OTI Festival 1981

OTI Festival 1981
Date and venue
Final
  • 5 December 1981 (1981-12-05)
VenueNational Auditorium
Mexico City, Mexico
Organization
OrganizerOrganización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI)
SupervisorCondorcet Da Silva Costa
Host broadcasterTelevisa
PresenterRaúl Velasco
Participants
Number of entries21
Non-returning countries Bolivia
Dominican Republic
Participation map
  • A coloured map of the countries of Ibero-AmericaArgentina in the OTI FestivalBolivia in the OTI FestivalBrazil in the OTI FestivalChile in the OTI Festival 1981Colombia in the OTI FestivalCosta Rica in the OTI FestivalDominican Republic in the OTI FestivalEcuador in the OTI FestivalEl Salvador in the OTI FestivalGuatemala in the OTI FestivalHonduras in the OTI FestivalMexico in the OTI Festival 1981Netherlands Antilles in the OTI Festival 1981Netherlands Antilles in the OTI Festival 1981Nicaragua in the OTI FestivalPanama in the OTI FestivalParaguay in the OTI FestivalPeru in the OTI FestivalPortugal in the OTI FestivalPuerto Rico in the OTI FestivalSpain in the OTI FestivalUnited States in the OTI Festival 1981United States in the OTI Festival 1981Uruguay in the OTI FestivalVenezuela in the OTI Festival
         Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1981
Vote
Voting systemEach country awarded 5-1 points to their 5 favourite songs
Winning song Spain
"Latino"

The OTI Festival 1981 (Spanish: Décimo Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Décimo Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the 10th edition of the OTI Festival, held on 5 December 1981 at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, Mexico, and presented by Raúl Velasco. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcaster Televisa.

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "Latino", written by Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros, and performed by Francisco representing Spain; with "Súbete a mi nube", written by Chico Novarro and Mike Ribas, and performed by Marianella representing Argentina, placing second; and "Lo que pasó, pasó", written by Felipe Gil, and performed by Yoshio representing Mexico, and "Cuando fuiste mujer", written by Vilma Planas and Héctor Garrido, and performed by Aldo Matta representing the United States, both placing third.

Location

National Auditorium, Mexico City – host venue of the OTI Festival 1981.

The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) designated Televisa as the host broadcaster for the 10th edition of the OTI Festival. Televisa staged the event in Mexico City. The venue selected was the National Auditorium, which was the most important entertainment venue in the country. It was opened in 1952 and was designed by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Gonzalo Ramírez del Sordo. In 1989, the auditorium underwent a complete renovation, of which only the stands on the first two floors were preserved.

The participating delegations were accommodated at Hotel Chapultepec.[1]

Participants

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in this edition of the OTI festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain, Portugal, and nineteen Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. Except for Bolivia and the Dominican Republic, all other countries that participated in the previous edition returned.[2]

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile, Mexico, the Netherlands Antilles, and the United States, selected their entries through their regular national televised competitions. Other broadcasters decided to select their entry internally.

Five performing artists had previously represented the same country in previous editions: Eduardo Fuentes had represented El Salvador in 1975, Gladys Mercado had represented Peru in 1975, Florcita Motuda had represented Chile in 1978, Roger Barés had represented Panama in 1978, and José Cid had represented Portugal in 1979.

Festival overview

The festival was held on Saturday 5 December 1981, beginning at 17:00 CST (23:00 UTC). It was presented by Raúl Velasco, who had previously presented the festival in 1974 and 1976.

The winner was the song "Latino", written by Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros, and performed by Francisco representing Spain; with "Súbete a mi nube", written by Chico Novarro and Mike Ribas, and performed by Marianella representing Argentina, placing second; and "Lo que pasó, pasó", written by Felipe Gil, and performed by Yoshio representing Mexico, and "Cuando fuiste mujer", written by Vilma Planas and Héctor Garrido, and performed by Aldo Matta representing the United States, both placing third. There was one trophy designed by Francisco Moyao for each of the first three places. The first prize trophy was delivered by Guillermo Cañedo, president of OTI, and Alejandro Sada, vice-president of Televisa; the second prize trophy by Nicanor González, president of the OTI programs committee; and the third prize trophy by Alfredo Escobar, vice-president of the OTI programs committee. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

  Winner

Spokespersons

Each participating broadcaster[a] appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the points for their respective jury in ascending order. Known spokespersons at the 1981 festival are listed below.

Detailed voting results

Each participating broadcaster[a] assembled a national jury located in its respective country. Each jury awarded 5 points its favourite song, 4 points to the second favourite, and then between 3 and 1 points for the third- to fifth-favourite songs, except for the entry representing its own country. Each participating broadcaster had also a delegate present in the hall to stand in for its jury if it was not receiving the event live, or in case of communication failure during the broadcast or voting. To ensure that there was no vote switching, before the voting segment began each participating broadcaster announced to its national audience the vote of its jury in local opt-out from its studios. In the event of a tie for first place, the stand-in delegates from the countries not affected by the tie would vote to select the winning song from among the tied ones.

The point count was displayed on a scoreboard placed to the left of the stage. All the countries gave their votes remotely by telephone, except for those that used the stand-in delegates, which included Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Netherlands Antilles, and Uruguay.[b]

Detailed voting results of the OTI Festival 1981
Voter:
  National jury
  Stand-in delegate
 Voting countries Points
Portugal
Uruguay
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Venezuela
United States
Guatemala
Spain
Ecuador
Panama
Puerto Rico
Netherlands Antilles
Brazil
Honduras
Colombia
Mexico
Peru
Paraguay
Argentina
Costa Rica
Chile
Contestants
 Portugal 3 4 4 1 2 14
Uruguay 4 4
El Salvador 2 2 1 1 5 11
Nicaragua 4 5 5 1 15
Venezuela 3 1 1 2 7
United States 4 5 4 5 4 22
Guatemala 1 1
Spain 3 3 3 2 2 5 2 5 5 5 4 4 3 5 51
Ecuador 1 2 2 1 5 11
Panama 3 4 7
Puerto Rico 5 2 1 8
Netherlands Antilles 1 1 2
Brazil 4 2 2 2 2 2 14
Honduras 4 3 3 3 3 16
Colombia 4 5 4 1 4 18
Mexico 1 5 3 4 1 4 1 3 22
Peru 1 3 3 4 11
Paraguay 5 5 1 3 1 15
Argentina 2 4 5 5 3 2 4 3 3 5 4 40
Costa Rica 5 3 8
Chile 1 2 2 2 3 2 1 5 18

Broadcast

The festival was broadcast in the 21 participating countries, where the corresponding OTI member broadcasters relayed the contest through their networks after receiving it live via satellite.

Known details on the broadcasts of the festival in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations, commentators, and presenters of the local opt-out are shown in the tables below.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Or group of broadcasters that jointly participated representing a country.
  2. ↑ Ana M. Arregui voted for Argentina, Ricardo Miranda for Chile, Lilia Gamba de Lazo for Colombia, Ricardo Padilla for Costa Rica, Humberto Nivi for the Netherlands Antilles, and Cristina de Frade for Uruguay.
  3. 1 2 3 Delayed broadcast at 21:30 CLST (00:30+1 UTC)
  4. ↑ Delayed broadcast on 7 December at 20:50 WET (20:50 UTC)

References

  1. 1 2 "Teleprogramas". La Nación (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile. 5 December 1981. pp. 2B, 1B. Retrieved 30 November 2025 – via Archivo de la Palabra Impresa by Diego Portales University.
  2. ↑ "Festival de la OTI 2 (1980-1990)". eurovision-spain.com (in Spanish). 3 December 2020.
  3. 1 2 X Festival de la canción OTI 1981 (Television programme) (in Spanish). Mexico City, Mexico: Televisa. 5 December 1981.
  4. ↑ "Televisión" [Television]. Crónica (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina. 5 December 1981. p. 18. Retrieved 10 May 2026 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ "TV diaria". La Nación (in Spanish). San José, Costa Rica. 5 December 1981. p. 43-A. Retrieved 20 October 2025 – via Google Books.
  6. ↑ "Programación de televisión para hoy sábado" [Television programming for today, Saturday]. El Informador. Guadalajara, Mexico. 5 December 1981. p. 17-C. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
  7. ↑ "Agenda Aruba". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 5 December 1981. p. 5 – via Delpher.
  8. ↑ "Agenda Curaçao". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 5 December 1981. p. 2 – via Delpher.
  9. ↑ "Televisão". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 7 December 1981. p. 21 – via Casa Comum.
  10. ↑ "Televisión Española". Diario de Burgos (in Spanish). Burgos, Spain. 5 December 1981. p. 30 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers.
  11. ↑ "Television–Saturday". Rocky Mountain News TV Dial. Denver, United States. 29 November 1981. p. 12 – via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.
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