Cliff Loses by a Single Point and Complains for Fifty Years

MAY 15 1968 · 12:00

Cliff Richard · "Congratulations" · United Kingdom · 1968 Placement: 2 · Score: 28 · Language: English · Composers: Bill Martin, Phil Coulter · Venue: Royal Albert Hall · Host: London, United Kingdom · Type: upset · Broadcast: color analog Cliff, 27, UK's biggest pop star at the height of his Young Ones / Bachelor-Boy era, takes the Royal Albert Hall home stage in a chocolate-brown Nehru suit. 'Congratulations' is pure stadium-ready celebration. The BBC orchestra lifts him. The juries score him 28 points. Spain's Massiel gets 29. Cliff loses Eurovision on home soil by a single point — the margin that reshapes his relationship with the contest forever. Context Bill Martin and Phil Coulter had already co-written UK Eurovision entry 'Puppet on a String' in 1967 (winner). The BBC deliberately paired them with Cliff as an insurance policy. Franco's Spain was the shadow favorite — later persistent (unproven) allegations hold that Spanish state television bought Eastern-bloc jury votes to secure the win. Legacy 'Congratulations' became an everlasting UK wedding and birthday staple, outselling 'La La La' in global record sales by a wide margin. Cliff returned in 1973 with 'Power to All Our Friends' and finished 3rd. He has said in interviews as recently as 2023 that the 1968 loss still stings. The Spain vote-buying allegation was revived in the 2008 TVE documentary '1968: I Lived The Spanish May'. Mythology The Franco vote-buying allegation is classic Eurovision apocrypha — documented in a 2008 Spanish TVE documentary but never independently corroborated, and persistently repeated by Cliff himself.