'The, the, the song'

Massiel sang like a hurricane the song La, la, la composed by the Dúo Dinámico and rehearsed just nine days before... and won the Eurovision Song Contest! It was April 6, 1968, and I saw it live at home at the age of seven, on the black and white TV. It is – along with the arrival of man on the moon, the following year – the most outstanding historical event in the 68-year history of TVE. For that reason, and because it was preceded by a tangle of adventures – involving Franco, Fraga, Serrat, Arthur Kaps and Herta Frankel – RTVE has decided to produce La, la, la canción , a miniseries (3 chapters, now on Movistar+) that reconstructs at a brisk pace the story of that triumph. It's a series that we boomers will enjoy for evoking atmospheres from our childhoods, while entertainingly informing young people about what the dictatorship was like and the university riots that led to a state of emergency in 1969. It's a success in telling everything through the personal struggle of a (fake) TVE official coordinating the interests of real-life protagonists: we see Serrat harassed by Catalan fundamentalists, Franco yearning "for them to love us," Fraga firing off sharp orders, Arthur Kaps traveling across Europe to charm the Festival juries (with sympathy and gifts) and convincing the BBC to accept the replacement of Serrat with Massiel with this argument, which I was unaware of: "It would be like if you chose Tom Jones and at the last minute he insisted on singing in Welsh."

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And we see Massiel buying (out of her own pocket) the famous dress she won in a Parisian Courrèges boutique . A dress I've seen hanging in Massiel's bedroom closet: I went to interview her at her house, and she showed it to me. Massiel later refused to be photographed with Franco... and instead visited Fidel Castro, who received her at the Habana Libre Hotel, suite 2323, since then known as La Castellana . But that's another story, which, if you insist, I'll tell one day.

This series unravels the web of adventures that preceded Massiel's triumph at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1968.

Buenafuente . He's back on TVE (his talent has taken him to all the networks for 35 years) with a new show, Pasado imperfe cto ( La 1 , Thursdays, 11 p.m.), in the wake of La Revuelta : a theater stage with an audience, a musician, and a sense of humor. The best part? The immense Raúl Cimas, with whom Buenafuente relaxes and lets himself be carried away by the genius of this idol. – @amelanovela