OTI Festival 1976

The OTI Festival 1976 (Spanish: Quinto Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Quinto Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the fifth edition of the OTI Festival, held on 30 October 1976 at the Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón of the Centro de Convenciones in Acapulco, Mexico, and presented by Raúl Velasco and Susana Dosamantes. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcaster Televisa, who staged the event after winning the 1975 festival for Mexico with the song "La felicidad" by Gualberto Castro. Velasco had previously presented the 1974 festival at the same venue.

Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in the festival, the same number of participants as the two previous years. The winner was the song "Canta cigarra" performed by María Ostiz representing Spain, with "Soy" by Las Cuatro Monedas representing Venezuela placing second, and "Era sólo un chiquillo" by José Alfredo Fuentes representing Chile placing third.

According to the rules of the OTI Festival at the time, the winning broadcaster of the previous edition would host the festival the following year. The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) designated Televisa, which was the winning broadcaster of the previous edition with the song "La felicidad" by Gualberto Castro for Mexico, as the host broadcaster of the 1976 edition.

Televisa had hosted the 1974 festival in Acapulco. For 1976, Mexico City was proposed as the host city due to its good infrastructure to host international events, but the broadcaster opted again for Acapulco due to the municipality's prestigious reputation as a tourist centre both for mass tourism and for convention and congress purposes. The venue selected was the same as in 1974, the Teatro Juan Ruiz de Alarcón of the Centro de Convenciones. The theatre was a highly vanguardist building opened in 1973, a few months before hosting the 1974 festival, with a seating capacity for over 2,000 people.

Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in this edition of the OTI Festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain and eighteen Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. This equaled the same record number of participants of the two previous years. From the countries that participated in the previous edition, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic decided to withdraw, while Honduras returned after missing that festival and Costa Rica took part for the first time.

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico, selected their entries through their regular national selections. Other broadcasters decided to select their entry internally.^[1]

One performing artist had previously represented the same country in previous editions: José Alfredo Fuentes had represented Chile in 1974. All the competing songs from all the participating countries were performed in Spanish, even the Brazilian entry.

The festival was held on Saturday 30 October 1976, beginning at 17:00 CST (23:00 UTC). It was presented by Raúl Velasco and Susana Dosamantes. Velasco had hosted the 1974 festival, making him the first person to host the event twice. The musical director was Jesús Rodriguez de Hijar who conducted the 32-piece Acapulco Philharmonic Orchestra when required. The draw to determine the running order (R/O) was held in Mexico City a few day before the festival.

The winner was the song "Canta cigarra" performed by María Ostiz representing Spain, with "Soy" by Las Cuatro Monedas representing Venezuela placing second, and "Era sólo un chiquillo" by José Alfredo Fuentes representing Chile placing third. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

Each participating broadcaster^[a] appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the points for their respective jury. Known spokespersons at the 1976 festival are listed below.

•  Chile – Antonio Vodanovic^[3]

Each participating broadcaster^[a] assembled a national jury located in its respective country, composed of five members each. Each juror gave one vote to its favorite entry and could not vote 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. This time, the spokespersons of each country were contacted by telephone randomly, not in order of performance.^[4]

For the year's edition, Televisa made the first-of-its-kind voting screens for the OTI Festival. Located at the left side of the hall, the colored board had twenty different screens, five per row in four rows, using one screen for each of the nineteen countries, and one for the OTI logo. Each of the country screens had the name of the country and how many votes they got so far.

The festival was broadcast in the 19 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 and commentators are shown in the tables below.

The audience returned to the viewing figures of two hundred million viewers that the festival received two years before in the same city.

The winner María Ostiz was already an established artist in Spain, especially thanks to her songs that usually revolved around the tough life of the rural population in 1970s Spain. Their songs used to have a cheerful spirit, although her song in the festival was completely different. "Canta cigarra" was a sad and pessimistic protest song in which the farmers, the women, the oppressed people with their hopelessness and hunger were mentioned as main elements. The selection of such a controversial song as the Spanish entry was attributed to the fall of the censorship after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.^[14]

When the OTI Festival was being held, "Canta cigarra" was one of the least favoured entries in the betting odds due to the unusual simplicity of its production. While the voting process was taking place, Ostiz, who was not confident about the possibilities of her song in the contest, left the green room and went to the hotel. When her victory was clear after the decisive Chilean votes, she had to return to the stage dressed in her casual clothes.^[15]

The second placed entrants, the Venezuelan disco fusion band Las Cuatro Monedas, were also already famous in their country with an eleven year career. They were famous for combining disco rhythms with Jamaican and Caribbean influences. Thanks to their second place, the prestige of their career was confirmed in Venezuela.

The third placed entrant, the Chilean José Alfredo Fuentes, also saw his career consolidated due to his third place in the festival, significantly improving the eighth place he got back in 1974 in the same city.^[16]

One of the fourth placed entrants, the Brazilian entrant Denise de Kalafe, who was tied with the Colombian representative, had already represented her country in 1970 in the "Festival Mundial de la Canción Latina", the antecessor of the OTI Festival in 1970. With her fourth place in 1976 with her song "María de las flores", she started generating interest not only in her country Brazil, but also in Mexico, where her popularity had started rising. Two years later in 1978, she would return to the festival and win the event.^[17]