OTI Festival 1975

The OTI Festival 1975 is the fourth edition of the OTI Festival which was held on November 15 in San Juan, the capital city of Puerto Rico. This fourth edition of the Pan-Latin song contest was presented by the winner of Miss Universe 1970 Marisol Malaret and by Eddie Miró, a television show host in Puerto Rico. The number of participating countries repeated the record of the previous year of 19 countries.

OTI Festival 1975
Dates
Grand final	November 15, 1975
Host
Venue	Telemundo TV Studios, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Presenter(s)	Marisol Malaret Eddie Miro
Host broadcaster	Telemundo
Opening act	Nydia Caro: Hoy Canto por cantar Telemundo Symphonic Orchestra
Participants
Number of entries	19
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Argentina
Non-returning countries	Honduras
Vote
Voting system	Each country had 5 jurors and each of them voted for their favourite entry.
Nul points	El Salvador  Bolivia
Winning song	Mexico Gualberto Castro: La felicidad (The happiness)

Background

According to the original rules of the song contest, the winner country of the previous year would host and organise the edition of the following year. In this case, Puerto Rico, its participating broadcaster Telemundo and its entrant Nydia Caro were the winners of the previous year's show with the song "Hoy sólo canto por cantar". According to the same rules, the Caribbean island would turn into the host place of the festival in 1975. In fact, after a committee held between the top members of Telemundo, it was decided that San Juan, the capital city was the only suitable host city for the OTI Festival in Puerto Rico.

Venue

The top members of Telemundo, the participating broadcasting in the event decided that the festival would not be held in a theatre or an exposition complex. It was decided instead that the event would take place in the TV studios of Telemundo in San Juan, which according to the members of the committee, were suitable and with good equipment. The seating capacity of the studios was considered also as suitable (1000 seats) although with a minor seat capacity than the previous venues of the festival.

The TV Studios of Telemundo in San Juan were built in 1954, the same year when that TV channel started broadcasting to the Puerto Rican audience. The channel, which had been created by the businessman Ángel Ramos, was in 1975 one of the main media companies in the island before expanding to the Spanish speaking communities of the United States of America.

Participating countries

The number of participating countries repeated the last year's record of 19 countries. It must be taken into account the return of Argentina to the festival although other countries such as Portugal and its broadcaster RTP, whose return to the contest was expected, later ruled out sending a delegation to San Juan.

Other countries such as Honduras, which debuted the previous year, decided to withdraw from this edition due to the disappointment with their previous year's tenth place. The rest of the Central American countries which also had debuted back in 1974 with a different fate alongside countries such as Ecuador, United States and the Netherlands Antilles also confirmed their participation in this new edition of the event.

Participating performers

One of the most prominent entrants in the fourth edition of the OTI Festival was the Spaniard singer-songwriter Evangelina Sobredo Galanes, better known in the artistic world as Cecilia.[1] This singer, who was internally selected by RTVE would take part in the festival with the song "Amor de medianoche" (Midnight love), which was composed by Juan Carlos Calderón, who also composed that year's Spanish entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly her participation in the festival would turn into one of the singer's last appearances because less than a year later she died in a traffic accident.

The participation of the Chilean Osvaldo Díaz must be also taken into account. He was selected through a national final as the Chilean Broadcaster did the previous years. He would represent his country later in 1990.[2]

The Mexican entrant was also selected in a national final, in this case, the "National OTI Contest", the successful and enormously popular selection process that Televisa used to produce every year. The participating song entitled "La felicidad" Composed by Felipe Gil and performed by Gualberto Castro won the National Final and got the ticket to San Juan.

Venezuela and their broadcaster Venevision also gave a significant fact to the event. The participating TV Channel again selected internally the well-known female singer Mirla Castellanos who had already represented her home country back in 1972 in Madrid.[3]

Presenters

Just like in the previous year, two presenters were the ones who hosted the event. This time the mistresses of ceremonies were the former Miss Universe 1970 Marisol Malaret and Beba Franco another former beauty contest participant.

There were two opening acts, One of them was the winning song of the previous year "Hoy sólo canto por cantar" by Nydia Caro.

As the previous presenters used to do, the presenters made a little introduction to the show by highlighting the main goals of the OTI as an organization and of the OTI Festival as a musical competition, which was to strengthen the musical cultural ties between the Spanish speaking and Portuguese speaking countries. The introductory speech, in which also was explained the voting process, was made both in Spanish and Portuguese languages.

After the introduction, both presenters introduced the performers and their countries short before they took the stage and after the performance round was over, they contacted telephonically the TV channels of the participating broadcasters to know the decision of the jurors.

Running order

As happened in previous years, the host broadcaster, in this case Telemundo in collaboration with the Iberoamerican Television Organisation (OTI), organised a draw in San Juan few days before the event took place.

The performance round was opened by Bolivia and their entrant Óscar Roca with his song "Por esas cosas te amo" (For things such as those I love you) which did not receive a warm welcome.

The Spanish entrant and the favourite one for an important part of the audience entered the fifth to the stage.

The host country, in this case, Puerto Rico and their entrants, the New York City-based band Los Hispanos, were the eleventh ones to take the stage with their song "¿A donde vas amigo?" (Where are you going to... my friend?).

The performance round was ended by the entrant coming from Panama, the internally selected by TVN Pablo Azael with the song "Tu y yo" (You and me).

As happened the previous year in Acapulco, almost all the participating shows were performed in Spanish except the Brazilian entry which was sung in Portuguese.

#	Country	Artist	Song	Language
1	Bolivia	Óscar Roca	Por esas cosas te amo (For those little things I love you)	Spanish
2	El Salvador	Eduardo Fuentes	Trataré de olvidarte (I will try to forget you)	Spanish
3	Perú	Gladys Mercado	Que lindo es el amor! (How beautiful is love!)	Spanish
4	Chile	Osvaldo Díaz	Las puertas del mundo (The doors of the world)	Spanish
5	Spain	Cecilia	Amor de medianoche (Midnight love)	Spanish
6	Brazil	Raphael	Deseo (Desire)	Portuguese
7	Argentina	Marty Cosens	Dos habitantes (Two inhabitants)	Spanish
8	Guatemala	Mario Vides	Vivirás pensando en alguien más (You will live thinking about someone else)	Spanish
9	Nicaragua	Mauricio Peña	Quiero agradecer al mundo (I want to thank the world)	Spanish
10	United States	José Antonio	Para ganar tu corazón (To win your heart)	Spanish
11	Puerto Rico	Los Hispanos	Dónde vas amigo? (Where are you going to... my friend?)	Spanish
12	Netherlands Antilles	George Willems	Una flor en el balcón (A flower in the balcony)	Spanish
13	Colombia	Leonor González Mina	Campesino de ciudad (City farmer)	Spanish
14	Uruguay	Ricardo Montaña	Quiero nacer (I want to born)	Spanish
15	Venezuela	Mirla Castellanos	Soy como el viento, soy como el mar (I'm like the wind, I'm like the sea)	Spanish
16	Mexico	Gualberto Castro	La felicidad (The happiness)	Spanish
17	Dominican Republic	Luchi Vicioso	La vida está intranquila (Life is unquiet)	Spanish
18	Ecuador	Miriam Constante	Quiero componer el mundo con mis manos (I want to compose the world with my own hands)	Spanish
19	Panama	Pablo Azael	Tu y yo (You and me)	Spanish

Voting system

The voting system followed the same dynamics of the previous years in which the juries were contacted telephonically by the presenters. The juries were composed again by five professional jurors who elected, each one, only their favourite song among the participating entries.

The national juries of every country were contacted directly by telephone by the presenters from the Telemundo Studios in San Juan in order to know the decision of the jurors.

Result

This time there was an enormously clear victory from the Mexican entrant Gualberto Castro whose song "La felicidad" was warmly welcomed by the national juries of the participating broadcasters. In fact, the winning song won with six points of difference in comparison with the second classificate, the Spaniard Cecilia.[4]

Gualberto Castro, who was already enjoying a celebrity status thanks to his victory in the Mexican national final, the "National OTI Contest" turned into one of the most popular and respected singers in Mexico. His participating song not only turned into a hit in Mexico but also in the rest of Latin America where he performed in various events and festivals.

The second Classificate Cecilia had already a successful career in Spain but her second place in the OTI Festival supposed for her leap to the Latin American audience in which she also enjoyed a moderate but growing popularity.

The third position of the Venezuelan performer Mirla Castellanos with a record of points awarded to her country lead to the consolidation of her career both in Venezuela and in Latin America. In fact, she even improved the fourth place that she got in the OTI Festival in Madrid back in 1972. She was in a tie with the neighbouring fellow Colombian performer Leonor Gonzalez Mina, who also got the third place with ten points.

The host contestants, the band Los Hispanos, got a respectable fifth position with five points.

This time two countries ended in the last place with zero points. Bolivia and El Salvador didn't manage to win the attention of the international jurors who didn't award points to their performers.

#	Country	Artist	Song	Place	Points
1	Bolivia	Óscar Roca	Por esas cosas te amo	17	0
2	El Salvador	Eduardo Fuentes	Trataré de olvidarte	17	0
3	Peru	Gladys Mercado	Qué lindo es el amor	10	3
4	Chile	Osvaldo Díaz	Las puertas del mundo	5	5
5	Spain	Cecilia	Amor de medianoche	2	14
6	Brazil	Raphael	Deseo	8	4
7	Argentina	Marty Cosens	Dos habitantes	10	3
8	Guatemala	Mario Vides	Vivirás pensando en alguien más	14	2
9	Nicaragua	Mauricio Peña	Quiero agradecer al mundo	8	4
10	United States	José Antonio	Para ganar tu corazón	5	5
11	Puerto Rico	Los Hispanos	Dónde vas, amigo	5	5
12	Antillas Neerlandesas	George Willems	Una flor en el balcón	10	3
13	Colombia	Leonor González Mina	Campesino de ciudad	3	10
14	Uruguay	Ricardo Montaña	Quiero nacer	10	3
15	Venezuela	Mirla Castellanos	Soy como el viento, soy como el mar	3	10
16	Mexico	Gualberto Castro	La felicidad	1	20
17	Dominican Republic	Luchi Vicioso	La vida está intranquila	14	2
18	Ecuador	Miriam Constante	Quiero componer el mundo con mis manos	17	0
19	Panama	Pablo Azael	Tú y yo	14	2

Audience and impact

The winner of the OTI Festival 1975 Gualberto Castro.

This time the viewing figures were slightly lower due to the technical issues that Telemundo had to face during the international airing of the OTI Festival outside Puerto Rico. Due to those issues, the OTI audience could not see the first part of the event. Anyway, the festival was seen by a large part of the Latin American audience and was considered by Telemundo a success not only for the broadcaster, but also for Puerto Rico as an international event host.

As was the case two years before with Imelda Miller, the Mexican audience saw with great interest the victory of their contestant Gualberto Castro and he was warmly received back to Mexico City.[5]

References

1. "Especial Cecilia Festival de la OTI TVE 1975". Comunidad Cincuentopía (in Spanish). April 26, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
2. "Osvaldo Díaz". Osvaldo Díaz | MusicaPopular.cl (in Spanish). Retrieved December 10, 2017.
3. "Mirla Castellanos: Así llegó a convertirse en "La Primerísima"". Analitica.com (in Spanish). August 9, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
4. "1975.- SAN JUAN". La OTI. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
5. "gualberto castro – El Rugido de León". elrugidodeleon.com (in Spanish). Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 10, 2017.