OTI Festival

Although the OTI contest was inspired in the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival was preceded by the Festival Mundial de la Canción Latina which was held in Mexico DF in 1969 and 1970.

The broadcasters that were eligible to participate in the OTI Festival needed to be active members of the Ibero-American Television Organisation. These active members were from countries which belonged to the Organization of Ibero-American States.

The participating countries were Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, have large communities of Spanish or Portuguese speakers within their territory –such as the United States–, or have lingual or cultural ties with Latin American countries –as happened with the Netherlands Antilles–. The entrant songs were performed primarily in Spanish or Portuguese and were accompanied on stage by a full orchestra.

Both state financed and private broadcasters were able to join OTI as full members and in some cases different broadcasters collaborated during the airing of the event –as did the Venezuelan broadcasters Venevisión and RCTV–.

Years	Country making its debut entry
1972	Spain,  Colombia,  Brazil,  Venezuela,  Panama,  Portugal,  Bolivia,  Chile,  Peru,  Dominican Republic,  Puerto Rico,  Argentina,  Uruguay
1973	Mexico
1974	Netherlands Antilles,  Ecuador,  El Salvador,  United States,  Guatemala,  Honduras,  Nicaragua
1976	Costa Rica
1978	Paraguay
1986	Canada
1989	Aruba
1991	Cuba
1992	Equatorial Guinea

The OTI Song Contest was held for first time on 25 November 1972 at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos of Madrid. Thirteen countries took part in the first edition of the event. Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, Portugal, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico were the debuting countries.^[2]

After the first edition, the rest of the Ibero-American countries progressively started taking part in the event. The festival expanded even further away from the traditional Ibero-American sphere, to the point that even the United States and the Netherlands Antilles took part in the event. In 1992 the festival reached its record of twenty-five participating countries.

Mexico and Spain were the most successful countries in the history of the competition with six victories each while Argentina won the contest four times. Brazil was the fourth most successful country with three victories.

The location of the festival was decided following various criteria. Initially, the winning country would organize and celebrate the contest the following year, but after the victory of Nicaragua in 1977, the country could not host the contest due to the Nicaraguan Revolution. In those years, many participating countries suffered from political and economical instability. For that reason, from that year on, the host city was decided by a bid process organized by OTI.

Spain and Mexico were the countries that hosted the contest the most, with six editions each one. In total, thirteen countries hosted the festival, out of the twenty-five that ever participated.

Editions

Year	Date of Final	City	Venue	Presenter(s)	Host broadcaster	Orchestra
1972	25 November 1972	Madrid	Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones	Rosa María Mateo Raúl Matas [es]	TVE	RTVE Light Music Orchestra
1973	10 November 1973	Belo Horizonte	Palácio das Artes [pt]	Walter Forster Íris Lettieri [pt]	Rede Tupi	Rede Tupi Symphonic Orchestra
1974	26 October 1984	Acapulco	Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón [es]	Lolita Ayala Raúl Velasco	Televisa	Acapulco Philharmonic Orchestra
1975	15 November 1975	San Juan	Telemundo Studio 2	Marisol Malaret Beba Franco Eddie Miró Gilbert Mamery	Telemundo	Telemundo Symphonic Orchestra
1976	30 October 1976	Acapulco	Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón	Susana Dosamantes Raúl Velasco	Televisa	Acapulco Philharmonic Orchestra
1977	12 November 1977	Madrid	Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid	Mari Cruz Soriano Miguel de los Santos [es]	RTVE	RTVE Light Music Orchestra
1978	2 December 1978	Santiago	Teatro Municipal	Raquel Argandoña Raúl Matas	TVN Canal 13 Canal 9 UCV Televisión	Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago
1979	8 December 1979	Caracas	Teatro del Círculo Militar [es]	Eduardo Serrano Carmen Victoria Pérez [es]	Venevisión RCTV	§
1980	15 November 1980	Buenos Aires	Teatro General San Martín	Liliana López Foresi [es] Antonio Carrizo	Canal 7 ATC	Orchestras for OTI 1980–2000 undisclosed
1981	5 December 1981	Mexico City	Auditorio Nacional	Raúl Velasco	Televisa
1982	27 November 1982	Lima	Coliseo Amauta	Humberto Martínez Morosini [es] Zenaida Solís [es] Pepe Ludmir [es] Silvia Maccera [es]	Panamericana Televisión
1983	29 October 1983	Washington, D.C.	DAR Constitution Hall	Rafael Pineda Ana Carlota	SIN
1984	10 November 1984	Mexico City	Auditorio Nacional	Raúl Velasco	Televisa
1985	21 September 1985	Seville	Teatro Lope de Vega	Paloma San Basilio Emilio Aragón	TVE
1986	15 November 1986	Santiago	Teatro Municipal	Pamela Hodar César Antonio Santis [es]	TVN Canal 13 Canal 11
1987	24 October 1987	Lisbon	Teatro São Luiz	Ana Zanatti Eládio Clímaco	RTP
1988	19 November 1988	Buenos Aires	Teatro Nacional Cervantes	Pinky Juan Alberto Badía [es]	Canal 7 ATC Canal 13 Artear
1989	18 November 1989	Miami	Knight International Center	Lucy Pereda Antonio Vodanovic [a]	Univision
1990	1 December 1990	Las Vegas	Caesars Palace	Antonio Vodanovic Alejandra Guzmán Emmanuel Fernando Allende María Conchita Alonso
1991	14 December 1991	Acapulco	Centro de Convenciones	Raúl Velasco	Televisa
1992	5 December 1992	Valencia	Teatro Principal	Paloma San Basilio Joaquín Prat	TVE
1993	9 October 1993			Paloma San Basilio Francisco [es]
1994	15 October 1994			Ana Obregón Francisco
1995	11 November 1995	San Bernardino	Anfiteatro José Asunción Flores [es]	Menchi Barriocanal [es] Rubén Rodríguez	Canal 13
1996	14 December 1996	Quito	Teatro Nacional	Christian Jhonson Ximena Aulestia	Ecuavisa Teleamazonas Gamavisión
1997	25 October 1997	Lima	Plaza Mayor	Jorge Belevan Claudia Doig	América Televisión
1998	14 November 1998	San José	Teatro Nacional	Maribel Guardia Rafael Rojas	Repretel Teletica
1999	20 November 1999	Veracruz	X	X	Televisa
2000	20 May 2000	Acapulco	Centro de Convenciones	Emmanuel Andrea Legarreta Gabriela Spanic Otto Sirgo	Televisa

There was no OTI Song Contest in 1999 due to floods in the host city. The competition was cancelled in 2001 and beyond.

The voting system to decide the winner of the contest changed over the years. At first, the winner was decided telephonically by five national juries from every participating country. Each jury member voted only for their favorite song and the winner was the song which had more points at the end of the process. In 1977 the number of national jurors per country was changed to three due to the increase of the number of participating countries and to the resultingly much longer show.

From 1982 on, the winner was decided by a professional room jury composed by famous music personalities. One year later, the voting system was changed again in a way that the voting process was secret. Since that year, only the three most voted countries were revealed at the end of the show which often generated scandals and controversies.

Year	Country	Song	Singer(s)	Songwriter(s)
1972	Brazil	"Diálogo"	Claudia Regina & Tobías	Paulo César Pinheiro Baden Powell
1973	Mexico	"Qué alegre va María"	Imelda Miller [es]	Celia Bonfil
1974	Puerto Rico	"Hoy canto por cantar"	Nydia Caro	Nydia Caro Ricardo Ceratto [es]
1975	Mexico	"La felicidad"	Gualberto Castro	Felipe Gil
1976	Spain	"Canta cigarra [es]"	María Ostiz [es]	María Ostiz
1977	Nicaragua	"Quincho Barrilete"	Guayo González	Carlos Mejía Godoy
1978	Brazil	"El amor... cosa tan rara"	Denisse de Kalafe [es]	Denisse de Kalafe
1979	Argentina	"Cuenta conmigo"	Daniel Riolobos [es]	Chico Novarro Raúl Parentella [es]
1980	Puerto Rico	"Contigo, mujer"	Rafael José	Ednita Nazario
1981	Spain	"Latino"	Francisco [es]	Pablo Herrero José Luis Armenteros
1982	Venezuela	"Puedes contar conmigo"	Grupo Unicornio [es]	Luis Gerardo Tovar [es] Carlos Moreán [es]
1983	Brazil	"Estrela de papel"	Jessé	Jessé F. Santos Elifas V. Andreato
1984	Chile	"Agualuna"	Fernando Ubiergo	Fernando Ubiergo
1985	Mexico	"El fandango aquí"	Eugenia León	Marcial Alejandro [es]
1986	United States	"Todos"	Damaris Carbaugh, Miguel Ángel Guerra [es] & Eduardo Fabiani	Vilma Planas
1987	Venezuela	"La felicidad está en un rincón de tu corazón"	Alfredo Alejandro	Luis Gerardo Tovar [es] Arnoldo Nali
1988	Argentina	"Todavía eres mi mujer"	Guillermo Guido [es]	Carlos Castellón
1989	Mexico	"Una canción no es suficiente"	Analí	Jesús Monarrez
1990		"Un bolero"	Carlos Cuevas	Francisco Curiel Pedro Cárdenas
1991	Argentina	"Adónde estás ahora"	Claudia Brant	Claudia Brant Sebastián Schon [es]
1992	Spain	"A dónde voy sin ti"	Francisco	Chema Purón [es]
1993		"Enamorarse"	Ana Reverte [es]	Alejandro Abad
1994	Argentina	"Canción despareja"	Claudia Carenzio	Pocho Lapouble
1995	Spain	"Eres mi debilidad"	Marcos Llunas	Alejandro Abad
1996		"Mis manos"	Anabel Russ	Chema Purón Eduardo Leiva
1997	Mexico	"Se diga lo que se diga"	Iridián	Francisco Curiel José Manuel Fernández Pedro Cárdenas
1998	Chile	"Fin de siglo: Es tiempo de inflamarse, deprimirse o transformarse"	Florcita Motuda	Florcita Motuda
2000	United States	"Mala hierba"	Hermanas Chirino	Angie Chirino Olga María Chirino Emilio Estefan

Spanish singer Francisco is the only artist to have won the competition twice (1981 and 1992). Spanish songwriters Alejandro Abad (1993 and 1995) and Chema Purón (1992 and 1996) won the competition twice, as did Mexican songwriters Francisco Curiel and Pedro Cárdenas (1990 and 1997).

By country

Wins	Country	Years
6	Spain	1976, 1981, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996
	Mexico	1973, 1975, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1997
4	Argentina	1979, 1988, 1991, 1994
3	Brazil	1972, 1978, 1983
2	United States	1986, 2000
	Puerto Rico	1974, 1980
	Chile	1984, 1998
	Venezuela	1982, 1987
1	Nicaragua	1977

Although the OTI Song Contest has not been celebrated since 2000, the festival is still widely remembered in many countries, especially in Mexico, where the festival was always well received by the audience, even when the popularity of the festival was declining.^[3] The contest was enormously popular there thanks to the "National OTI contest", which was the national final to select the Mexican entrant for the international OTI Festival. Many famous singers such as Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel, Lucero, or the girl band Pandora, tried to represent their country in the OTI Festival, but they didn't win the national contest.

Many popular names from Spain took part in the OTI Festival including the band Trigo Limpio, that represented the country in 1977 before representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980. Marcos Llunas won the OTI Festival 1995, two years before representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997. Betty Missiego who represented Peru in the OTI Festival 1972, represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979. Other well known Spanish OTI contestants were Marisol, Dyango, Vicky Larraz, and Camilo Sesto.

Many of the names that took part in the OTI Festival for Portugal also represented the country in Eurovision, such as Anabela, Paulo de Carvalho, José Cid, Dora, Dulce Pontes, Adelaide Ferreira, Simone de Oliveira, and Tonicha.

One Eurovision winner has previously participated in the OTI Festival: Dave Benton, who sang for Netherlands Antilles in 1981, won the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 for Estonia, performing the song "Everybody" with Tanel Padar and 2XL.

As the mark of the OTI Festival in Latin America is still big, some organisations of diverse nature have tried to revive the festival. Some Mexican artists also made public their support to a return to the screens of the OTI Festival.

In March 2011, it was announced by some online newspapers that Televisa was preparing for the relaunch of the event in two stages, the first one, was to revive the "National OTI Contest", the Mexican national final, while the second one would be to revive the international and main OTI Festival. The aim of this attempt to bring to life the festival was to give the opportunity to young performers to show their talent. The festival at the end never took place, but it was neither cancelled.^[4]

In June 2016, it was announced the relaunch of OTI as a media organisation. The broadcasting union was renamed as "Organización de Telecomunicaciones de Iberoamerica" (Iberoamerican Telecommunications Organisation) the organisation evolved from being a television contents exchange platform to include members of a broader nature such as newspapers and telephone-internet companies apart from TV and radio channels. This relaunch instantaneously sparked rumors about a possible relaunch of the festival that were later denied.^[5]

In 2017 it was announced the start of an organisation called "Organización de Talento Independiente" (Independent Talent Organisation) which in Spanish casually coincides with the acronym "OTI". The main goal of the organisation was to try to recreate the festival between Mexican singers and artists from the Latin community of the United States. Although the festival was not a competition between broadcasters of different participating countries, the competition was held in the Mexican city of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.^[6]

In February 2022, RTVE announced Hispavision, a song festival where Spanish-speaking Latin American countries will take part alongside Brazil and Portugal as invited nations. The project was scheduled to start in 2023 and would be held in Cartagena, Colombia.^[7][8]

In 12 July 2022, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced its expansion of the Eurovision Song Contest brand to Latin America. The planned contest will be produced by the same producers of other Eurovision spin-offs, including the American Song Contest and the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest Canada. They have begun searching for a viable host city.^[9]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to OTI Festival.

• Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana Website