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Message started by Nigel on May 6th, 2008 at 12:37am

Title: Cliff Richard 'Robbed' Of Eurovision Title
Post by Nigel on May 6th, 2008 at 12:37am
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.

Cliff was 'robbed' say film-makers. The veteran singer's song Congratulations was beaten to the top spot by the Spanish entry Massiel in order to boost the country's international image, a film-maker says.

Sir Cliff's song had been favourite with the judges during the contest, 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, 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 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.

But Eurovision fan Jamie McLoughlin, who runs Whoops Dragovic, a tongue-in-cheek Eurovision website, poured cold water on the documentary's new theory.

He said: "La La La was controversial from the start as it was originally to be performed in Catalan, but Franco wouldn't allow it, so the woman who eventually sang it was only brought in at the last minute.

"However, despite what the documentary may try to dig up, the more obvious answer for the landslide of votes for Spain which tipped the result Massiel's way is - rather boringly - she went on a really popular German TV show the week before the contest to perform her song, so it was the entry they were the most familiar with.

"Still, if it means Blighty can somehow get win number six from all this digging, I certainly won't complain."

All the related articles from 20 minutos are here:
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/375709/0/massiel/eurovision/franco/

The documentary will be shown on La Sexta (Channel 6) Thursday 8th May at 23:00

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