Joenoir

'Fascists stole' Cliff's Euro title
The Press Association 5 May 2008

Sir Cliff Richard was robbed of victory in the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest due to vote rigging by General Franco's fascist regime, a documentary has claimed.
The British singer's tune Congratulations was beaten to the top spot by Spanish entrant Massiel in order to boost the country's international image, a film-maker said.
Sir Cliff's song had been a favourite with the judges during the competition held at the Royal Albert Hall, but lost out on the title by just one point following a last minute rally in votes for Spain.
In a documentary aired on Spanish TV on Sunday night, director Montse Fernandez Vila claimed Spain's win was "bought" by corrupt executives working for state-run television.
Ms Fernandez Vila told Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos that executives travelled round Europe pledging to buy series from other nations to help steer the voting.
She said there was evidence that Franco thought a win would help improve the Spanish regime's international standing.
Despite coming second to Massiel's La La La, Congratulations went on to become a UK number-one hit for Sir Cliff in 1968 and topped the charts in many other countries.
The song stayed at number one in Germany for seven weeks and sold more than one million copies.

Mark O

News to me!.........though I guess anything could happen under Franco's fascist regime.......

Here is lovely Massiel with the 68 Eurovision winning song!

YouTube - 1968 Massiel - "La, la, la"

Mark

billy bentley

I was wondering why this story was on the BBC World Service today. What's that John Cooper Clarke line - "The Fascists won and by Christ we payed..." from his "Mallorca".

davidb

dont various countries always help each other out with votes regardless of the quality of the song on eurovision ?

Joe Fraguela

Too true, just look at the Baltic Countries and the Eastern European Bloc. I dare say this year's Eurovision voting will be much the same. The contest is still entertaining.

Joe Fraguela

Although, I enjoyed Massiel's winning song. My favourite song from the 1968 contest is La Source, France's entry sung by Isabelle Aubret who won it in 1962.

homeguard

Seeing as we put him into power, you'd have thought he would have been a little more grateful. Fancy sticking one up our Cliff! Now that's a.........
Regards,
HG

dremble wedge

Crikey, what next?

Did Galtieri keep Vienna off #1 for Joe Dolce?

homeguard

Not sure, but I heard it was the London Brick Company Mafiose from Bedfordshire that did that! Or maybe it was more of a fun tune. Certainly it was all the audiences at our gigs wanted to hear at the time, (and easier to play).
Regards,
HG

billy bentley

I have no sympathy for any competition that inflicted "All Kinds Of Everything" on the general population and me in particular. I'm sure Dana is a nice person, but as they say "the road to hell is paved with good intenetions".

Moor Larkin

She appeared to be, surrounded by her grandchildren, on some prog not so long ago.

dremble wedge

Terry Hall and Sinead O'Connor covered this.

Beware an irony overload...

Jackdaw

The sad thing about St. Cliff, is that he would have regarded winning the Eurocrap contest as one of the highlights of his career.
A real Dougie Squires New Generation type of pop artiste.