain | Massiel | "La La La" | 29 | 1 |
| 16 | Germany | Wencke Myhre | "Ein Hoch der Liebe" | 11 | 6 |
| 17 | Yugoslavia | Lući Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić | "Jedan dan" | 8 | 7 |
Spokespersons
Each country nominated a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1968 contest are listed below.
Finland – Poppe Berg[10]
Sweden – Edvard Matz[11]
United Kingdom – Michael Aspel[5]
Detailed voting results
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.
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 | ||||||||||||
Broadcasts
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[14]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below. In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in Tunisia, and in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union via Intervision.[5][1]
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | ORF | FS1 | [15] | |
| Belgium | RTB | RTB | Paule Herreman | [16] |
| BRT | BRT | [17] | ||
| Finland | YLE | TV-ohjelma 1 | Aarno Walli | [18][10] |
| Ruotsinkielinen ulaohjelma | [18] | |||
| France | ORTF | Deuxième Chaîne | Pierre Tchernia | [16] |
| France Inter | [19] | |||
| Germany | ARD | Deutsches Fernsehen | [16] | |
| Ireland | RTÉ | RTÉ | Brendan O'Reilly | [20][21] |
| RTÉ Radio | [20] | |||
| Italy | RAI | Secondo Programma | Renato Tagliani | [22] |
| Luxembourg | CLT | Télé-Luxembourg | [16] | |
| Netherlands | NTS | Nederland 1 | Elles Berger | [23] |
| Norway | NRK | NRK Fjernsynet, NRK[b] | Roald Øyen | [24] |
| Portugal | RTP | RTP | [25] | |
| Spain | TVE | TVE 1 | Federico Gallo | [26][27] |
| Radio Peninsular | José María Íñigo | [26][28] | ||
| Sweden | SR | Sveriges TV | Christina Hansegård | [11][24] |
| Switzerland | SRG SSR | TV DRS | Theodor Haller | [29] |
| TSR | Georges Hardy | [30] | ||
| TSI | [31] | |||
| DRS 1[c] | Albert Werner | [32] | ||
| United Kingdom | BBC | BBC1[d] | No commentator | [33] |
| BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 | Pete Murray | [35][36] | ||
| Yugoslavia | JRT | Televizija Beograd | [37] | |
| Televizija Ljubljana | [38] | |||
| Televizija Zagreb | [39] | |||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Czechoslovakia | ČST | ČST | Miroslav Horníček | [40][41] |
 Hungary | MTV | MTV | [42] | |
 Malta | MBA | MTS, National Network | [43][44] | |
 Poland | TP | Telewizja Polska | [45] | |
 Puerto Rico | WKAQ[e] | [46] | ||
 Romania | TVR | TVR | [47] | |
Notes
References
External links
