OTI Festival 1981

The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (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.^[1]

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.^[2]

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^[3]

Country	Broadcaster	Song	Artist	Songwriter(s)	Language	Conductor
Argentina		"Súbete a mi nube"	Marianella	Chico Novarro Mike Ribas [es]	Spanish	Mike Ribas
Brazil	SBT	"Renascença"	Cláudya	Edmundo Villani-Côrtes	Portuguese
Chile	TVN UCTV UTV	"Si hoy tenemos que cantar a tanta gente, pensémoslo"	Florcita Motuda	Raúl Alarcón	Spanish
Colombia	Inravisión[a]	"Si nací por amor, yo nací para amar"	Jaime D'Alberto	Jaime D'Alberto	Spanish
Costa Rica	Telecentro Teletica	"Cantaré"	Juan Carlos Wong G.	Linnette Madrigal Luis Marín	Spanish
Ecuador		"América"	Hermanos Diablo	Juan Carlos Terán G.	Spanish
El Salvador		"El latinoamericano"	Eduardo Fuentes	Carlos Alberto Hernández	Spanish
Guatemala		"Estoy loco"	Sergio Iván	Hilda Cofiño	Spanish
Honduras		"Ven"	Oneyda	Alberto Valladares	Spanish
Mexico	Televisa	"Lo que pasó, pasó"	Yoshio	Felipe Gil	Spanish
Netherlands Antilles	ATM	"Vaya un amigo"	Efrem Benita	Efrem Benita	Spanish
Nicaragua	SSTV	"Asi te quiero yo"	Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy [es]	Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy	Spanish
Panama		"Pero ayer fuiste sólo María"	Roger Barés	Pablo Azael	Spanish
Paraguay	TCC	"Vos y yo seremos todos"	Alberto de Luque [es]	Alberto de Luque Humberto Rubín	Spanish
Peru	CPR	"Hombre de mis sueños"	Gladys Mercado	Violeta Roggero	Spanish
Portugal	RTP	"Uma lágrima"	José Cid	José Cid	Portuguese
Puerto Rico	Canal 2 Telemundo	"Mírame a los ojos"	Glenn Monroig	Glenn Monroig	Spanish
Spain	TVE	"Latino"	Francisco [es]	Pablo Herrero José Luis Armenteros	Spanish	Jesús Glück [es]
United States	SIN	"Cuando fuiste mujer"	Aldo Matta	Vilma Planas Héctor Garrido	Spanish	Héctor Garrido
Uruguay	Sociedad Televisora Larrañaga	"Olvidemos recordando"	Ariel	Mario de Azagra	Spanish
Venezuela		"Aquel ciego"	Neyda Perdomo	César Menessini	Spanish

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 "Latino" performed by Francisco [es] representing Spain; with "Súbete a mi nube" by Marianella representing Argentina placing second; and "Lo que pasó, pasó" by Yoshio representing Mexico and "Cuando fuiste mujer" 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^[3]

R/O	Country	Song	Artist	Points	Result
1	Portugal	"Uma lágrima"	José Cid	14	10
2	Uruguay	"Olvidemos recordando"	Ariel	4	19
3	El Salvador	"El latinoamericano"	Eduardo Fuentes	11	12
4	Nicaragua	"Asi te quiero yo"	Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy [es]	15	8
5	Venezuela	"Aquel ciego"	Neyda Perdomo	7	17
6	United States	"Cuando fuiste mujer"	Aldo Matta	22	3
7	Guatemala	"Estoy loco"	Sergio Iván	1	21
8	Spain	"Latino"	Francisco [es]	51	1
9	Ecuador	"América"	Hermanos Diablo	11	12
10	Panama	"Pero ayer fuiste sólo María"	Roger Barés	7	17
11	Puerto Rico	"Mírame a los ojos"	Glenn Monroig	8	15
12	Netherlands Antilles	"Vaya un amigo"	Efrem Benita	2	20
13	Brazil	"Renascença"	Cláudya	14	10
14	Honduras	"Ven"	Oneyda	16	7
15	Colombia	"Si nací por amor, yo nací para amar"	Jaime D'Alberto	18	5
16	Mexico	"Lo que pasó, pasó"	Yoshio	22	3
17	Peru	"Hombre de mis sueños"	Gladys Mercado	11	12
18	Paraguay	"Vos y yo seremos todos"	Alberto de Luque [es]	15	8
19	Argentina	"Súbete a mi nube"	Marianella	40	2
20	Costa Rica	"Cantaré"	Juan Carlos Wong G.	8	15
21	Chile	"Si hoy tenemos que cantar a tanta gente, pensémoslo"	Florcita Motuda	18	5

Each participating broadcaster^[b] 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.

•  Spain – Pepe Domingo Castaño
•  Peru – Luis Ángel Pinasco [es]

Each participating broadcaster^[b] 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. 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.^[c]