"La, la, la"
Single by Massiel
Released1968
LabelNoxia
Songwriter(s)Manuel de la Calva, Ramón Arcusa
Eurovision Song Contest 1968 entry
Country
Artist(s)
Language
Composer(s)
Lyricist(s)
Manuel de la Calva
Ramón Arcusa
Conductor
Rafael Ibarbia
Finals performance
Final result
1st
Final points
29
Entry chronology
◄ "Hablemos del amor" (1967)
"Vivo cantando" (1969) ►

"La, la, la" is a song recorded by Spanish singer Massiel, written by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa. It is best known as the Spanish winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1968 in London. It was the first time that Spain won the Contest.[1] Massiel also released the song in English as "He Gives Me Love (La, La, La)".[2][3]

Eurovision

The performance of the song was the first of Spain's two Eurovision wins to date. The song was composed by Ramón Arcusa and Manuel de la Calva, otherwise known as the singing duo Dúo Dinámico. This was the first Eurovision Song Contest broadcast in colour, with viewers noting Massiel's backing singers in their short teal coloured dresses (from left/tallest to right/shortest, they were María Jesús Aguirre, María Dolores Arenas, and Mercedes Valimaña Macaria).[1]

"La, la, la" beat the favourite, the United Kingdom's "Congratulations", by just one point. Bill Martin (cowriter of the UK entry) called the Spanish song "a piece of rubbish".[4][5]

Joan Manuel Serrat, the artist originally chosen to perform Spain's entry, intended to sing it in Catalan. The Francoist State dictatorship would not allow this, requiring the entry should be performed in Spanish, however Serrat wanted to make a claim for the other regional languages of this country, repressed under the Francoist State. Hence the last-minute substitution of Massiel as singer.[6] It was not until 2004, when Andorra made its first entry at the semifinals, that Catalan would be heard on the contest stage.[7]

A documentary film shown on Spanish television in 2008 claimed that Caudillo Franco had had the competition fixed to ensure a victory for Spain, which would boost the country's image abroad.[8][9][10] Massiel was outraged by the allegations, insisting that she won because her song was better, and that Franco would have not been able to buy any votes for her in the first place. She also blamed the allegations on competition among Spanish TV channels.[11] José María Íñigo, the person who had made the original claims in the documentary, later retracted them, saying "If there had been such a manipulation, it would have been for a different artist who had been closer to the regime."[12]

Recordings

Massiel recorded the song in four languages; Spanish, Italian, German, all as "La, la, la", and in English, as "He Gives Me Love (La, la, la)". It was later covered by the Italian singer Mina in Radiotelevisione Italiana's 1968 variety series Canzonissima and by Finnish singer Carola. American singer Lesley Gore also recorded a version of the song that year, becoming a minor hit in the United States and Canada. The band Saint Etienne recorded another cover version, featured on the album A Song for Eurotrash (1998) with English lyrics that differ from the original, referring to the man she is dating instead of the things she is thankful for. The biggest-selling recording of the song, however, was the cover-version, performed in Spanish, by Portuguese fado star Amália Rodrigues. It was also sung by Alpay, a famous Turkish singer, in Turkish that same year as "La La La Şarkı Sözü" and released as the B side of his single "Sen Gidince" in 1969.[13] Heidi Brühl covered it in German and Marcela Laiferová in Slovak.[14]

Charts

Massiel

Chart (1968) Peak
position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[15] 8
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[16] 15
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[17] 18
Norway (VG-lista)[18] 5
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[19] 8
West Germany (Official German Charts)[20] 12

Lesley Gore

Chart (1968) Peak position
United States (Billboard) 119
United States (Cashbox) 91
United States (Record World) 96
Canada (RPM Top Singles) 86

References

  1. 1 2 "Info on "La, la, la" from Diggiloo Thrush". Diggiloo.net. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  2. ↑ Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World 2003 0826463215 "Its apogee was 'La La La' (Massiel, Spain), the 1968 winner. By the mid-1990s, when many former Communist countries were joining Eurovision, the contest had lost touch with current trends in European music."
  3. ↑ Geoff Tibballs The Good, the Bad and the Wurst 1472137078 2016 "Performing fifteenth out of the seventeen contestants was Spain's María Félix de los Ángeles Santamaría Espinosa, more conveniently known as Massiel. Her song, 'La La La', defined the term 'singalong' as it contained no fewer than 138 la's."
  4. ↑ Hayes, Jim (2021-04-10). "The top ten chart this week in 1968: A famous Eurovision song that was pipped at the post". Independent.ie. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  5. ↑ TV Hell. "Nul Points?! A Brief History of the Eurovision Song Contest". BBC documentary. (1992)
  6. ↑ Fortea, Diego (2022-05-16). "Historias de la radio: La "espantá" de Serrat en Eurovisión". Onda Cero Radio (in Spanish). Text and Audio. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  7. ↑ Busquets, Jordi Pueyo (2015-09-24). "El somni d'una Catalunya independent a Eurovisió". El País (in Catalan). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2023-05-08.
  8. ↑ "Franco stole Cliff Richard's 1968 Eurovision glory by fixing vote". Chinapost.com.tw. 2008-05-07. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  9. ↑ "Congratulations... 40 years late". BBC News. 2008-05-05. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
  10. ↑ Govan, Fiona (2008-05-04). "How Franco cheated Cliff out of Eurovision title". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 2013-01-14. Retrieved 2010-05-07.
  11. ↑ "La prensa británica se escandaliza con el tongo de Massiel". elConfidencial.com. Retrieved 2010-06-24.
  12. ↑ "Massiel e Iñigo acusan a La Sexta de 'urdir todo para favorecer a Chikilicuatre'". elmundo.es. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  13. ↑ "Discogs". Discogs.com. 1969. Retrieved 2020-05-17.
  14. ↑ "WhoSampled". whosampled.com. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  15. ↑ "Massiel – La la la" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  16. ↑ "Massiel – La la la" (in French). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  17. ↑ "Massiel – La la la" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  18. ↑ "Topp 20 Single uke 19, 1968 – VG-lista. Offisielle hitlister fra og med 1958" (in Norwegian). VG-lista. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  19. ↑ "Massiel – La la la". Swiss Singles Chart. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
  20. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Massiel – La la la" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved 2022-11-26.
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