From the UK, it was pointed out again that Spain rigged the Eurovision Song Contest

Back-to-back victory bells were ringing in the UK when Cliff Richard championed the Congratulations in 1968. The La, la, la victory for Maciel (who less than a month later had to take over from Joan Manuel Serrat when he asked to sing it in Catalan) was not unexpected and he carried The singer this defeat by one point on the back, when the sounds were very different from the current ones. Since then, there has been an aura of rigging intrigue so that Francoist Spain can secure a Eurovision victory And with a continental medal. Richard was left without a victory and tried it out in 1973 (the most watched festival in the UK in all history) and again it would be just behind Spain, with third place after it’s you from Mocedades.

One of the authors of the British song from 1968 again raised the issue of buying votes so that Spain would win the first festival held in the UK. Phil Coulter, co-author of Congratulations Along with Bill Martin, he insisted, there was a strange turn in the German vote being overly generous to the Spanish cause. Coulter does not even reach the distance that Richard had in the last leg of the vote, and even confuses the points made by Germany, When he said there were seven. There were six, the maximum number that could be awarded at the time. “Germany gave Spain seven points and the UK none, which was very strange because Congratulations I was steadily gaining points all night, ”recalls the composer with a very bad memory.

he The German vote gave the UK 2 points and 6 to Spain. At that time, the 10 members of the jury gave 1 point to their favorite song, with a maximum score of 6 (the “twelve points” system was installed in 1975). After the points conversion, Yugoslavia, who intervened last, gave 6 to Ireland and none to Spain or the United Kingdom. In reality congratulations, Although it is my favourite, got 5 points from Monaco as the maximum score and was the most voted by a number of countries with one or two points in their majority. It was 12th of 16 countries, with 28 points in the final. Spain was voted for by 10 of the 16 countries, with the most generous (4 from Portugal, Monaco and France and 6 from Germany).

There were three other maximums, mentioned above from Yugoslavia to Ireland; 6 more from Belgium to France; and a classic, 6 from Norway to Sweden.

To better understand the 1968 vote, this video uses an existing board showing results for festivals at other times, when automatic rankings could not be generated.

It was a painful and unexpected defeat for Cliff Richard, however Without overwhelming evidence of fraud when 54 years later they still want to obfuscate Maciel’s victory. These German sounds have been talked about for a long time as a bargaining chip for Spain to incorporate the German PAL color system instead of the French SECAM which It wouldn’t become official until ten years later. Dubious service but easy to turn into a myth. And in the case of the UK, a black legend.