Franco and the 1968 Eurvision Fix

by Dave Keating | May 6, 2008 at 11:56 pm

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Many have complained about the voting system failure of the modern Eurovision song contest, but it would appear that before the advent of SMS and internet voting the results were even more unfair. A new documentary has made the allegation that Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain as an iron-fisted dictator for decades, fixed the 1968 Eurovision song contest so that Spain would win. Many at that time believed that the runner up, Cliff Richard from the United Kingdom, was robbed.

In hindsight it does seem improbable that Spain's entry, Massiel's "La La La" could have won legitimately. Beyond being an incredibly dull and insipid song (even by Eurovision standards) the singer had also been replaced at the last minute with someone who would sing the song in high Spanish (Castilian) rather than Catalan, which had been the original plan. Franco supressed the Catalan language, spoken in and around Barcelona in Spain.

A new documentary has claimed that Sir Cliff Richard lost out in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest

because of a fix.
Producer Montse Fernandez Vila alleged that Spanish dictator Francisco Franco bought votes to ensure the Spanish entrant Massiel won the competition with the track 'La La La'.

Richard's song 'Congratulations' - the favourite to win the music contest, and one of the most commerically successful tunes ever entered - came second.