The OTI Festival 1981 (, ) 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 (OTI) and host broadcaster Televisa.

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "", written by Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros, and performed by representing Spain; with "", written by Chico Novarro and , and performed by Marianella representing Argentina, placing second; and "", written by Felipe Gil, and performed by Yoshio representing Mexico, and "", written by Vilma Planas and Héctor Garrido, and performed by Aldo Matta representing the United States, both placing third.

Location

The (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.

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.

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.

+ Participants of the OTI Festival 1981 Country Broadcaster(s) Song Artist Songwriter(s) Language Conductor Argentina Canal Once "" Marianella Spanish Mike Ribas Brazil TV Cultura "" Cláudya Edmundo Villani-Côrtes Portuguese Chile "" Florcita Motuda Raúl Alarcón Spanish Colombia "" Jaime D'Alberto Jaime D'Alberto Spanish Costa Rica "" Juan Carlos Wong G. Spanish Ecuador "" Hermanos Diablo Juan Carlos Terán G. Spanish El Salvador "" Eduardo Fuentes Carlos Alberto Hernández Spanish Guatemala "" Sergio Iván Hilda Cofiño Spanish Honduras "" Oneyda Alberto Valladares Spanish Mexico Televisa "" Yoshio Felipe Gil Spanish Netherlands Antilles ATM "" Efrem Benita Efrem Benita Spanish Nicaragua SSTV "" Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy Spanish Panama "" Roger Barés Pablo Azael Spanish Paraguay TCC "" Spanish Peru CPR "" Gladys Mercado Violeta Roggero Spanish Portugal RTP "" José Cid José Cid Portuguese Puerto Rico Canal 2 Telemundo "" Glenn Monroig Glenn Monroig Spanish Spain TVE "" Spanish United States SIN "" Aldo Matta Spanish Héctor Garrido Uruguay "" Ariel Mario de Azagra Spanish Venezuela "" Neyda Perdomo César Menessini Spanish

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 "", written by Pablo Herrero and José Luis Armenteros, and performed by representing Spain; with "", written by Chico Novarro and , and performed by Marianella representing Argentina, placing second; and "", written by Felipe Gil, and performed by Yoshio representing Mexico, and "", 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.

+ Results of the OTI Festival 1981 Country Song Artist Points Result 1 Portugal "" José Cid 14 10 2 Uruguay "" Ariel 4 19 3 El Salvador "" Eduardo Fuentes 11 12 4 Nicaragua "" 15 8 5 Venezuela "" Neyda Perdomo 7 17 6 United States "" Aldo Matta 22 3 7 Guatemala "" Sergio Iván 1 21 8 Spain "" 51 1 9 Ecuador "" Hermanos Diablo 11 12 10 Panama "" Roger Barés 7 17 11 Puerto Rico "" Glenn Monroig 8 15 12 Netherlands Antilles "" Efrem Benita 2 20 13 Brazil "" Cláudya 14 10 14 Honduras "" Oneyda 16 7 15 Colombia "" Jaime D'Alberto 18 5 16 Mexico "" Yoshio 22 3 17 Peru "" Gladys Mercado 11 12 18 Paraguay "" 15 8 19 Argentina "" Marianella 40 2 20 Costa Rica "" Juan Carlos Wong G. 8 15 21 Chile "" Florcita Motuda 18 5

Spokespersons Each participating broadcaster 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. Pepe Domingo Castaño Janet Arceo

Detailed voting results Each participating broadcaster 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.

+ Detailed voting results of the OTI Festival 1981 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="col" scope="col" scope="rowgroup" rowspan=21 Portugal 3 4 4 12 14 Uruguay 4 4 El Salvador 2 2 1 1 5 11 Nicaragua4 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 22 1 511 Panama 3 4 7 Puerto Rico 5 2 1 8 Netherlands Antilles 1 12 Brazil 4 2 2 2 2214 Honduras 4 3 3 3316 Colombia 4 5 4 1 4 18 Mexico1 5 34 141 3 22 Peru 1 3 3 411 Paraguay 5 5 1 3 1 15 Argentina 24 5 5 3 2 4 3 3 5 4 40 Costa Rica 5 3 8 Chile 1 2 22 3 2 1 518

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.

+ Broadcasters, commentators, and local presenters in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Local presenter(s) Canal Once TVN rowspan="3" UTV UCTV Telecentro Telecentro Canal 6 rowspan="2" rowspan="2" Teletica Televisa ATM TeleAruba rowspan="2" rowspan="2" TeleCuraçao RTP RTP1 TVE TVE 1 SIN

Notes

References