| Eurovision Song Contest | |
| Year: | 1968 |
| Final: | 6 April 1968 |
| Presenters: | Katie Boyle |
| Musdirector: | Norrie Paramor |
| Director: | Stewart Morris |
| Exsupervisor: | Clifford Brown |
| Exproducer: | Tom Sloan |
| Winner: | "La La La" |
| Vote: | Ten-member juries distributed ten points among their favourite songs. |
| Host: | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Venue: | Royal Albert Hall London, United Kingdom |
| Entries: | 17 |
| Debut: | None |
| Return: | None |
| Nonreturn: | None |
| Map Nosemis: | Y |
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 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 and, 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.
Seventeen countries participated in the contest, the same countries that had participated the previous year.
The winner was 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.
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]
All countries that had participated in 1967 also participated in 1968.
Originally Spanish broadcaster Spanish; Castilian: [[Televisión Española]]|i=unset (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]
| + Participants of the Eurovision Song Contest 1968[4] [5] [6] | |||||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Conductor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | Karel Gott | "German: Tausend Fenster|i=unset" | German | Robert Opratko | |||
| RTB | Claude Lombard | "French: Quand tu reviendras|i=unset" | French | Henri Segers | |||
| YLE | "Finnish: Kun kello käy|i=unset" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | ||||
| ORTF | Isabelle Aubret | "French: La Source|i=unset" | French | Alain Goraguer | |||
| HR | Wencke Myhre | "German: Ein Hoch der Liebe|i=unset" | German | Horst Jankowski | |||
| RTÉ | Pat McGeegan | "Chance of a Lifetime" | English | John Kennedy | Noel Kelehan | ||
| RAI | Sergio Endrigo | "Italian: [[Marianne (Sergio Endrigo song)|Marianne]]|i=unset" | Italian | Sergio Endrigo | Giancarlo Chiaramello | ||
| CLT | Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel | "French: Nous vivrons d'amour|i=unset" | French | André Borly | |||
| TMC | Line and Willy | "French: À chacun sa chanson|i=unset" | French | Michel Colombier | |||
| NTS | Ronnie Tober | "Dutch; Flemish: Morgen|i=unset" | Dutch | Dolf van der Linden | |||
| NRK | Odd Børre | "Stress" | Norwegian | Øivind Bergh | |||
| RTP | Carlos Mendes | "Portuguese: Verão|i=unset" | Portuguese | Joaquim Luís Gomes | |||
| TVE | Massiel | "La La La" | Spanish | Rafael Ibarbia | |||
| SR | Claes-Göran Hederström | "Swedish: Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej|i=unset" | Swedish | Peter Himmelstrand | Mats Olsson | ||
| SRG SSR | Gianni Mascolo | "Italian: Guardando il sole|i=unset" | Italian | Mario Robbiani | |||
| BBC | "Congratulations" | English | Norrie Paramor | ||||
| JRT | Lući Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić | "Jedan dan|i=unset" (Један дан) | Serbo-Croatian | Miljenko Prohaska |
Bold indicates a previous winner.
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. 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.
| + Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1968[7] | ||||||
| Country | Artist | Song | Points | Place | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Portuguese: Verão|i=unset" | 5 | 11 | |||
| 2 | "Dutch; Flemish: Morgen|i=unset" | 1 | 16 | |||
| 3 | "French: Quand tu reviendras|i=unset" | 8 | 7 | |||
| 4 | "German: Tausend Fenster|i=unset" | 2 | 13 | |||
| 5 | and Sophie Garel | "French: Nous vivrons d'amour|i=unset" | 5 | 11 | ||
| 6 | "Italian: Guardando il sole|i=unset" | 2 | 13 | |||
| 7 | Line and Willy | "French: À chacun sa chanson|i=unset" | 8 | 7 | ||
| 8 | "Swedish: Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej|i=unset" | 15 | 5 | |||
| 9 | "Finnish: Kun kello käy|i=unset" | 1 | 16 | |||
| 10 | "French: La Source|i=unset" | 20 | 3 | |||
| 11 | "Italian: [[Marianne (Sergio Endrigo song)|Marianne]]|i=unset" | 7 | 10 | |||
| 12 | "Congratulations" | 28 | 2 | |||
| 13 | "Stress" | 2 | 13 | |||
| 14 | "Chance of a Lifetime" | 18 | 4 | |||
| 15 | Massiel | "La La La" | 29 | 1 | ||
| 16 | "German: Ein Hoch der Liebe|i=unset" | 11 | 6 | |||
| 17 | "Jedan dan|i=unset" | 8 | 7 |
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.
| + Detailed voting results[10] [11] | |||||||||||||||||||
| scope="col" | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ||||||||||||
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.
| + Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries | ||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORF | FS1 | [13] | ||
| RTB | RTB | Paule Herreman | ||
| BRT | BRT | [14] | ||
| YLE | Finnish: [[Yle TV1|TV-ohjelma 1]]|i=unset | [15] [16] | ||
| Finnish: Ruotsinkielinen ulaohjelma|i=unset | ||||
| ORTF | French: [[France 2|Deuxième Chaîne]]|i=unset | Pierre Tchernia | ||
| France Inter | [17] | |||
| ARD | German: [[Das Erste|Deutsches Fernsehen]]|i=unset | |||
| RTÉ | RTÉ | Brendan O'Reilly | [18] [19] | |
| RTÉ Radio | ||||
| RAI | Italian: [[Rai 2|Secondo Programma]]|i=unset | [20] | ||
| CLT | French: [[RTL9|Télé-Luxembourg]]|i=unset | [21] | ||
| NTS | Dutch; Flemish: [[NPO 1|Nederland 1]]|i=unset | [22] | ||
| NRK | Norwegian: [[NRK1|NRK Fjernsynet]]|i=unset, NRK | Roald Øyen | [23] | |
| RTP | RTP | [24] | ||
| TVE | TVE 1, TVE Canarias | [25] [26] [27] | ||
| José María Íñigo | [28] | |||
| SR | Swedish: [[SVT1|Sveriges TV]]|i=unset | |||
| SRG SSR | TV DRS | [29] | ||
| TSR | [30] | |||
| TSI | [31] | |||
| DRS 1 | Albert Werner | [32] | ||
| BBC | BBC1 | [33] | ||
| BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 | Pete Murray | [34] [35] | ||
| JRT | [[RTS1 (Serbian TV channel)|Televizija Beograd]]|i=unset | [36] | ||
| Slovenian: [[Radiotelevizija Slovenija|Televizija Ljubljana]]|i=unset | [37] | |||
| [[HRT 1|Televizija Zagreb]]|i=unset | [38] | |||
| + Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries | |||||
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ČST | ČST | Miroslav Horníček | [39] [40] | ||
| DFF | DFF | [41] | |||
| MTV | MTV | [42] | |||
| MBA | MTS, National Network | [43] [44] | |||
| TP | Polish: [[TVP1|Telewizja Polska]]|i=unset | [45] | |||
| WKAQ | [46] | ||||
| TVR | TVR | [47] | |||