OTI Festival

OTI Song Contest
Also known as OTI
Genre Song Contest
Created by Marcel Bezençon
Based on Eurovision Song Contest
Developed by Iberoamerican Television Organisation
Country of origin List of countries
Original language(s) Spanish and Portuguese
No. of episodes 28 Contests
Production
Location(s) Hosted by previous winner from 1972 to 1981 (List of host cities)
Running time
  • 2 hours (semi-finals)
  • 3 hours 50 minutes (final)
  • 4 hours (2015)
Production company(s) Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana
Release
Picture format
  • 576i (SDTV) (1956–)
  • 720i (HDTV) (1996- 200)
Original release 25 November 1972 (1972-11-25) – 2000
Chronology
Preceded by Worldwide Latin Song Contest (1969-1970)
External links
www.otitelecom.org www.eurovision.tv

OTI Festival (Spanish: Festival OTI de la Canción) was an annual singing competition, held between 1972 and 2000 among active member countries of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) (Iberoamerican Television Organisation).[1] It was preceded in 1969 and 1970 by the Festival Mundial de la Canción Latina, held in Mexico.

The festival was a Latin-American spin-off of the Eurovision song Contest. The first show was held in the Congress Palace of Madrid on November 25, 1972 and the last one was held on May 20, 2000 in Acapulco. Since then, the show was cancelled due to the questioning of the voting system of the last shows, the lack of sponsors, the low quality of the entrants and the withdrawal of some of the most iconic countries such as Brazil, Colombia and even Spain.

The main goal of the festival was to generate a process of cultural and artistic fellowship between the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. Although it was not as successful as the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival left a great mark in Latin America by giving many famous artists and hit songs.

The OTI festival is to date, the longest running and most successful Eurovision Song Contest spin off with 28 editions.

Background

Although the OTI contest was inspired in the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival was preceded by the "Worldwide latin song contest" which was held in Mexico DF in the Teatro ferrocarrilero in 1969 and 1970. These are the winners:

Year Winner Artist Song
1969 Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Lucecita Bénitez Génesis
1970 Brazil Brazil Cláudya Canção de amor e paz (Peace and love song)

Participation

The countries that were elegible to participate in the OTI festival needed to be active members of the Iberoamerican Television Organisation. The active members were those ones which belonged to the Organisation of Iberoamerican States.

In order to take part in the event, the participating countries were required to be Spanish or Portuguese speaking countries, to have large communities of Spanish or Portuguese speakers within their territory (for instance United States of America), or to have lingual or cultural ties with Latin American countries (As happened with the Dutch Antilles). Apart from that, the entrant song needed to be performed in Spanish or Portuguese languages.

Map of the OTI Festival participating countries by debut year

Both state financed and private broadasters 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 Venevision and RCTV.

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

History

The OTI Song Contest was held for first time on November 25, 1972 in the Congress Palace of Madrid. 13 countries took part in the first edition of the event. Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Panamá, Portugal, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Perú, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico were the debuting countries. After the first show, the rest of the Latin American countries progressively started taking part in the event. The festival expanded even further away from the traditional Latin American sphere, to the point that even the United States of America and the Dutch Antilles took part in the event. In 1992 the festival reached its record of 25 participating countries.

Mexico and Spain were the most successful countries in the history of the competition with 6 victories each one while Argentina won the contest 4 times.

Hosting

The Congress Palace of Madrid was the first venue of the OTI Song Contest.

The location of the festival was decided following various criteria. At first it was decided that the winning country would organise and celebrate the contest the next year, but after the victory of Nicaragua in 1977, the country could not host the contest due to the bloody civil war that broke out the next year. In those years, many Latin American countries suffered from political and economical instability. For that reason, from that year on, the host city was decided by an annual draw organised by the Iberoamerican Television Organisation.

The National Auditorium of Mexico was the host place of the OTI festival in 1984

Spain and Mexico were the countries that hosted the contest more times with 6 editions each one. In total, 13 countries of the 25 that participated in the song contest hosted the festival.

Venues and presenters

Year City Venue Mistress and Masters of Ceremonies Host broadcaster
1972 Spain Madrid Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones Rosa María Mateo and Raúl Matas RTVE
1973 Brazil Belo Horizonte Palácio das Artes Murilo Néri Rede Globo
1974 Mexico Acapulco Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Lolita Ayala and Raúl Velasco Televisa
1975 Puerto Rico San Juan Telemundo Studio 2 Marisol Malaret and Beba Franco Telemundo
1976 Mexico Acapulco Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón Susana Dosamantes and Raúl Velasco Televisa
1977 Spain Madrid Centro Cultural de Villa Madrid Mari Cruz Soriano and Miguel de los Santos RTVE
1978 Chile Santiago de Chile Teatro Municipal Raquel Argandoña and Raúl Matas Canal 13, Canal 9 and TVN
1979 Venezuela Caracas Teatro del Círculo Militar Eduardo Serrano and Carmen Victoria Pérez Venevisión and RCTV
1980 Argentina Buenos Aires Teatro General San Martín Liliana López Foresi and Antonio Carrizo Canal 7 ATC
1981 Mexico Mexico City Auditorio Nacional Raúl Velasco Televisa
1982 Peru Lima Coliseo Amauta Humberto Martínez Morosini, Zenaida Solís, Pepe Ludmir and Silvia Maccera Panamericana Televisión
1983 United States Washington, D.C. Constitution Hall Ana Carlota and Rafael Pineda SIN
1984 Mexico México City Auditorio Nacional Raúl Velasco Televisa
1985 Spain Sevilla Teatro Lope de Vega Paloma San Basilio and Emilio Aragón RTVE
1986 Chile Santiago de Chile Teatro Municipal Pamela Hodar and César Antonio Santis Canal 13 and TVN
1987 Portugal Lisbon Teatro São Luís Ana Maria Zanatti and Eládio Clímaco RTP
1988 Argentina Buenos Aires Cervantes Theatre Pinky and Juan Alberto Badía Canal 7 ATC and Canal 13 Artear
1989 United States Miami Knight International Center Don Francisco, Lucy Pereda and Antonio Vodanovic Univisión
1990 United States Las Vegas Caesars Palace Emmanuel and María Conchita Alonso Univisión
1991 Mexico Acapulco Centro de Convenciones Raúl Velasco Televisa
1992 Spain Valencia Teatro Principal Paloma San Basilio and Joaquín Prat RTVE
1993 Spain Valencia Teatro Principal Paloma San Basilio and Francisco RTVE
1994 Spain Valencia Teatro Principal Ana Obregón and Francisco RTVE
1995 Paraguay San Bernardino Teatro José Asunción Flores Menchi Barriocanal and Rubén Rodríguez Canal 13
1996 Ecuador Quito Teatro Nacional de la Casa de la Cultura Christian Jhonson and Ximena Aulestia Ecuavisa, Teleamazonas and Gamavisión
1997 Peru Lima Plaza Mayor Jorge Belevan and Claudia Doig América Televisión
1998 Costa Rica San José Teatro Nacional Maribel Guardia and Rafael Rojas Repretel and Teletica
1999 Mexico Veracruz The festival was cancelled due to floods in the host city.
2000 Mexico Acapulco Centro de Convenciones Emmanuel, Andrea Legarreta, Gabriela Spanic and Otto Sirgo Televisa

Voting system

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 favourite song and the winner was the song which had more points at the end of the process.

From 1981 on, the winner was decided by a professional room jury composed by famous music personalities. Since that year, only the three most voted countries were revealed at the end of the show which often generated scandals and controversies.

Winners

The Spanish singer Francisco won the event in 1981 and 1992.
Year Country Song Performer
1972 BrazilDiálogoClaudia Regina & Tobías
1973 MexicoQué alegre va MaríaImelda Miller
1974 Puerto RicoHoy canto por cantarNydia Caro
1975 MexicoLa felicidadGualberto Castro
1976 SpainCanta, cigarraMaría Ostiz
1977 NicaraguaQuincho BarrileteGuayo González
1978 BrazilEl amor... cosa tan raraDenise de Kalafe
1979 ArgentinaCuenta conmigoDaniel Riolobos
1980 Puerto RicoContigo, mujerRafael José
1981 SpainLatinoFrancisco
1982 VenezuelaPuedes contar conmigoGrupo Unicornio
1983 BrazilEstrela de papelJessé
1984 ChileAgualunaFernando Ubiergo
1985 MexicoEl fandango aquíEugenia León
1986 United StatesTodosDamaris, Miguel Ángel Guerra & Eduardo Fabiani
1987 VenezuelaLa felicidad está en un rincón de tu corazónAlfredo Alejandro
1988 ArgentinaTodavía eres mi mujerGuillermo Guido
1989 MexicoUna canción no es suficienteAnalí
1990 MexicoUn boleroCarlos Cuevas
1991 ArgentinaAdónde estás ahoraClaudia Brant
1992 SpainA dónde voy sin tiFrancisco
1993 SpainEnamorarseAna Reverte
1994 ArgentinaCanción desparejaClaudia Carenzio
1995 SpainEres mi debilidadMarcos Llunas
1996 SpainMis manosAnabel Russ
1997 MexicoSe diga lo que se digaIridian
1998 ChileFin de siglo: Es tiempo de inflamarse, deprimirse o transformarseFlorcita Motuda
2000 United StatesMala hierbaChirino Sisters

By country

Map of the OTI Song Contest participating countries by number of victories
Wins Country Years
6  Spain1976, 1981, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996
 Mexico1973, 1975, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1997
4 Argentina1979, 1988, 1991, 1994
3 Brazil1972, 1978, 1983
2  United States1986, 2000
 Puerto Rico1974, 1980
 Chile1984, 1998
 Venezuela1982, 1987
1 Nicaragua1977

Legacy

Although the OTI Song Contest has not been celebrated since 2000, the festival is still widely remembered in many countries, specially in Mexico, where the festival was always well received by the audience, even when the popularity of the festival was declining.[2]

The contest was enormously popular in Mexico thanks to the "National OTI contest", which was the national final to select the Mexican entrant for the international, and main OTI Contest. 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.

In Spain, many popular names took part in the OTI Contest including the band Trigo Limpio, that represented the country in 1976 with the Song "Mátama Rómpeme" (Tear me apart and kill me) before representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1980. Many Years later in 1995 Marcos Llunas won the contest two years before representing Spain in Eurovision in 1997. Other popular Spanish OTI contestants are Marisol, and Camilo Sesto.

References

  1. ↑ "Festival de la OTI" (in Spanish). El Diario de Coahuila. Retrieved April 6, 2011.
  2. ↑ "¿Quién se acuerda del festival de la canción OTI?".
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