OTI Festival 1986

OTI Festival 1986
Date and venue
Final	15 November 1986 (1986-11-15)
Venue	Municipal Theatre Santiago, Chile
Organization
Organizer	Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI)
Supervisor	Darío de la Peña
Host broadcaster	Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) Universidad Católica de Chile Televisión (UCTV) Universidad de Chile Televisión (UTV)
Musical director	Horacio Saavedra [es]
Presenters	Pamela Hodar César Antonio Santis [es]
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	Canada
Returning countries	Bolivia
Non-returning countries	Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua Spain
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1986
Vote
Voting system	Each member of a single jury awards 5–1 points to its five favourite songs in a secret vote
Winning song	United States "Todos"
1985 ← OTI Festival → 1987

The OTI Festival 1986 (Spanish: Decimoquinto Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Décimo Quinto Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the 15th edition of the OTI Festival, held on 15 November 1986 at the Municipal Theatre in Santiago, Chile, and presented by Pamela Hodar and César Antonio Santis [es]. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcasters Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), Universidad Católica de Chile Televisión (UCTV), and Universidad de Chile Televisión (UTV).

Broadcasters from twenty countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "Todos" performed by Damaris Carbaugh, Miguel Ángel Guerra [es], and Eduardo Fabián representing the United States; with "De color de rosa" by Prisma representing Mexico placing second; and "A ti no te ha dicho" by Hugo Marcel [es] representing Argentina placing third.

The lead-up to the contest was met with controversy over calls for a boycott because it would being held under a military dictatorship. These came mainly from Spain, which did not participate for the first and only time in the history of the festival. The contest itself was interrupted by a power outage that affected major cities across the country and halted broadcasting for just over 15 minutes due to a bomb attack on a power tower.

Location

Municipal Theatre, Santiago – host venue of the OTI Festival 1986.

The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) designated Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN), Universidad Católica de Chile Televisión (UCTV), and Universidad de Chile Televisión (UTV) as the joint host broadcasters for the 15th edition of the OTI Festival. The broadcasters, who collectively presented themselves as La televisión chilena, staged the event in Santiago. The venue selected was the Municipal Theatre, which is the most important stage theatre and opera house in the country. It was opened in 1857 and was designed by Claudio Brunet des Baines. The theatre had already hosted the OTI Festival 1978.

Participants

Broadcasters from twenty countries participated in this edition of the OTI festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Portugal and nineteen Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. Canada participated for the first time and Bolivia returned after having missed the festival since 1983. From the countries that participated in the previous edition, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, and Spain did not return.

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile and Mexico, selected their entries through their regular national selections. Other broadcasters decided to select their entry internally.

Participants of the OTI Festival 1986^[1]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Argentina		Hugo Marcel [es]	"A ti no te ha dicho"	Spanish	Pedro Favini [es] Mono Flores	Mike Ribas [es]
Bolivia		Carlos Alejandro	"Para tocar lo más profundo"	Spanish	Carlos Alejandro Suárez	Javier Jorquera
Canada	TLN	Ricky Campbell	"Vamos a la fiesta"	Spanish	Ricky Campbell	Horacio Saavedra
Chile	TVN UCTV UTV	Pancho Puelma [es]	"Desde las nubes"	Spanish	Pancho Puelma	Pancho Aranda
Colombia	Inravisión	Noemí	"Ausencia"	Spanish	Alfonso de la Estriella	Carlos Montoya
Costa Rica		Cristina Gutiérrez	"Bendito seas, varón"	Spanish	Rodolfo Morales	Carlos Guzmán [es]
Dominican Republic		Cheo Zorrilla	"Sol de la noche"	Spanish	Cheo Zorrilla	Horacio Saavedra
Ecuador		Tannia López	"Pobres niños, pobre mundo"	Spanish	Jimmy Arias	Richard Anton
El Salvador	TCS	Jaime Turich	"Pensalo dos veces, Martín"	Spanish	Daniel Rucks [es]	Mario Zúñiga
Guatemala		Rodolfo Yela	"Amistad y esperanza"	Spanish	Chaty Bosschini	Horacio Saavedra
Honduras		Víctor Donayre	"Soy como soy"	Spanish	Víctor Donayre	Víctor Durán
Mexico	Televisa	Prisma	"De color de rosa"	Spanish	Sylvia Tapia	Julio Jaramillo
Panama		Paulette	"Quizás no es el momento"	Spanish	Paulette Thomas	Cristobal Muñoz
Paraguay		Rocío Cristal	"Papá"	Spanish	Rocío Cristal Casto Darío Martínez	Casto Darío Martínez
Peru		Francesco Petrozzi	"Aprenderé"	Spanish	José Ugas La Rosa Juan Miguel Salas	Horacio Saavedra
Portugal	RTP	Carlos Pedro	"Adeus à praia"	Portuguese	Rosa Lobato de Faria Thilo Krasmann [pt]	Thilo Krasmann
Puerto Rico	Canal 2 Telemundo	Maggy	"Tú y yo solos, nadie más"	Spanish	Pijuán	Pijuán
United States	SIN	Damaris Carbaugh, Miguel Ángel Guerra [es], and Eduardo Fabián	"Todos"	Spanish	Vilma Planas	Juan Salazar
Uruguay	Sociedad Televisora Larrañaga	Miguel Ángel Montiel	"Somos valientes"	Spanish	Miguel Ángel Montiel	Julio Frade
Venezuela		Nilda López	"Un nuevo amanecer"	Spanish	Luis Cruz	Horacio Saavedra

Festival overview

Mario Zúñiga conducting the festival orchestra for El Salvador.

The festival was held on Saturday 15 November 1986. It was presented by Pamela Hodar and César Antonio Santis [es]. The musical director was Horacio Saavedra [es], who conducted the 40-piece orchestra when required. Between the participating songs and during the interval act, fragments of the musical comedy La pérgola de las flores [es] were performed.

The winner was the song "Todos" performed by Damaris Carbaugh, Miguel Ángel Guerra [es], and Eduardo Fabián representing the United States; with "De color de rosa" by Prisma representing Mexico placing second; and "A ti no te ha dicho" by Hugo Marcel [es] representing Argentina placing third. Each of these entries received two trophies, one for the songwriters and one for the performer. The first prize trophies were delivered by Nicanor González, president of the OTI programs committee; the second prize trophies by Carlos Bombal, mayor of Santiago Centro; and the third prize trophies by Alfredo Escobar, vice-president of the OTI programs committee. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

  Winner

Results of the OTI Festival 1987^[1]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Place
1	Mexico	Prisma	"De color de rosa"	2
2	Costa Rica	Cristina Gutiérrez	"Bendito seas, varón"	—N/a
3	Peru	Francesco Petrozzi	"Aprenderé"	—N/a
4	Paraguay	Rocío Cristal	"Papá"	—N/a
5	El Salvador	Jaime Turich	"Pensalo dos veces, Martín"	—N/a
6	Dominican Republic	Cheo Zorrilla	"Sol de la noche"	—N/a
7	Bolivia	Carlos Alejandro	"Para tocar lo más profundo"	—N/a
8	Colombia	Noemí	"Ausencia"	—N/a
9	Ecuador	Tannia López	"Pobres niños, pobre mundo"	—N/a
10	Chile	Pancho Puelma [es]	"Desde las nubes"	—N/a
11	Argentina	Hugo Marcel [es]	"A ti no te ha dicho"	3
12	Puerto Rico	Maggy	"Tú y yo solos, nadie más"	—N/a
13	Guatemala	Rodolfo Yela	"Amistad y esperanza"	—N/a
14	Panama	Paulette	"Quizás no es el momento"	—N/a
15	Portugal	Carlos Pedro	"Adeus à praia"	—N/a
16	Honduras	Víctor Donayre	"Soy como soy"	—N/a
17	Venezuela	Nilda López	"Un nuevo amanecer"	—N/a
18	United States	Damaris Carbaugh, Miguel Ángel Guerra [es], and Eduardo Fabián	"Todos"	1
19	Uruguay	Miguel Ángel Montiel	"Somos valientes"	—N/a
20	Canada	Ricky Campbell	"Vamos a la fiesta"	—N/a

Jury

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. The members of the jury were:

• Verónica Castro – actress
• Jimmy Osmond – singer
• Don Francisco – television presenter
• Gloria del Paraguay – singer
• Sandro – singer
• Betty Pino – radio presenter
• Antonio Prieto – singer
• Nydia Caro – singer, won the festival for Puerto Rico in 1974
• Manuela Furtado – head of international relations at Radiotelevisão Portuguesa

Broadcast

The festival was broadcast in the 20 participating countries where the corresponding OTI member broadcasters relayed the contest through their networks after receiving it live via satellite. It was reported that it was additionally broadcast in other two countries.

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

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Chile	TVN		No commentary
	UTV	Canal 11
	UCTV	Canal 13

Incidents and controversies

Calls for a boycott

Spain did not participate for the first and only time in the history of the festival. On 16 July 1986, Televisión Española (TVE) sent a telegram to OTI formalizing its withdrawal showing its rejection to the Military dictatorship of Chile.^[2] Ramón Criado [es], the director of TVE, called on all other OTI members to follow TVE's decision and not participate in the festival.^[3] This decision, which was taken under José María Calviño [es] as the general director of the broadcaster, was reconsidered by Pilar Miró, the new general director who took office on 20 October, and tried to enter a song into the festival but was unsuccessful in such a short time.^[4]

The Venezuelan Radio and Television Workers' Union decided that none of its members would participate in the festival, in solidarity with Spain and in condemnation of the military regime. For this reason, singer Nilda López was expelled from the union after participating in the festival.^[5]

Power outage

Just after the performance of the song representing the United States, a power outage that affected most of the country interrupted the broadcast for just over 15 minutes. The power outage was caused by a bomb attack on a power tower claimed by the Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front. After the power was restored, the festival resumed normally, with no comment from the hosts on what had happened. The power outage not only affected the Santiago metropolitan area, but reportedly also other major cities in Chile, such as Valparaíso, Viña del Mar, and Concepción.^[6][7]

References

1. XV Festival de la canción OTI 1986 (Television programme) (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Televisión Nacional de Chile, Universidad Católica de Chile Televisión, and Universidad de Chile Televisión. 15 November 1986.
2. "TVE no participará" [TVE will not participate]. El País (in Spanish). 17 July 1986.
3. "Llamamiento de TVE en contra del Festival de la OTI en Chile" [TVE appeals against the OTI Festival in Chile]. Diario de Burgos (in Spanish). Burgos, Spain. 19 July 1986. p. 15 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers [es].
4. "Consejo de Administración de RTVE". Diario Palentino (in Spanish). Palencia, Spain. 13 November 1986. p. 22 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers [es].
5. "Expulsados por cantar en Chile" [Expelled for singing in Chile]. Diario de Burgos (in Spanish). Burgos, Spain. 25 November 1986. p. 35 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers [es].
6. "Apagón en Chile" [Power outage in Chile]. El País (in Spanish). 17 November 1986.
7. "Apagón y atentados en capial chilena" [Power outage and attacks in the Chilean capital]. El Tiempo (in Spanish). Bogotá, Colombia. 17 November 1986. p. 11-A. Retrieved 21 October 2025 – via Google Books.