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  • 21 Aug, 2019

  • By, Wikipedia

Nous Vivrons D'amour
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.

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

Royal Albert Hall, London - host venue of the 1968 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.

Participating countries

Further information: List of countries in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest 1968 – Participation summaries by country

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

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. The Norwegian national selection, Melodi Grand Prix, ended with Kirsti Sparboe and Odd Børre winning with the song "Jeg har aldri vært så glad i noen som deg". However the composer, Kari Diesen withdrew the song due to receiving multiple accusations of plagiarism of the song "Summer Holiday" by Cliff Richard. The runner-up song in the selection, "Stress" would perform in the contest instead, where Odd Børre was chosen to be the singer.

Eurovision Song Contest 1968 participants
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
  • Roland Dero
  • Jo Van Wetter
 Henri Segers
 Finland YLE Kristina Hautala "Kun kello käy" Finnish
Ossi Runne
 France ORTF Isabelle Aubret "La Source" French
Alain Goraguer
 Germany HR 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
  • Jacques Demarny
  • Carlos Leresche
 André Borly
 Monaco TMC Line and Willy "À chacun sa chanson" French
  • Jean-Claude Olivier
  • Roland Valade
 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
  • José Alberto Diogo
  • Pedro Osório
 Joaquim Luís Gomes
 Spain TVE Massiel "La La La" Spanish
  • Ramón Arcusa
  • Manuel de la Calva
 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
  • Sanzio Chiesa
  • Aldo D'Addario
 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. 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

Results of the Eurovision Song Contest 1968
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.

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.

Detailed voting results
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. 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, with an estimated global audience of between 150 to 200 million.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Austria ORF FS1
 Belgium RTB RTB Paule Herreman
RTB 1
BRT BRT
 Finland YLE TV-ohjelma 1 Aarno Walli [fi]
Ruotsinkielinen ulaohjelma
 France ORTF Deuxième Chaîne Pierre Tchernia
France Inter
 Germany ARD Deutsches Fernsehen
 Ireland RTÉ RTÉ Brendan O'Reilly
RTÉ Radio
 Italy RAI Secondo Programma Renato Tagliani [it]
 Luxembourg CLT Télé-Luxembourg
 Netherlands NTS Nederland 1 Elles Berger [nl]
 Norway NRK NRK Fjernsynet, NRK Roald Øyen
 Portugal RTP RTP
 Spain TVE TVE 1, TVE Canarias Federico Gallo [es]
RNE Radio Peninsular de Barcelona [es] José María Íñigo
 Sweden SR Sveriges TV Christina Hansegård [sv]
  Switzerland SRG SSR TV DRS Theodor Haller [de]
TSR Georges Hardy [fr]
TSI
Radio Beromünster Albert Werner
 United Kingdom BBC BBC1 No commentator
BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 Pete Murray
BFBS BFBS Radio Thurston Holland
 Yugoslavia JRT Televizija Beograd
Televizija Ljubljana
Televizija Zagreb
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries
Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Ref(s)
 Czechoslovakia ČST ČST Miroslav Horníček
 East Germany DFF DFF
 Hungary MTV MTV
 Malta MBA MTS, National Network
 Poland TP Telewizja Polska
 Puerto Rico WKAQ
 Romania TVR TVR

Notes

  1. ^ On behalf of the German public broadcasting consortium ARD
  2. ^ Deferred broadcast on NRK at 22:30 (CET)
  3. ^ Deferred broadcast on TVE Canarias the following day at 22:35 (WET)
  4. ^ Delayed broadcast on 8 April at 22:30 (CET)
  5. ^ Re-broadcast in colour on BBC2 on the following day at 16:30 (BST)
  6. ^ Delayed broadcast on 20 April 1968 at 20:30 (CET)
  7. ^ Delayed broadcast on 30 April 1968 at 20:30 (AST)

References

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