Congratulations Cliff Richard – You was robbed!

Controversy!

1968 – Eurovision

Which song should have won?

 

I can’t choose between the two songs, both are kind of catchy although, admittedly, Cliff has put a little extra work into the chorus lyrics.  How did the panels choose that year?

 

MADRID (Reuters) - Cliff Richard was robbed of victory in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest after Spanish dictator Francisco Franco fixed the vote, according to a documentary.

Richard was the bookmakers’ favourite to win with his song “Congratulations” however Spanish contestant Massiel pipped him to the title by just one point with “La La La” — Spain’s first of two victories in the competition’s 52-year history. 

“It was a fix,” the documentary’s producer Montse Fernandez Vila quoted Spanish television presenter Jose Maria Inigo as saying. “Massiel won Eurovision with bought votes.”

Spanish TV executives travelled Europe promising to buy second-rate programmes and concerts billing strange acts in return for Eurovision votes, Inigo told the documentary.

Victory was seen as vital to General Franco’s fascist regime in boosting Spain’s image abroad, Fernandez Vila said.

Bjorn Erichsen, the director of Eurovision television, the international broadcasting body responsible for the contest, said:

“Franco was really so keen for Spain to win it? We’re not talking about NATO here or the EU, or political influence, we’re talking about a pop song contest,”  Erichsen said laughing, before adding: “I can’t exclude the possibility it might be true”.

 

Did Franco do it?

 

 Yep, it was me, I did it, ha ha.

Wild as it sounds, it could be true, because not only was Franco quite capable of anything, but there’s another player in the story of Franco and the Eurovision:

….Spain only drafted Massiel in at the last moment after Joan Manuel Serrat, who was meant to sing at the London event, refused to perform “La La La” in Spanish rather than his native Catalan — a regional language repressed during the dictatorship.

Please enjoy the groovy women fighting over Joan Manuel Serrat - 1968

Joan Manuel Serrat  - Rebel? Freedom Fighter? Well, yes, as it turns out, but ultimately he’s a singer/songwriter.  While on tour in Mexico in the 70’s he spoke out against executions by rifle squad that were happening under Franco’s orders.  He was promptly exiled and remained in Mexico until Franco’s death. His defence of the Catalan language (and his music, of course) propelled him to glory in the eyes of many.  In his native city, Barcelona, the language issue is still close to people’s hearts and many signs are written in several languages.  Museums can’t fit all the languages in, and no English appears, but when they provided Catalan, my school-french came in handy…

Looks to me as if there were many winners in the 1968 Eurovision. 

Congratulations was a massive hit and in a long list of hits for Cliff Richard is one of his best known; Massiel went on to become a superstar in Spain; the world and his wife went on holiday to the Costa del Sol;

and Serrat retained his dignity and principles, promoted the use of native language on the world stage, and went on to win global acclaim for his songwriting skills in that way that is kind of underground and cool, something Cliff and Massiel’s bank balances might not envy, but most musicians would.

Asked if Eurovision would investigate, Erichsen was emphatic: “No! Just to make Cliff Richard a little happier and the Spanish winner a bit more unhappy? I don’t think you should dig up old bodies to prove he was or wasn’t the father. It’s history.”  

I’m pretty sure Cliff Richard doesn’t care.  Afterall, Franco, Massiel and Serrat can’t say this:

“I’m affectionately known by Elton John as either Sylvia Disc or the Bionic Christian.”

 

Cliff can.