Intro Post

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This is going to be my last Eurovision blog post before I leave for my trip to Eurovision 2025! When I get home, my plan is to make not just a blog post, but a full-fledged video about how the trip went, then write a pair of blog posts reviewing each song in the contest.

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Introduction

Though the United Kingdom had hosted Eurovision twice already, 1968 was their first opportunity to host right after winning, and they were clearly intent on pulling off another win. Eurovision 1968 was hosted in the Royal Albert Hall in London, a concert hall opened in 1871 with a seating capacity of over 5000. It’s an impressively sized audience for its time and there are multiple floors of seats, as you can see in the broadcast. I bet it must have been an unforgettable experience in the arena! The show had the same presenter as the last two British contests, Katie Boyle, and it’s most notable as the first Eurovision contest to be broadcast in color. This means we’ll finally get to see what horrific color choices some contestants have been making. And hopefully a few nice outfits too.

The contest featured the same 17 countries as last year: all the previous participants over the years but no Denmark. The voting system is the same as last year too: each county has ten jurors who vote for one country each, but never their own. In third place came France with a returning winner, in second came the UK with the legendary Cliff Richard, and beating him by one point we have Massiel from Spain. This is the first year where Spain won the contest and the only year where they were the only winner, which means that of the countries that have already won, Spain hasn’t won in the longest. The result came as a shock to Eurovision viewers, even more to Cliff Richard himself, and it led to a bunch of conspiracy theories.

The show begins with an upbeat orchestral reprise of last year’s winner “Puppet on a String”, and as usual I enjoy the arrangement a lot. Then enters Katie Boyle to introduce the show in her usual British fashion, and after just five minutes the songs begin.

The BBC broadcast the contest without commentary this year, but unfortunately we don’t have a copy of the uncommentated broadcast. On YouTube, I could find full commentary from Norway and Sweden in color, Spain in grayscale, and a few snippets of France’s commentary in color. Last time I watched it with Norwegian commentary, so this time I’ll watch with the other commentary viewable in color, which is from Sweden and done by Christina Hansegård. I wonder how much of it I’ll understand? I picked up on a decent amount of the language throughout the middle third of 2024, partly due to my Eurovision trip that year. I think I caught her saying that the contest will be broadcast in color in seven countries, among them Sweden? See, I’m fairly good. The trick is a little something called context clues.

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Portugal: Verão

Artist: Carlos Mendes, who will grow a beard four years later

Language: Portuguese

Key: E♭ major

My ranking: 11th

I remember this being a really good year, but I also remember it having a weak opener, which is this song. It’s a song of three sections, the third about the same as the first. I don’t really like the starting and ending sections of this, because of the stompy beat and repetitive piano. But I somewhat like the middle section because it’s some proper funky 1960’s pop, which is very refreshing after most contests of the 60’s were ballad soup.

Thanks past me for saying this is the first Portuguese entry with a guttural R (like in French or German), instead of a rolled R! I didn’t even notice it this time. That’s a great example of a linguistic change you can track through Eurovision.

Netherlands: Morgen

Artist: Ronnie Tober

Language: Dutch

Key: D major, E major, F major

My ranking: 13th

And now we have the first of many baffling fashion choices this night. Carlos Mendes’ black suit looks nice and normal, but Ronnie’s all-white ensemble looks fairly bizarre. It’s not the worst color for a suit, as we’ll see a few songs later.

I totally agree with my past self here, this is a nothing song. And the reason it’s so nothing is because it feels like a repeated chorus and uses key changes in lieu of proper buildup. I’m not surprised it scored a tied last place with one point, but the other last place is undeserved.

Apparently the word “morgen” means both “morning” and “tomorrow” in Dutch, just like in German, which doesn’t surprise me. If you’re wondering how to say “tomorrow morning” in German, it’s “morgen früh” (tomorrow early). In Dutch apparently it’s “morgenochtend”.

Belgium: Quand tu reviendras

Artist: Claude Lombard. I didn’t know Claude could also be a woman’s name.

Language: French

Key: D minor

My ranking: 2nd. I surprised myself with this ranking!

Clearly I didn’t give enough respect to this song the first time around. This song is an absolute piece of beauty that most fans sadly overlook. In my round 1 review I criticized the song for not progressing beyond the initial freeform style, but now I feel that wasn’t fair. When I reached the song in round 2, it hit me straight into the heart. The entire song being freeform works in its favor, because it means the song knows what it wants to be and doesn’t smush multiple concepts into one.

In his review, Vlad says this is the kind of music you’d hear in a tavern in a video game, and that’s a perfect way to describe it. This lady tells a story about her hopes that her love will return to her, but it’s done in the fashion of a fairytale and has lots of metaphors about nature. At the end, she sings that she knows her love will be back and never leave him again, because she loves him, and I can easily feel for her. I actually like this the more I listen to it, which is a very good sign. Her style of freeform singing works really well and gives the song progression. The studio version sounds basically the same as the orchestral version, both in terms of instrumental and vocals, which is good because it means I can interchangeably listen to both.

This song scored eight points in a three-way tie for seventh place, which isn’t a bad result at all. I’d say the song deserved a bit better, but I’m OK with this result because the song was always going to have niche appeal. Songs like this are why I’m glad I’m doing my Eurovision blog a second time. Some entries, I just didn’t appreciate the first time for some reason. That said, I am definitely cutting the reviews short after 2019, because there’s no need to review 2020 onwards all over again. For those years, I’ll just publish rankings with short commentary.

I was originally going to rank this song third, but then I swapped its ranking with Sweden as you’ll see later. It’s amazing how quickly this grew on me!

Austria: Tausend Fenster

Artist: Karel Gott, surprisingly a Czech

Language: German

Key: E♭ minor, F minor

My ranking: 9th

Neither of the songs in German this year are by native German speakers. This one is sung by Karel Gott, who was a national treasure in the Czech Republic but also became popular in the German-speaking countries by making songs in German. He always sang them with a strong Slavic accent, as is the case in this song. Unfortunately, that means I have a bit of trouble understanding the lyrics here. The other German-speaking singer this year has a foreign accent so light she avoids this problem.

This is the secret fourth Udo Jürgens entry. He didn’t sing this, but it’s the fourth Eurovision entry that he composed. Maybe he hoped he could pull a Johnny Logan this year, or I guess two-thirds of a Johnny Logan? Before Johnny Logan was in Eurovision of course. In any case, it’s easy to tell Udo Jürgens composed this song: it has the exact same dreary yet hopeful ballad sound. It almost sounds like it’ll have minor key verses and a major key chorus, but it stays in minor throughout and only has a tinge of major key in the chorus. It’s not too bad as far as ballads go, but just a bit too over-the-top for me, especially with that drawn-out ending.

This song has a Czech version called “Vítám vítr v údolí”. It sounds to me like the real version of the song because he’s singing in his native language, but unfortunately I don’t speak a word of Czech. And I mentioned last time Udo Jürgens made a cover of it in German, and it also sounds like the real version of the song. In that version it’s way easier to understand what he’s singing, for obvious reasons. But it’s fairly sappy in that Udo Jürgens way.

Luxembourg: Nous vivrons d’amour

Artist: Chris Baldo and Sophie Garel

Language: French

Key: F major, F♯ major

My ranking: 17th (last)

This got five whole points, above some songs? How the actual fuck? Do the juries think the song is automatically good just because it’s in French? Or maybe, just maybe, they have the same sense of humor as me and explode in laughter from really bad songs. This song is hilariously bad and I really can’t say much new about it, so I’ll just quote my previous review:

As far as romantic couple songs go, this one is unintentionally funny because it’s very imbalanced. I’d go as far to describe it as so bad, it’s good. The man and woman don’t get equal time to sing; instead, it alternates between verses sung by Chris and choruses sung by both. Sophie doesn’t get any verses to herself. Chris sounds happy and enthusiastic throughout, but Sophie sounds totally bored. Chris’s singing isn’t perfect either; he sings in swing rhythm throughout, even though the verses are in straight rhythm. It gets even funnier when you realize these two were never actually married, and Sophie was never actually a singer; she was just a radio host who Chris hired for this song for some reason. Throughout, Sophie looks like she’s thinking “when will this be over?”

Of course this song has a fucking key change that repeats the last chorus with nothing else. It’s such a cliché in love songs, and I find it hilarious that this song does it. If you thought only 21st century Eurovision had hilariously bad songs, then you’re wrong! At the end, Chris kisses Sophie on the cheek and proudly bows, then Sophie reluctantly bows. I think the song is unintentionally about a lopsided romantic relationship.

In short, this song is objectively horrible, but it absolutely cracks me up so I can’t hate it too much. Actually, in round 2 it made me cringe and laugh at the same time. Since 1968 is a really good year, this will go at my bottom regardless.

Switzerland: Guardando il sole

Artist: Gianni Mascolo

Language: Italian

Key: F major, F♯ major

My ranking: 16th

This dude cracks me up too, he’s almost like the new Fud Leclerc. He smirks his way throughout the song as if he thinks it’s the greatest piece of music ever penned, but he’s not at all memorable for anything other than his weird smirking. The song itself is just your usual DAF ballad, yet he overemotes the fuck out of it. It’s almost as hilariously weird as Luxembourg’s entry. Oh, and it has another bombastic ending because of course it does. Dramatic long note, crazy series of chords, you know the drill. The song is so musically forgettable that I’ve chosen to rank it second last.

I’m still absolutely baffled by his bright orange suit. It’s such a hideous color of suit to wear, but Julio Iglesias would wear a suit in an even worse color two years later. His thick red glasses are an odd match with the suit too. As I said in round 1: His red glasses make him look like either a businessman or the host of a science TV show. I’m pretty sure he’s neither of those things.

Monaco: À chacun sa chanson

Artist: Line and Willy (Line van Menen and Claude Boillod)

Language: French

Key: D major, E♭ major, F♯ major

My ranking: 5th

It’s insane how much better of a romantic duet this is than Luxembourg. It’s like Monaco is showing us the right way to do a romantic duet. As I said in round 1: It’s a genuine romantic couple duet whose singers both look happy to be there. The singers get equal amounts of vocal time, they alternate between singing individually and together, and their hand gestures and vocals harmonize well. The man plays some nice guitar parts too. I’m a massive sucker for vocal harmonies—they’re part of why I love so many 70’s Eurovision songs. That era of Eurovision was when multi-singer songs became more common, and that was an excellent change. I’d like to add that the melodies and lyrics are so much more inspired than Luxembourg, and unlike Chris and Sophie, these two have geniune romantic chemistry on stage. They really were a romantic couple (I can’t figure out if they were married), but they split in 1976.

I don’t just want to compare the song against Luxembourg’s piece of crap, so I’ll say that this is also a lovely duet in itself. I’m surprised this got only three more points than Luxembourg.

Sweden: Det börjar verka kärlek, banne mig

Artist: Claes-Göran Hederström

Language: Swedish

Key: D♭ major, D major, E♭ major. Two three-key songs in a row!

My ranking: 3rd

At the start, I believe the Swedish commentator said that other commentators may struggle to pronounce the title. It’s intimidatingly long, yes, but if you listen to the song enough times, you’ll know how to say it.

I almost chose this as my winner of 1968 in round 1, and I’ve questioned since then if I should’ve chosen this as my winner. In the end I made a different choice, as you can see near the end of this post, but I’m happy putting this third place.

I’ve seen this song described as a cult classic before, and I can totally see why. It’s not particularly famous, but it’s absolute loads of fun! It’s a playful Christmas-sounding tune about a man who sees tropes all around him that look like love, and questions whether they mean something. He comes off like a charming actor on stage and is enjoying himself without breaking character. I normally am not a fan of double key changes, but I’m OK with them in a playful song like this. There must have been constraints on how much the contestants are allowed to dance, because I feel like he’d do more than swing and snap his fingers if he were allowed to.

Finland: Kun kello käy

Artist: Kristina Hautala

Language: Finnish

Key: A minor in the verses, D major in the chorus

My ranking: 4th

Maybe I’ve overdosed on this song, because I originally had it as my winner but have moved it down to fourth place. But it’s still a lovely song and did NOT deserve a tied last place. I love the contrast between the swing rhythm in the verses and straight rhythm in the chorus, I love the crazy unusual chords, and I love how expressive this young lady is. I can’t understand a word this young lady is singing because it’s in Finnish, but I can tell she’s serious and a little quirky about what she’s singing about. The lyrics are about her fear that her romance will end as time goes by, but I don’t need to understand them to enjoy the song. The juries felt differently though, because they’re biased against Finland.

France: La source

Artist: Isabelle Aubret, the winner of 1962

Language: French

Key: G major, A♭ major

My ranking: 10th

This is one of those entries best known for the lyrics covering an unusual subject. As I said in round 1, Isabelle tells a fairytale about a woman who was attacked in a forest by three werewolves, then found unconscious the next morning. According to her, legend has it that the source of a river gushed out of her body the next day, “if one should believe this story”. Many people interpret those lyrics as an allegory for rape.

As is common with returning winners, Isabelle Aubret is a charismatic performer who knows what she’s doing. She comes across like a mysterious storyteller at first, but as the song progresses, she seems like she’s as curious as the listener is whether this story really happened. Unfortunately, the song itself isn’t as interesting as the performance: it’s too slow-paced and saccharine. As I said last time, there may be artistic merit in the dissonance between lyrics and instrumental, but it’s nicer when the two match each other.

Italy: Marianne

Artist: Sergio Endrigo

Language: Italian

Key: F♯ major, G major

My ranking: 15th

I feel Italy’s entries had a noticeable drop in quality once they stopped sending Sanremo winners, which began in 1967. They did still send the singer who won Sanremo for a few years (like this one), but gave the singer a different song. This is just an overly restrained DAF ballad that goes in one ear and out the other. The lyrics are about his love interest who barely seems to care about him and are dramatic in an Italian way, so maybe it needed a more dramatic performer like Mr. Volare. Then the song still wouldn’t be my thing, but it would be more memorable.

United Kingdom: Congratulations

Artist: Cliff Richard

Language: English

Key: A major, B♭ major

My ranking: 8th

God dammit, my round 1 review of the song was really well-written already, so what am I supposed to say this time? I won’t rehash my original review, just read my round 1 post for that. So instead, I’ll make some new observations about the song.

First off, I’ll point out once again that this has the same duo of songwriters as “Puppet on a String” from last year. As much as I’m not a fan of the first British winner, I can’t deny that the chorus and verse are both extremely memorable. This song is more pleasant overall, but it has a big problem: the chorus is insanely catchy, with the string riffs after each line and the lovely harmonies with the backing singers, but the verses almost don’t exist to me. And there’s one part near the end that annoys me, which is the exaggerated slowdown in the final chorus. That said, this is a fun and pleasant song that’s easy to listen to, as is the case with most of the early UK entries.

I find it strange how shaky Cliff Richard is on stage. I think he was so certain he would win that he couldn’t hold his excitement, so when he lost by one point, he was absolutely heartbroken and remained a sore loser ever since. He’s the archetypical sore loser of Eurovision history. John Lundvik in 2019, Natalia Barbu in 2024, and most recently Måns Zelmerlöw in Melodifestivalen 2025 each have a Cliff Richard inside of them. I’m kind of glad this didn’t win, because Spain winning is one hell of a curveball, and it proves that a song that may seem like an obvious winner won’t necessarily take the prize. Cliff Richard didn’t even need to win the contest, because he’s one of the most famous British singers ever and has a successful career to this day, as he’s 84 years old.

Norway: Stress

Artist: Odd Børre

Language: Norwegian

Key: E♭ major predominantly, I think, probably. I’m still fairly stumped.

My ranking: 12th

Erica hates the fuck out of this song, which makes sense because it’s as Erica-repellent as a song can be without being a ballad. Meanwhile, I’ve never been too sure how to feel about it, so I’ll read what I said in round 1 and see if I feel the same. Here’s what I said:

It’s a creative song, but I would have liked it a little more if it stuck more closely to one genre. This song feels like it’s halfway between a pop song and a tense film score, and compositionally it’s all over the place. Surely it could have been simplified a little while keeping the frantic tone.

All over the place… now THAT is the problem with this song. When I’m stumped on what to say on a Eurovision song, I like to secretly read someone else’s review and see if they said anything that makes me go “aha, you’re right!”, then yoink it into my own post. Works with reading my past reviews too! This will go pretty low on my ranking since it’s chaotic and fairly annoying to my ears, but not quite at the bottom. It’s at least preferable to the DAF ballads and Luxembourg’s horrible drivel. It helps that the slower section in the middle is really nice, though I wish that part was longer.

Ireland: Chance of a Lifetime

Artist: Pat McGeegan

Language: English

Key: E♭ major, F major

My ranking: 14th

Oh hey, is this Noel Kelehan’s first year a conductor? He looks so young here! No wait, this is his third year, but still.

Ireland decided not to change what’s working, so they sent their fourth male ballad in 6/8 time. He’s a good singer, but the tune is boring and predictable, and doesn’t have clever lyrics like their last entry. The ballads bore me even more when they’re in a year heavy in upbeat songs, like this one. The progression of this song also feels a little flat.

Spain: La la la (the winner)

Artist: Massiel (María de los Ángeles Felisa Santamaría Espinosa)

Language: Spanish, though it was originally going to be in Catalan

Key: C major and C minor in alternation; D♭ major at the end

My ranking: 6th

In round 1, I was able to catch the Norwegian commentator discussing the language controversy in this song, but the Swedish commentator didn’t mention it. She just described the song as optimistic (very easy to recognize that word), not much else.

Even though the British fans weren’t expecting anyone other than Cliff Richard to win, I can understand why this took the prize. Eurovision is all about making a good first impression, and this song does so perfectly. The verses are moody and introspective, yet the chorus goes properly upbeat and has a great catchy melody. I love the way her voice, the backing singers, and even the trumpets harmonize together. Then the bombastic conclusion actually feels earned, for once. It’s nowhere near my winner of the year, but I actually like it better than “Congratulations” because the chorus is so dramatic and there’s no annoying slowdown.

Germany: Ein Hoch der Liebe

Artist: Wencke Myrhe, a Norwegian

Language: German, plus repeated phrases in French, English, and Italian

Key: F♯ major, G major, A♭ major (studio version: F major, F♯ major, G major)

My ranking: 1st. Second time putting my country on top!

I’m gonna admit something: this lady is hot as hell. She looks dazzling in her spunky yellow dress. But I promise that’s not why I ranked the song first. The main reason is because she absolutely owns the stage for all three minutes and beams with charisma every second of the way. She’s one of those singers who performs the cheesiest schlagers you can imagine and totally owns it. In her time it was popular for Scandinavian singers to boost their career by releasing songs in German, which is why we have a few of them representing Germany in Eurovision. When she’s having so much fun on stage, I don’t care how cheesy the song is, I’ll join in on the fun. She sings about how amazing it feels to fall in love and uses some clever hooks to make the song catchy: the multilingual part of course, but also the part about “das erste/zweite/dritte Mal” (the first, second, and third time).

If you listen to the studio version and then the orchestral version, you can see that the arrangers went the extra mile with orchestration. The intro is completely different, the transition from verse to chorus is made more bombastic, and the instrumentation is completely changed. Arranging a Eurovision song for the orchestra is a tricky assignment, and the types of arrangements I love the most are either the most faithful ones or the most cleverly reworked. Yet it was the studio version that I made an 8-bit cover of, and it came out well enough but I’ve done much better than that. I have to wonder if “Quand tu reviendras” from Belgium would’ve made a better cover for 1968, because it sounds slightly like video game music. Or maybe not, because the song is so freeform? I think I could’ve made it work.

In any case, I love watching her perform, I love listening to this song, and I love this overall. It got sixth place which is a pretty good result, but I think it deserved just a bit better.

In terms of the studio version, I actually prefer Belgium (my runner-up) over this. But this song is so wonderfully orchestrated and performed that I’ve placed it first.

Yugoslavia: Jedan dan (Један дан)

Artist: Luci Capurso and Hamo Hajdarhodžić

Language: Serbo-Croatian (Croatian)

Key: D major, E major

My ranking: 7th

These guys used traditional Balkan instruments before it was cool! Props to these guys for making Yugoslavia not send a dreary ballad for once, but something distinctly Slavic. In round 1 I described this as a cross between a folk song and a sports chant, but now I’d describe this as a choral canon with a distinctive communist flair. It’s something of a fan favorite among old Yugoslav entries. I sometimes see it in personal winner compilations, but not as often as “Congratulations”.

This isn’t nearly as good as these guys seem to think it is, going by their expressions, but it’s fun enough and I like the harmonies and use of a Balkan guitar. I bet the song is nostalgic to those who grew up in the communist half of Europe, even though most people from these countries never want to go back to those days. What I don’t like much is the flute solo: it plays just the same melody as the orchestra and can barely be heard anyway.

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My full ranking

This year was a lot of fun to rank! I surprisingly gave not one, but two songs a 9/10. At this point, my winner is almost a toss-up between my top two:

This is the first year with four songs above 8/10! The most songs an 8 or higher before then was 1956, which had three. And believe me, I wasn’t expecting to give “Quand tu reviendras” a nine.

Rest of the show:

The interval act is an arrangement of English folk tunes related to London, played by the orchestra. It’s notable as the first interval act where we see footage outside the arena, since for most of the music viewers are treated to some scenery of London. I miss when each show had one interval act, partly because it’s fun to see which use pre-recorded footage and which not, but mostly because I’m an interval act purist. This is the kind of interval act where I can just relax and think about all the great songs I just heard.

Katie Boyle does her usual clear, efficient, and subtly humorous explanation of the voting, then a particularly famous voting sequence begins. The scoreboard design this year is a little odd with all the wood, but I lowkey love it. It’s simple and to the point, showing just the country names and scores, which is all we need to see (though an indicator of who’s delivering the votes helps too). I like the contrast between the old-timey serif font of the country names and the modern humanist font of the scores. And I like that it actually fits into the screen this time.

I bet British viewers were expecting the voting sequence to be a curb-stomp battle like last year, but even early in the voting sequence it was clear this would be a tight race. First France gained a big lead, then the UK slowly snatched the lead (which made the audience scream in delight), but thanks to the second-last jury from Germany, Spain caught up and beat Cliff Richard by one point. The Yugoslav jury responded by awarding no points to Spain or the UK, which ensured that Massiel would win (and then Clifford Brown had to correct their votes). This is the kind of voting sequence I love to rewatch, even though I know how it ends. The last few voting countries ensured no one ended with zero points, which is also nice.

There was a clear mismatch between the audience’s opinions and the final results. You can hear from their reaction that they all wanted Cliff Richard to win, and I don’t think that’s just because they’re the home crowd. The home crowd is normally excited about their entry, but not this excited. I can’t help but be reminded of the voting sequence of 2023, where the biggest crowd pleaser “Cha Cha Cha” also landed in second, but I already discussed this in my 2023 review. So “La la la” is probably one of the wrongest winners in Eurovision history, but I actually ranked it higher than “Congratulations” which proves everyone’s tastes are different. And imagine how thrilled the Spanish viewers must have been at the end!

Sandie Shaw enters the stage wearing a horrific dress that looks like an unfinished dinosaur costume, then she passes the prize to a lady in an actually nice dress named Massiel. She has a little chat with Sandie in the background which we can’t hear, then sings her winning song full of enthusiasm. Oh, one more thing! This was actually the first year where the winner changed the language in their reprise a little bit. In one of the choruses, she sings “he gives me love, la la la la la la / I feel his arms wrapped around me”, which turns out to be part of the lyrics of the English version. Nice way to please the home crowd! The credits are a joy too, with the handwriting font that includes diacritics and the crazy orchestral music.

General thoughts:

It’s a shame we don’t have an uncommentated copy of the broadcast, but we’ve already seen Katie Boyle’s excellent hosting twice already so we aren’t missing too much. The BBC put on a great show as usual: vibrant stage design, camerawork that shows both the lead and backing singers, and a clever touch where we see a silhouette of the artist’s face projected onto the wall. I bet viewers in 1968 saw the projected faces and wondered, how is that even possible? That’s one thing that never changes about Eurovision, the mind-blowing technology. Not only was the show well-produced, the song lineup is delightful and the show ends with an iconic plot twist.

I still love this year just as much as I did in round 1. As I said in my last review: It featured the right mix of genuine bangers, boring songs, and the downright bizarre, which is the peak Eurovision experience. If some songs are boring, that makes the good songs and bizarre songs shine brighter. I’m glad to know the year still holds up after having seen all Eurovision years up to 2024.

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My next Eurovision review will most likely be of the 2025 contest, but I’m not sure how long I’ll wait after the show ends till I write it. See you for that, eventually! And I’ll probably review Eurovision 1969 again after that.

>> 1969: The Year That Almost Killed the Contest