The OTI Festival 1978 (, ) was the seventh edition of the OTI Festival, held on 2 December 1978 at the Municipal Theatre in Santiago, Chile, and presented by Raúl Matas and Raquel Argandoña. It was organised by the (OTI) and host broadcasters (TVN), (UCTV), (UTV), and (UCVTV). This was the first edition of the festival in which the winning broadcaster of the previous edition didn't host the following year.
Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "" written and performed by representing Brazil; with "", written by Ernesto Alejandro, and performed by Susy Leman representing the United States, placing second; and "", written by Lolita de la Colina, and performed by Lupita D'Alessio representing Mexico, placing third. This year's edition saw several important changes to the festival's format.
Location
The (OTI) opened a selection process to choose the host broadcaster for the seventh edition of the OTI Festival, to which all its member broadcasters were eligible to apply.
, which had won the 1977 festival for Nicaragua with the song "Quincho Barrilete" performed by Eduardo González, had the intention to host the contest at the Rubén Darío National Theatre in Managua, according to an internal committee of the company. However, the Nicaraguan Revolution was boosted by the Sandinistas in order to topple the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The outcome of the revolution was a violent civil war which caused a human and economical catastrophe in the country, which prevented the broadcaster from submitting his candidacy. This was the first time that the winning broadcaster of the previous edition didn't host the following year.
In March 1978, the OTI accepted at its 7th General Assembly the proposal of the Chilean broadcasters, among the applications it had received, and designated them as the host broadcasters of the 1978 festival. Four Chilean national television networks joined forces in order to host the festival. (TVN) organized the event together with (UCTV), (UTV), and (UCVTV). They agreed to allocate a budget of US$240,000 for the event. The Teleton 1978, which was originally scheduled to take place on the day chosen for the festival, was pushed one week to 8–9 December, since TVN and UCTV had already made agreements with the OTI.
The Chilean broadcasters staged the OTI Festival 1978 in Santiago. The venue selected was the Municipal Theatre, which is the most important stage theatre and opera house in the country, and can seat more than 1,500 spectators. It was opened in 1857 and was designed by Claudio Brunet des Baines. The building was built in French Neoclassical style and its entrance has been preserved despite the frequent fires, reforms, and reconstructions. They had full access to the venue from 24 November.
Right after the festival, a farewell dinner for the participating delegations was held at the 's pergola.
Participants 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. From the countries that participated in the previous edition, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Portugal didn't return. On the other hand, Paraguay made its debut at the festival.
It was not the first time that some countries decided to withdraw, but the broadcasters always justified their decision because of economical problems or disappointing placings. In this edition, for the first time, some of the non returning broadcasters cited political reasons for taking that decision. Portugal decided to be absent as a protest of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Nicaragua had to withdraw from the contest for two years because of the catastrophic situation created by the civil war, making this the first and only time that the winning country of the previous festival would not participate in the following edition. Guatemala decided to withdraw from the event, bitterly disappointed in the previous year's result. In addition, Bolivia, whose broadcaster was preparing its return, decided to rule out its participation because the new military government that emerged from the coup d'état that led to the overthrow of the president Hugo Banzer decided to break all diplomatic relationships with neighboring Chile.
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.
One performing artist had previously represented the same country in previous editions: had represented Brazil in 1976. The festival featured the OTI entry with the longest title ever: "" representing Chile. As was the case of the 1976 festival, all the competing songs were performed in Spanish.
+ Participants of the OTI Festival 1978 Country Broadcaster(s) Song Artist Songwriter(s) Language Conductor Argentina "" Carlos Bazán Diego Armando Fittipaldi Spanish Osvaldo Requena Brazil Rede Tupi "" Denisse de Kalafe Spanish Chile "" Florcita Motuda Raúl Alarcón Spanish Colombia "" Billy Pontoni Eduardo Cabas Spanish Alberto Nieto Costa Rica "" Fernando Vargas Waldo Spanish Juan Azúa Dominican Republic "" Hilda Saldaña Leonor Porcella de Brea Spanish Bienvenido Bustamante Ecuador "" Gracián Victoria Puig de Lange Spanish Claudio Fabbri El Salvador "" Álvaro Torres Juan Carlos Spanish Honduras "" Domingo Trimarchi Spanish Chucho Ferrer Mexico Televisa "" Lupita D'Alessio Lolita de la Colina Spanish Chucho Ferrer Netherlands Antilles ATM "" Trío Huazteca Spanish Roberto Montiel Panama "" Roger Barés Roger Barés Spanish Paraguay "" Rolando Percy Spanish Juan Azúa Peru "" Spanish Amadeo Rosano Puerto Rico Canal 2 Telemundo "" Rafael José Spanish Pedro Rivera Toledo Spain TVE "" Chema Purón Chema Purón Spanish United States SIN "" Susy Leman Ernesto Alejandro Spanish Juan Azúa Uruguay "" Horacio Paternó Lázaro Spanish Julio Frade Venezuela RCTV "" Francisco Belisario Spanish
Festival overview
The festival was held on Saturday 2 December 1978, beginning at 20:00 CLST (23:00 UTC). It was directed by Fernando Leighton, and presented by Raquel Argandoña and Raúl Matas. Matas had previously presented the inaugural OTI Festival back in 1972 in Madrid. The musical director was , who conducted the 41-piece orchestra and the mixed backing choir of six voices when required. The draw to determine the running order (R/O) was held on 31 October at the TVN headquarters located in Providencia.
The opening act consisted of a recorded performance by the on location at the doors of the theater. During the show, there were twelve two-minute segments featuring footage of places, people, and landscapes of Chile, filmed by the Tourism Board. Before the voting began, a demonstration was held using the stage set itself, which was designed by Ricardo Moreno. It began with the opening of the backdrop, then the stage floor lifted, revealing the national flag of Chile, while a panel lifted revealing the electronic scoreboard, finally showing the flags of each participating country on both sides of the scoreboard.
The winner was the song "" written and performed by representing Brazil; with "", written by Ernesto Alejandro, and performed by Susy Leman representing the United States, placing second; and "", written by Lolita de la Colina, and performed by Lupita D'Alessio representing Mexico, placing third. There was a plaque for each of the first three places. The first prize plaque was delivered by Eduardo Reina, vice-president of OTI; the second prize plaque by Nicanor González, president of the OTI programs committee; and the third prize plaque by Hernán García Barzelatto, vice-president of the OTI programs committee. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.
+ Results of the OTI Festival 1978 Country Song Artist Points Place 1 Puerto Rico "" Rafael José 35 4 2 Costa Rica "" Fernando Vargas 3 13 3 Chile "" Florcita Motuda 17 7 4 Spain "" Chema Purón 18 5 5 Paraguay "" Rolando Percy 0 18 6 United States "" Susy Leman 46 2 7 Netherlands Antilles "" Trío Huazteca 9 10 8 Ecuador "" Gracián 0 18 9 Peru "" Homero 6 12 10 El Salvador "" Álvaro Torres 1 16 11 Brazil "" 51 1 12 Uruguay "" Horacio Paternó 3 13 13 Mexico "" Lupita D'Alessio 44 3 14 Venezuela "" 2 15 15 Colombia "" Billy Pontoni 1 16 16 Honduras "" Domingo Trimarchi 12 8 17 Dominican Republic "" Hilda Saldaña 12 8 18 Argentina "" Carlos Bazán 7 11 19 Panama "" Roger Barés 18 5
Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the points for their respective jury in descending order. Known spokespersons at the 1978 festival are listed below.
Altagracia Arévalo Carmen Victoria Pérez
Detailed voting results This festival saw the first major change in the voting system in its history. Each participating broadcaster assembled a national jury located in its respective country, consisting of four voting members and a president who would only decide in case of a tie. Each voting member scored each performance, except the entry representing its own country, between 1 and 5 votes right after it was performed, and at the end the president totaled all the scores and awarded 5 points to the most voted, 4 to the second, and so on down to 1 point. 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 Chilean jury was the only one present in the hall.
All the countries gave their points remotely by telephone, except for Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Netherlands Antilles, and the Dominican Republic, which used the stand-in delegates. The countries voted in order of participation, but due to a communication problem with the spokesperson of Brazil, this had to be left for the end, with the country being unable to respond and having to also use the stand-in delegate.
+ Detailed voting results of the OTI Festival 1978 Voter: Voting countries Points scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="rowgroup" rowspan="19" Puerto Rico212333434114435 Costa Rica33 Chile2551417 Spain433312218 Paraguay0 United States43221244553332346 Netherlands Antilles 42129 Ecuador0 Peru 3126 El Salvador11 Brazil54554555215551 Uruguay1113 Mexico13 544245425544 Venezuela112 Colombia11 Honduras424212 Dominican Republic324312 Argentina527 Panama15313518
Broadcast The festival was broadcast in the 19 participating countries, and in Guatemala and Portugal, 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.
+ Broadcasters, commentators, and local presenters in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Local presenter(s) TVN rowspan="4" UTV UCTV UCVTV Inravisión Telecentro Telecentro Canal 6 rowspan="2" Teletica ATM TeleCuraçao TVE TVE 1 SIN
Reception