The participation of the Aruba in the OTI Festival began at the eighteenth OTI Festival in 1989. The Aruban participating broadcaster was TeleAruba, which was member of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI). TeleAruba only participated in two editions, in 1989 and 1991.
Since ATM began selecting its entry for the OTI Festival through a national final in 1978, a public pre-selection to choose its entries for the Antillean national final was constantly held in Aruba. Of the eight Antillean national finals in which Aruba was involved, seven were won by Aruban entires, and represented the Netherlands Antilles in the festival.
Although the official languages of Aruba were Dutch and Papiamento, a Portuguese-based creole language influenced by Dutch and Spanish, all entries in the festival were presented in Spanish.
For its debut in the 1987 festival, TeleAruba selected though a national final the song "Mi viejo", written by Don Ramon Krozendijk and Edwin Abath and performed by Abath himself.[1] But due to a miscommunication with OTI, the debut of Aruba in the festival was not possible in 1987. TeleAruba announced that it would enter the song in the 1988 festival;[2] but this did not happen until the 1989 festival.[3]
