Elmbridge
| TOP STORIES |  | | | | | | | FEATURES | | | | | | MAYOR NEWS | | | | BIZARRE LONDON | | | TRAVEL | | | | COMPETITIONS | | |
|
|
|
'Fascists stole Sir Cliff's Eurovision victory'
 |
| Sir Cliff Richards |
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.
3:39pm Monday 5th May 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: Jean, Tooting on 11:02am Tue 6 May 08
Its time Cliff got over himself.Last week we heard that DJs were not playing his records,now we hear this.Does he really think he is that important
Its time Cliff got over himself.Last week we heard that DJs were not playing his records,now we hear this.Does he really think he is that important
Posted by: Alyson Mead, Elmbridge on 8:14am Thu 8 May 08
Cliff's opinion doesn't even feature in this story, so I think you're being grossly unfair Jean. I would imagine that it wouldn't bother him in the least. He's one of the least inflated popstars we have. Pity we don't have more of them.
Cliff's opinion doesn't even feature in this story, so I think you're being grossly unfair Jean. I would imagine that it wouldn't bother him in the least. He's one of the least inflated popstars we have. Pity we don't have more of them.
Posted by: mary fletcher, derby england on 11:44am Sat 10 May 08
I'm with you Alyson I should think Cliff had a good laugh when he heard about this.
I'm with you Alyson I should think Cliff had a good laugh when he heard about this.
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
