Eurovision Song Contest 1968
The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 6 April 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, United Kingdom, and presented by Katie Boyle. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union and host broadcaster the British Broadcasting Corporation, who staged the event after winning the for the with the song "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw. Despite being the UK's first win at the contest, it was actually the third time that the BBC had hosted the competition, having previously done so in and, both of which also took place in London and were presented by Katie Boyle. It was the first time the event was broadcast in colour. Broadcasters from 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.
Location
The British Broadcasting Corporation staged the 1968 contest in London, after winning the for the with the song "Puppet on a String" by Sandie Shaw. The venue selected was the Royal Albert Hall. This concert 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 venue had a capacity of 7,000 seats.Participants
Broadcasters from seventeen countries participated in the 1968 contest, the same countries that had participated in 1967.The contest featured one representative who had previously performed as lead artists for the same country. Isabelle Aubret had won Eurovision for.
Originally Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española entered Joan Manuel Serrat to sing "La La La", but after he demanded to sing the song in Catalan at the contest, 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 a 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,, ended with the song "Jeg har aldri vært så glad i noen som deg" winning performed by both Kirsti Sparboe and Odd Børre. However the composer, Kari Diesen withdrew the song due to receiving multiple accusations of plagiarism of the song "Summer Holiday" by Cliff Richard. NRK internally selected the runner-up song in the selection, "Stress" to participate in the contest instead, and Odd Børre was chosen as the singer.
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter | Conductor |
| ORF | Karel Gott | "Tausend Fenster" | German | |||
| RTB | Claude Lombard | "Quand tu reviendras" | French | |||
| YLE | "Kun kello käy" | Finnish | Ossi Runne | |||
| ORTF | Isabelle Aubret | "La Source" | French | Alain Goraguer | ||
| HR | Wencke Myhre | "Ein Hoch der Liebe" | German | Horst Jankowski | ||
| RTÉ | Pat McGeegan | "Chance of a Lifetime" | English | John Kennedy | Noel Kelehan | |
| RAI | Sergio Endrigo | "Marianne " | Italian | Sergio Endrigo | Giancarlo Chiaramello | |
| CLT | and | "Nous vivrons d'amour" | French | André Borly | ||
| TMC | "À chacun sa chanson" | French | Michel Colombier | |||
| NTS | Ronnie Tober | "Morgen" | Dutch | Dolf van der Linden | ||
| NRK | Odd Børre | "Stress" | Norwegian | Øivind Bergh | ||
| RTP | Carlos Mendes | "Verão" | Portuguese | |||
| TVE | Massiel | "La La La" | Spanish | Rafael Ibarbia | ||
| SR | Claes-Göran Hederström | "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej" | Swedish | Mats Olsson | ||
| SRG SSR | Gianni Mascolo | "Guardando il sole" | Italian | Mario Robbiani | ||
| BBC | "Congratulations" | English | Norrie Paramor | |||
| JRT | Lući Kapurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić | "Jedan dan" | Serbo-Croatian | Miljenko Prohaska |
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 vote.
Contest overview
| Country | Artist | Song | Votes | Place | |
| 1 | "Verão" | 5 | 11 | ||
| 2 | "Morgen" | 1 | 16 | ||
| 3 | "Quand tu reviendras" | 8 | 7 | ||
| 4 | "Tausend Fenster" | 2 | 13 | ||
| 5 | and Sophie Garel | "Nous vivrons d'amour" | 5 | 11 | |
| 6 | "Guardando il sole" | 2 | 13 | ||
| 7 | Line and Willy | "À chacun sa chanson" | 8 | 7 | |
| 8 | "Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mej" | 15 | 5 | ||
| 9 | "Kun kello käy" | 1 | 16 | ||
| 10 | "La Source" | 20 | 3 | ||
| 11 | "Marianne " | 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 | "Ein Hoch der Liebe" | 11 | 6 | ||
| 17 | "Jedan dan" | 8 | 7 |
Spokespersons
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1968 contest are listed below.- Gay Byrne
- Michael Aspel
Detailed voting results
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 and 200 million.Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel | Commentator | |
 AustriaN/A| |