OTI Festival 1987

The OTI Festival 1987 (Portuguese: Décimo Sexto Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana, Spanish: Decimosexto Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana) was the 16th edition of the OTI Festival, held on 24 October 1987 at Teatro São Luiz in Lisbon, Portugal, and presented by Ana Zanatti and Eládio Clímaco. It was organised by the Organização da Televisão Ibero-americana (OTI) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP). This was the second and last time the festival was held in a Portuguese-speaking country, the first being the 1973 festival.

Broadcasters from twenty-four countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "La felicidad está en un rincón de tu corazón" performed by Alfredo Alejandro representing Venezuela; with "Mi amigo el cóndor" by Gustavo Velázquez representing Ecuador placing second; and "¡Ay, amor!" by Ana Gabriel representing Mexico and "Bravo samurái" by Vicky Larraz representing Spain both placing third.

The Organização da Televisão Ibero-americana (OTI) designated Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) as the host broadcaster for the 16th edition of the OTI Festival. RTP staged the event in Lisbon. The venue selected was the Teatro São Luiz, a theatre opened in 1894 and designed by Louis Reynaud.

Broadcasters from twenty-four countries participated in this edition of the OTI festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain, Portugal, and twenty-two Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival, with Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands Antilles, and Nicaragua returning after having missed the previous edition. All the countries that had debuted at the festival until then participated this year. TeleAruba intended to participate independently in the festival for the first time, and had selected through a national final the song "Mi viejo", written by Don Ramon Krozendijk and Edwin Abath and performed by Abath himself, as the first entry representing Aruba in the festival; however, due to a miscommunication with OTI, the debut was not possible.^[1][2]

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile, Guatemala, 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.

The festival was held on Saturday 24 October 1987, beginning at 22:30 WET (22:30 UTC). It was directed by Luís Andrade, and presented by Ana Zanatti and Eládio Clímaco. This was the second and last time the festival was held in a Portuguese-speaking country (the first being the 1973 festival), so it was mainly presented in Portuguese. The musical director was Fernando Correia Martins, who conducted the 40-piece orchestra when required.

The show began with images of the arrival at the venue of Mário Soares –President of Portugal–, Aníbal Cavaco Silva –Prime Minister–, and his wife Maria Cavaco Silva, who attended the event. Several performances by the National Ballet of Portugal, filmed on location in Lisbon and Sintra and choreographed by Armando Jorge and José Arantes, were interspersed with the competing songs. The interval act consisted of a tribute to all the poets born in Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries with Paco Bandeira paying tribute to Pablo Neruda, Lara Li to Vinicius de Moraes, Janita Salomé to Federico García Lorca, and Teresa Tarouca to Luís de Camões.^[4]

The winner was the song "La felicidad está en un rincón de tu corazón" performed by Alfredo Alejandro representing Venezuela; with "Mi amigo el cóndor" by Gustavo Velázquez representing Ecuador placing second; and "¡Ay, amor!" by Ana Gabriel representing Mexico and "Bravo samurái" by Vicky Larraz representing Spain both placing third. There was a trophy for each of the first three places. The first prize trophy was delivered by Guillermo Cañedo, president of OTI; the second prize trophy by José Manuel Coelho Ribeiro, president of RTP; and the third prize trophy by Alfredo Escobar, representative of the OTI programs committee. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

Each of the nine members of the single jury awarded 5–1 points to its five favourite songs in a secret vote. The voting was supervised by OTI representative Darío de la Peña. Only the top three places were revealed, with third place awarded to two songs jointly. The members of the jury were:^[6]

• Amália Rodrigues – fado singer (chairperson)
• Jairo – singer-songwriter
• Geraldo Casé – television producer
• Mirla Castellanos – singer, represented Venezuela in 1972 and 1975
• Silvia Pinal – actress
• Massiel – singer
• Olga Guillot – singer
• Betty Missiego – singer, represented Peru in 1972
• Raul Solnado – actor

The festival was broadcast in the 24 participating countries where the corresponding OTI member broadcasters relayed the contest through their networks after receiving it live via satellite. It was reported that the event was also broadcast in Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia.^[6]

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

• 16th OTI Festival, Lisbon 1987 at RTVE Play (in Portuguese)