Reviewing every Eurovision Song Contest Winner (1967, 1968)

I'm not going to finish this project before the start of this year's Eurovision as I'd hoped, but we'll reach the end eventually!

1967.  Sandie Shaw, "Puppet On a String" (United Kingdom). 

After five runner-up finishes in the contest, the UK finally notched their first win with a song so irresistibly catchy, there's no way it could fail to win.   It's one of those rare songs that not only leads off with the chorus, but due to its incessant rhythm -- a half-cabaret, half oom-pah-pah beat that never lets up -- its structured almost like one long chorus.  The verses and bridge funnel effortlessly back into the chorus which funnels back into the absurdly silly yet alluring lyrics of the verses and so on.  On the precipice of the Summer of Love, Sandie Shaw is performing barefoot and wearing a wide flower child dress cut at the knee, completely forgoing the typical formal dress of the competition.  "Puppet On a String" is easily the most earworm-y Eurovision winner thus far.  Oddly enough, Shaw hated the song but it scarcely mattered -- it became a worldwide smash, was re-recorded (by her) in four other languages and by others in dozens more, and was the most popular Eurovision song ever to that point.  "Puppet On a String" completely dispensed with any pretense of being a highbrow entry in a genteel music competition.  It's designed to be as catchy as humanly possible, defying you to change the channel if you heard it on the radio, no more and no less.  That formula would be copied by countless Eurovision entries, not to mention pop radio hits, over the next few decades and up to the present day.  9/10. 


1968.  Massiel, "La la la" (Spain).

The first ESC TV broadcast in colour!  Predictably enough, there was some fallout from Sandie Shaw's memorable win the year before, coming in the form of a near copycat performance.  They checked off all the boxes: young girl in a cropped dress with three cute background singers, simple and catchy chorus repeated ad infinitum, vaguely hippie-ish rock edge, and so on.  Of course, the copy is rarely as good as the original. The plan makes sense in a devious, playing to the lowest common denominator kind of way.  How dumb and mindless can we make the chorus?  Do we even need to write words for the chorus?  How about nothing but "la la la" repeated 9483 times?  It'll transcend culture and language!  There's literally nothing of worth in this song, and your enjoyment purely depends on how much of a kick you get out of the never ending lalala's.  Did the composers get some inspiration from "Hey Jude", released the same year?  "Hey Jude" had a lot more going for it than the one syllable at the end.

Conspiracy theorists believe that Franco fixed the contest this year to improve Spain's image.  "La la la" beat Cliff Richard's "Congratulations" by a single point, denying the UK the first ever back-to-back win in Eurovision.  Indeed, Cliff Richard's frilly collar and incredible charisma blew Massiel off the stage that year. 5/10.