Mexico in the OTI Festival

The participation of Mexico in the OTI Festival began at the second OTI Festival in 1973. The Mexican participating broadcaster was Televisa, which was member of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI). Televisa participated in twenty-seven of the twenty-eight editions, only missing the first edition. It won the festival six times: in 1973, 1975, 1985, 1989, 1990, and 1997; and it hosted the event also six times: 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1991, and 2000.

During the contest’s run, Mexico was one of the most successful countries with its six wins, including a back-to-back victory in 1989 and 1990, and fourteen top 3 finishes.

Telesistema Mexicano (TSM) had initially registered for the OTI Festival 1972, the first edition of the OTI Festival organized by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), and had selected through a national final the song "Yo no voy a la guerra", written by Roberto Cantoral, and performed by Alberto Ángel "El Cuervo", as its entry, but the song was disqualified by the OTI Program Commission because its lyrics didn't comply with the rules of the competition for going against "the idiosyncratic sensitivity or way of life of the Ibero-American peoples". The commission asked TSM to submit a new song, but it did not do so.^[1][2] So Televisa, TSM's successor, entered the festival for the first time in its second edition the following year.

TSM first, and Televisa later, had a long tradition of organizing large-scale multi-stage televised national competitions to select the Mexican entries to the OTI Festival. This "National OTI Festival", was passionately followed every year by the Mexican audience. Many well known singers and songwriters such as Juan Gabriel, Emmanuel, Lucero, Armando Manzanero, or the girl band Pandora, participated in the national selections, but didn't win the national final.^[3]

Mexico and Spain were the most successful countries of the history of the festival, with six victories each.^[4] The first Mexican victory came in its first participation, in 1973, with "Qué alegre va María" performed by Imelda Miller.^[5] Two year later, in 1975, it won with "La felicidad" performed by Gualberto Castro.^[6] One decade later, in 1985, it won with the song "El fandango aquí" performed by Eugenia León. This was a very controversial victory, which was attributed to the solidarity with the country because of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, that destroyed the capital city.^[7] In 1989 and 1990, Mexico got two consecutive wins with "Una canción no es suficiente" performed by Analí and "Un bolero" performed by Carlos Cuevas. Its last victory came in 1997 with the song "Se diga lo que se diga" performed by Iridián.

Televisa hosted the OTI festival six times, in 1974 and 1976 at the Ruiz de Alarcón Theatre in Acapulco. In 1981 and 1984 in Mexico City, being the National Auditorium the venue. In 1991, it hosted again the festival at the Convention Centre in Acapulco, the same venue where it hosted the last edition of the festival in 2000. Televisa was also going to host the contest in 1999 in Veracruz, but it had to be suspended due to the severe flooding that occurred in the country, which devastated the city.