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Mexico in the OTI Festival
OTI Festival
Participating broadcaster	Televisa
Participation summary
Appearances	27
First appearance	1973
Last appearance	2000
Highest placement	1st:1973,1975,1985,1989,1990,1997
Host	1974,1976,1981,1984,1991,2000
Participation history 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000

The participation ofMexico in the OTI Festival began at the secondOTI Festival in1973. The Mexican participating broadcaster wasTelevisa, which was member of theOrganización 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: in1973,1975,1985,1989,1990, and1997; and it hosted the event also six times:1974,1976,1981,1984,1991, and2000.

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 theOTI Festival 1972, the first edition of theOTI Festival organized by theOrganización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), and had selected the song "Yo no voy a la guerra", written byRoberto Cantoral, and performed byAlberto Ángel "El Cuervo" [es], 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 on such short notice.^[1][2]

SoTelevisa, TSM's successor, entered the contest for the first time the following year in thesecond edition of the contest. Mexico was the most successful country of the history of the festival along withSpain, with six victories each. Apart from the victories, the country ended in the top 10 on nineteen occasions.^[3]

The first Mexican victory came in its first participation, in 1973 inBelo Horizonte, with the song "Qué alegre va María" sung byImelda Miller [es].^[4] Two year later, in1975, the country won again the contest inSan Juan with the song "La felicidad" sung byGualberto Castro.^[5] One decade later, in 1985, México won again with the song "El fandango aquí" sung byEugenia León. This was a very controversial victory, which was attributed to the solidarity with the country because of the1985 Mexico City earthquake, that destroyed the capital city.^[6] In 1989 and 1990 Mexico got two consecutive wins with "Una canción no es suficiente" sung by Analí and "Un bolero" sung by Carlos Cuevas. The last Mexican victory came in 1997 inLima with the song "Se diga lo que se diga" sung by Iridián.

Televisa hosted the OTI festival six times, in1974 and1976 in the Ruiz de Alarcón Theatre inAcapulco. In 1981 and 1984 inMexico City, being theNational Auditorium the venue. In 1991, Acapulco hosted again the festival in the Convention Centre, the same venue where the last edition of the contest was held in 2000. Televisa was also going to host the contest in 1999 inVeracruz, but it had to be suspended due to thesevere flooding that occurred in the country, which devastated the city.

The Mexican trajectory in the OTI Festival is known for its popular national final, the "National OTI Festival", which was passionately followed every year by the Mexican audience and known by its surprises and frequent scandals. This selection process is usually compared with its SwedishEurovision Song Contest counterpart, theMelodifestivalen, due to the interest that it created and the big names who tried to represent México in the OTI Festival.^[7]

• Mexico in the OTI Festival
• Music of Mexico

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