Chile was represented at the OTI Festival 1983 with the song "", written and performed by . The Chilean participating broadcasters, (TVN), (UCTV), and (UTV), jointly selected their entry through a televised national final. The song, that was performed in position 8, was not among the top-five places revealed.
National stage (TVN), (UCTV), and (UTV), held a national final jointly to select their entry for the 12th edition of the OTI Festival. Nine songs were shortlisted for the televised final, from the 250 received, by a committee composed of: and Eduardo Domínguez from UCTV, Miguel Zabaleta from UTV, Luis Urquidi from TVN, and Carlos Humeres from the Chilean OTI commission. The songs were announced on 27 July 1983.
+ Competing entries on the national final – Chile 1983 Song Artist Songwriter(s) "" Osvaldo Leiva Osvaldo Leiva "" Humberto Onetto Humberto Onetto "" Ricardo Fuentealba Ricardo Fuentealba "" Wildo "" Juan Antonio Labra "" Nino García "" Gloria Simonetti María Angélica Ramírez "" Claudia Muñoz "" Antonio Zabaleta Antonio Zabaleta
The music videos for the songs were recorded at Filmocentro studios and broadcast by TVN's , UCTV's , and UTV's at different time slots, with three different songs being broadcast each week in the weeks leading up to the national final.
National final The national final was held on Tuesday 30 August 1983, and was presented by Paulina Nin. It was staged by TVN at its studios. The initial plan was for the show to be recorded in the afternoon to be broadcast that same evening; however, during the recording, they were notified that the broadcast was going to be postponed due to the national mourning declared after the of . To prevent the name of the winning song from being revealed, the jurors cast their votes in sealed envelopes. On Tuesday 6 September 1983, the envelopes were opened, the awards ceremony was recorded, and the full show was broadcast on TVN's , UCTV's , and UTV's beginning at 21:30 CLT (01:30+1 UTC).
The winner was "", written and performed by ; with "", written and performed by Antonio Zabaleta, placing second; and "" written and performed by Osvaldo Leiva placing third. The first prize was endowed with a monetary amount of CLP$200,000, the second prize of CLP$120,000, and the third prize of CLP$80,000.
+ Result of the national final – Chile 1983 Song Artist Points Result 1 "" Gloria Simonetti colspan="2" 2 "" colspan="2" 3 "" Antonio Zabaleta 30 2 4 "" Claudia Muñoz colspan="2" 5 "" 33 1 6 "" Osvaldo Leiva 26 3 7 "" Humberto Onetto colspan="2" 8 "" Ricardo Fuentealba colspan="2" 9 "" colspan="2"
At the OTI Festival On 29 October 1983, the OTI Festival was held at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., United States, hosted by Spanish International Network (SIN), and broadcast live throughout Ibero-America. Wildo performed "" in position 8, with Francisco Aranda conducting the event's orchestra. At the end, only the top five places were announced, and the Chilean entry was not one of them.
The festival was broadcast on TVN's , UCTV's , and UTV's on delay at 21:30 CLST (00:30+1 UTC).
Voting Each participating broadcaster, or group of broadcasters that jointly participated representing a country, appointed a juror who secretly scored each entry in a scale of 5–1 points, except for the entry representing its own country. The Chilean juror was Antonio Vodanovic.
References