OTI Festival 1975

The OTI Festival 1975 (Spanish: Cuarto Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Quarto Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the fourth edition of the OTI Festival, held on 15 November 1975 at the WKAQ-TV studios in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and presented by Marisol Malaret and Eddie Miró. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcaster WKAQ-Telemundo, who staged the event after winning the 1974 festival for Puerto Rico with the song "Hoy canto por cantar" by Nydia Caro.

Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in the festival, repeating the record of participants of the previous year. The winner was the song "La felicidad" performed by Gualberto Castro representing Mexico; with "Amor de medianoche" by Cecilia representing Spain placing second; and "Campesino de ciudad" by Leonor González Mina representing Colombia and "Soy como el viento, soy como el mar" by Mirla Castellanos representing Venezuela both placing third.

According to the rules of the OTI Festival at the time, the winning broadcaster of the previous edition would host the festival the following year. The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) designated WKAQ-Telemundo, which was the winning broadcaster of the previous edition with the song "Hoy sólo canto por cantar" performed by Nydia Caro for Puerto Rico, as the host broadcaster of the 1975 edition.

The WKAQ-Telemundo hosting committee decided that San Juan was the only suitable city to host the event in the country. They selected their own television studios as the host venue, which according to the members of the committee, were suitable and with good equipment. The seating capacity of 1,000 seats was considered also as suitable although with a less seat capacity than the previous venues of the festival. The television studios of WKAQ-Telemundo in San Juan were built in 1954, the same year when that network started broadcasting in the country.

Broadcasters from nineteen countries participated in this edition of the OTI Festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain and eighteen Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. This equaled the same record number of participants achieved the previous edition. From the countries that participated in that edition, Honduras did not return due to the disappointment with their tenth place, while Argentina returned after having missed that festival.

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Guatemala and Mexico, selected their entries through their regular national televised competitions. Other broadcasters decided to select their entry internally.^[1]

One performing artist had represented the same country previously: Mirla Castellanos had represented Venezuela in 1972.^[2] One of the most well-known participants was Cecilia representing Spain, in what would become one of her last appearances, because less than a year later, she died in a car accident.^[3]

The festival was held on Saturday 15 November 1975, beginning at 19:00 AST (23:00 UTC). It was presented by Marisol Malaret and Eddie Miró. The musical director was Miguelito Miranda who conducted the orchestra when required. The draw to determine the running order (R/O) was held on 6 November live on WKAQ-Telemundo's Noche de Gala variety show.

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

The winner was the song "La felicidad" performed by Gualberto Castro representing Mexico; with "Amor de medianoche" by Cecilia representing Spain placing second; and "Campesino de ciudad" by Leonor González Mina representing Colombia and "Soy como el viento, soy como el mar" by Mirla Castellanos representing Venezuela both placing third.^[5][6]

Each participating broadcaster assembled a national jury located in its respective country, composed of five members each. Each juror gave one vote to its favorite entry and could not vote 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.

The festival was broadcast in the 19 participating countries, where the corresponding OTI member broadcasters relayed the contest through their networks after receiving it live via satellite.

Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.