IV Festival Internacional de la Canción de Málaga 'Costa Del Sol' took place on February 24th and 25th at the Palacio de Congresos in Torremolinos.

The winner was, If You Hold My Hand sung by Donna Hightower, with a prize of 210.000 pesetas.(1,262€), second prize for Argentina with the song Javier y Paloma, sung by Jairo, with a prize of 140.000 pesetas. The third prize was for Spain with the song Tu caminar, sung by Mustang with a prize of 70.000 pesetas.The orchestra was conducted by Ivor Raymond and the hosts of the show were Marisa Medina and José Luis Uribarri. (The later hoster for well known Spanish music show Aplauso).

19 countries participated on this festival.  Björn and Benny performed Livet går sin gång and they came 6th.  All participants were able to "use" an orchestra that was 35 players strong, but Björn and Benny were the only ones to perform with just a piano and guitar.

They enjoyed the beach and rode a horse whilst in Torremolinos according to this magazine cutting.

Songs performed:

Al Llegar la primavera – ? (Italy)
Canta en Español – Claudine Longet (Spain)
Cerrando los ojos – ? (Spain)
If You Hold My Hands – Donna Hightower (USA)
Javier y Paloma – Jairo (Argentina)
Jesus’ holy feet – Paul Muggleton (Bermuda Island)
Juntos – ? (The Netherlands)
Livet går sin gång –Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (Sweden)
Tu caminar – Mustang (Spain)
What will be with us – ? (Yugoslavia)
? – ? (Turkey)
? – ? (UK)
? – ? (Ireland)
Plus 6 more countries…

The TV broadcast itself was 45 minutes long and there was a 1:44 long newsreel about the event on Revista Cinematografica Española but Benny and Björn were not shown. Footage is available here (first item in the reportage).

In September 2021, the national Spanish broadcaster, TVE, aired a 35-minute programme about ABBA with TV appearances from the past named Viaje al centro de la tele (Journey to the centre of television) in two parts which amazingly, included a small snippet of Benny and Björn's participation in this contest, which proves the clip does exist in their TV archives.

You can watch Viaje al cenro de la tele here

Click here for a TV listing
Click here for newspaper cutting.

Livet gar sin gang
Som jag e' van
Till och med manen gar sin gang
Ovanfor sta'n
Ingenting rors
Nagonstans hors
Avlagsen sang
Allt har sin gang

Livet gar sin gang
Klockorna slar
Timma for timma natten lang
Tystnaden rar
Kunde jag blott
Sova en stund
Har inte fatt
Sova en blund

Det ar sa tyst och kallt
Ja, jag fryser utan dej
Forr fanns du overallt
Varmde mej med din karlek

Livet gar sin gang
Som jag e' van
Till och med manen gar sin gang
Ovanfor sta'n
Dag eller natt
Jag kanner att
Vintern blir lang, vintern blir lang

Livet gar sin gang

Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus

Thanks to Jose Luis Juarez, Henk Jansen, Erik Liebstaedter, Jan Bach, Enrique Soriano and Jozsef