OTI Festival 1979

The OTI Festival 1979 (Spanish: Octavo Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Oitavo Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the eighth edition of the OTI Festival, held on 8 December 1979 at the Theatre of the Military Academy in Caracas, Venezuela, and presented by Eduardo Serrano and Carmen Victoria Pérez. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcasters Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Venevisión, Televisora Nacional (TVN), and Venezolana de Televisión (VTN), which staged the event after Venezuela got the hosting duties in a draw.

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "Cuenta conmigo" performed by Daniel Riolobos representing Argentina, with "Cuando era niño" by Delia Dorta representing Venezuela placing second, and "Na cabana junto à praia" by José Cid representing Portugal placing third.

The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) decided to organize a draw among the countries of its member broadcasters to select the location for the eighth edition of the OTI Festival, in which Venezuela was the one picked.

Four Venezuelan national television networks joined forces in order to host the festival: Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), Venevisión, Televisora Nacional (TVN), and Venezolana de Televisión (VTN). These broadcasters, who collectively presented themselves as La industria de la televisión venezolana, staged the event in Caracas. The selected venue was the Theatre of the Military Academy of Venezuela, which is a venue located at the Caracas Military Circle in the Libertador Municipality within the Metropolitan District of Caracas. The theatre, that was built in 1953, had seats for more than 1,000 people, becoming the biggest theatre of the Venezuelan capital.^[1] This was the only time the festival was held in the country.

The participating delegations were accommodated at Hotel Tamanaco.^[2]

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. All countries that participated in the previous edition returned, and were joined by Guatemala and Portugal, that had missed that festival. This number matched the record number of participants achieved in 1977.

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile, Mexico, and Venezuela selected their entries through their regular national selections. Other broadcasters decided to select their entry internally.^[3][4][5]

The festival was held on Saturday 8 December 1979, beginning at 19:00 VET (23:00 UTC). It was presented by Eduardo Serrano and Carmen Victoria Pérez. The musical director was Eduardo Cabrera, who conducted the orchestra and the mixed choir of six voices when required. The draw to determine the running order (R/O) was held in Caracas a few days before the event.

The winner was the song "Cuenta conmigo" performed by Daniel Riolobos representing Argentina, with "Cuando era niño" by Delia Dorta representing Venezuela placing second, and "Na cabana junto à praia" by José Cid representing Portugal placing third.^[7] There was a trophy for each of the first three places. The first prize trophy was delivered by Guillermo Cañedo, president of OTI; the second prize trophy by Eduardo Reina, vice-president of OTI; and the third prize trophy by Félix Cardona Moreno, president of the television industry chamber. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

Each participating broadcaster^[b] appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the points for their respective jury in descending order. Known spokespersons at the 1979 festival are listed below.

•  Colombia – Roberto Reyes
•  Chile – Raúl Matas
•  Peru – Luis Ángel Pinasco
•  Costa Rica – Rodrigo Sánchez
•  Panama – Justo Fidel Palacios

Each participating broadcaster^[b] assembled a national jury located in its respective country, composed of four members each, and a president who only decided in case of a tie. 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. 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. 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.

All the countries gave their votes remotely by telephone, except for the Netherlands Antilles, the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay, which used the stand-in delegates. The countries voted in order of participation, but due to a communication problem with the spokespersons of Argentina, Brazil, and Panama, these had to be left for the end, with Brazil ending up unable to respond and having to also use the stand-in delegate.

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. This festival is remembered in Venezuela as the very first show that was broadcast live in color in the country.^[8]

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 potential viewers figures, as those of the previous year, reached the level of 300 million. The quality of the sound system and the stage were also highly valued by the media.

Daniel Riolobos, the winner, advanced his career thanks to the victory he got for Argentina, the first one that the South American country would get in the OTI Festival.

Ednita Nazario, who was selected internally by Telemundo to represent Puerto Rico in Caracas, is nowadays a very recognised personality in her home country, in Latin America and in the Spanish language communities of the United States of America. In the following edition of the OTI Festival, which was held in Buenos Aires, she was awarded for the composition of the winning song.^[14]

Delia Dorta, the second place winner, would become an important singer in the Venezuelan music scene after her second place in the contest. From then on, her voice would be heard in many TV commercials. She would also appear for many times in the programme Súper Sábado Sensacional, the most popular show aired by Venevisión.

Miltinho, the famous Brazilian samba performer who won fifth place in this edition of the OTI Festival, would go on with his already successful career releasing many studio albums and hit songs.

Other performers, such as the Peruvian José Escajadillo who specialised in Creollan music, would enjoy a successful career after getting the eleventh place in this edition of the festival with the song "Benito gazeta".