Brazil in the OTI Festival

The participation of Brazil in the OTI Festival began at the first OTI Festival in 1972. The Brazilian participating broadcasters were Rede Tupi, Rede Globo, Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão (SBT), and Rede Record, which were members of the Organização da Televisão Ibero-americana (OTI). They participated in the event intermittently for seventeen editions until 1995. They won the festival three times: in 1972, 1978, and 1983; and Rede Tupi hosted the event once, in 1973.

Brazil withdrew from the event in 1985 and 1986 and returned in 1987. It withdrew again from 1988 to 1992. One year later, it made a brief return to the event until 1995. From 1996 on, Brazil retired definitively from the event.

The Brazilian OTI contestants were internally selected. Brazil was one of the most successful participating countries in the festival with three victories: The first of those victories came in 1972 in the first edition of the festival with the song "Diálogo" sung by Cláudia Regina and Tobias. The second Brazilian victory came in 1978 in Santiago de Chile with the song "El amor... cosa tan rara", which was performed in Spanish by Denisse de Kalafe. The third and last victory of Brazil took place in Washington D.C. in 1983 with the song "Estrela de papel" sung by Jessé. In total, Brazil managed to reach ten times the top 10.^[1]

Brazil hosted the OTI Festival in 1973, after winning the song contest the previous year, according to the original rules. The festival was held in the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte. The stage of the festival had soft colors, a background zone for the orchestra and a central platform where the performers competed and the event was presented by Walter Forster and Íris Lettieri. The event was hosted by Rede Tupi's affiliate TV Itacolomi.