She also blamed the allegations on competition among Spanish TV channels. 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.
Ī 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. It was not until 2004, when Andorra made its first entry, that Catalan would be heard on the contest stage. Hence the last-minute substitution of Massiel as singer. The Francoist State dictatorship would not allow this – and insisted that the entry should be performed in Spanish (which is in fact the language of Castile), official language for all the territories of Spain, although Serrat wanted to make a claim for the other regional languages of this country, repressed under the Francoist State. Joan Manuel Serrat, the artist originally chosen to perform Spain's entry, intended to sing it in Catalan. Bill Martin (writer of the UK entry) called the Spanish song "a piece of rubbish". "La, la, la" beat the favourite, the United Kingdom's " Congratulations", by just one point. 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). The song was composed by Ramón Arcusa and Manuel de la Calva, otherwise known as the singing duo Dúo Dinámico.
The performance of the song was the first of Spain's two Eurovision wins to date.