OTI Festival 1977
Date and venue
Final	12 November 1977 (1977-11-12)
Venue	Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid auditorium Madrid, Spain
Organization
Organizer	Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI)
Supervisor	Condorcet Da Silva Costa
Host broadcaster	Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE)
Musical director	Rafael Ibarbia
Presenters	Mari Cruz Soriano Miguel de los Santos [es]
Participants
Number of entries	21
Returning countries	Portugal Dominican Republic
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 1977
Vote
Voting system	Each country's three-member jury had three votes to distribute as wished
Winning song	Nicaragua "Quincho Barrilete"
1976 ← OTI Festival → 1978

OTI Festival 1977 (Spanish: Sexto Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Sexto Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the sixth edition of the OTI Festival, held on 12 November 1977 at the auditorium of the Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid in Madrid, Spain, and presented by Mari Cruz Soriano and Miguel de los Santos [es]. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), who staged the event after winning the 1976 festival for Spain with the song "Canta cigarra [es]" by María Ostiz [es].

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in the festival, setting a new record for the number of participating entries. The winner was the song "Quincho Barrilete" performed by Eduardo "Guayo" González representing Nicaragua.

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 Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), which was the winning broadcaster of the previous edition with the song "Canta cigarra [es]" by María Ostiz [es] for Spain, as the host broadcaster of the 1977 edition.

The RTVE hosting committee decided that Madrid was the most suitable city to host the OTI Festival, due to its notable infrastructure and experience in hosting international expositions and also because of its growing reputation as a tourist hub.^[1] The venue selected was at the auditorium of the Centro Cultural de la Villa de Madrid, a venue located under the Jardines del Descubrimiento at Plaza de Colón. This cultural center was inaugurated on 15 May 1977, a few months before the festival. In 2007, the auditorium was renamed Teatro Fernán Gómez.

The stage of the festival had a triangular shape and a light blue color with some metallic elements on top and the OTI logo in one of the corners. The stage was divided in two parts, the orchestral one and the central one, where the competing singers and bands gave their performances. There was a black scoreboard with electromechanical flip white numbers on the right side of the hall.

Broadcasters from twenty-one countries participated in this edition of the OTI Festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain, Portugal, and nineteen Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. This number of participants broke the previous record of nineteen participants that was reached in 1974. All the countries that participated in the previous edition returned, joined by Portugal, which had missed the festival since 1974, and the Dominican Republic, which had missed the 1976 edition.

Some of the participating broadcasters, such as those representing Chile, Guatemala, and Mexico, selected their entries through their regular national televised competitions. Other broadcasters, among them the host broadcaster, decided to select their entry internally.

Both Portugal and Brazil sent their entries in Portuguese, although the last lines of the Brazilian entry were performed in Spanish, making it the first and only bilingual song of the history of the festival.

Participants of the OTI Festival 1977^[2]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Argentina	Teleonce	Jerónimo [es]	"Jugar a vivir"	Spanish	Juan José Camero Jerónimo	Javier Iturralde
Brazil	Rede Tupi	Lolita Rodrigues	"Pedindo amor"[3]	Portuguese Spanish	Enéas Machado de Assis [pt]	Élcio Álvarez
Chile	TVN UCTV UTV UCVTV	Capri	"Oda a mi guitarra"	Spanish	Nano Acevedo [es]	Juan Azúa [es]
Colombia	Inravisión[a]	Ximena	"Cantando"	Spanish	Raúl Rosero Polo [es]	Diego Rodríguez
Costa Rica	Telecentro	Manuel Chamorro	"Melodía de los amantes"	Spanish	Manuel Chamorro	Jonathán Zarzosa
Dominican Republic		Fernando Casado	"Al nacer cada enero"	Spanish	Cheo Zorrilla	Rafael Ibarbia
Ecuador		Marielisa	"Sonreir cuando quiero llorar"	Spanish	Luis Padilla Guevara [es]	Claudio Fabbri
El Salvador		Ana Marcela D'Antonio	"Enséñame a vivir"	Spanish	Ana Marcela D'Antonio	Rafael Ibarbia
Guatemala		Mildred y Manolo	"El verbo amar"	Spanish	Julio César del Valle	Rafael Ibarbia
Honduras		Tony Morales	"El hombre"	Spanish	Rodolfo Bonilla	Rafael Ibarbia
Mexico	Televisa	Napoleón	"Hombre"	Spanish	Napoleón	Jonathán Zarzosa
Netherlands Antilles	ATM	Ced Ride [nl]	"Gente eres tú"	Spanish	Ced Ride	Rafael Ibarbia
Nicaragua	Televicentro de Nicaragua	Guayo González	"Quincho Barrilete"	Spanish	Carlos Mejía Godoy	Manolo Gas
Panama	RPC TV	Leopoldo Hernández	"Canta a la vida"	Spanish	Leopoldo Hernández	Rafael Ibarbia
Peru	Panamericana Televisión	Cecilia Bracamonte	"Landó [es]"	Spanish	Chabuca Granda	Pancho Sáenz
Portugal	RTP	Paulo de Carvalho	"Amor sem palavras"	Portuguese	Joaquim Pessoa [pt] Paulo de Carvalho	Thilo Krasmann [pt]
Puerto Rico	Canal 2 Telemundo	Aqua Marina	"Piel dorada"	Spanish	Edgardo Díaz Leyda Colón César Antonio Reyes	Wilson Torres Jr.
Spain	TVE	Trigo Limpio	"Rómpeme mátame"	Spanish	Juan Carlos Calderón	Juan Carlos Calderón
United States	SIN	Lissette	"Si hay amor, volverá"	Spanish	Lissette	Frank Fiore
Uruguay	Sociedad Televisora Larrañaga	Miguel Bobbio	"Quiero vivir"	Spanish	Mario de Azagra	Julio Frade
Venezuela	RCTV	Héctor José	"Iberoamérica toda"	Spanish	Esteban Ballester Hernán Ríos	Cholo Ortiz

The festival was held on Saturday 12 November 1977, beginning at 24:00 CET (23:00 UTC).^[b] It was presented by Mari Cruz Soriano and Miguel de los Santos [es]. The musical director was Rafael Ibarbia who conducted the 44-piece RTVE Light Music Orchestra and the mixed choir of six voices when required. The draw to determine the running order (R/O) was held at Prado del Rey a few days before the event. The show featured an orchestral performance of "Canta cigarra", the winning song from the previous year.

The winner was the song "Quincho Barrilete" performed by Eduardo "Guayo" González representing Nicaragua. Its performer and its conductor received a trophy each, while its songwriter received two,^[c] one for composer and another for lyricist. The trophy for the performer was delivered by María Ostiz; the one for the lyricist by Luis Ezcurra, vice-president of OTI; the one for the conductor by Jesús Álvarez Botero, president of the OTI programs committee; and the one for the composer by Guillermo Cañedo, president of OTI. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

Results of the OTI Festival 1977^[2]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Votes	Place
1	Netherlands Antilles	Ced Ride [nl]	"Gente, eres tú"	1	14
2	Brazil	Lolita Rodrigues	"Pedindo amor"	0	17
3	Puerto Rico	Aqua Marina	"Piel dorada"	3	6
4	Uruguay	Miguel Bobbio	"Quiero vivir"	2	11
5	Honduras	Tony Morales	"El hombre"	0	17
6	Spain	Trigo Limpio	"Rómpeme, mátame"	7	4
7	Mexico	Napoleón	"Hombre"	0	17
8	Dominican Republic	Fernando Casado	"Al nacer cada enero"	8	2
9	United States	Lissette	"Si hay amor, volverá"	8	2
10	Ecuador	Marielisa	"Sonreír cuando quiero llorar"	4	5
11	Argentina	Jerónimo [es]	"Jugar a vivir"	3	6
12	Venezuela	Héctor José	"Iberoamérica toda"	3	6
13	Nicaragua	Guayo González	"Quincho Barrilete"	12	1
14	Chile	Capri	"Oda a mi guitarra"	2	11
15	Guatemala	Mildred y Manolo	"El verbo amar"	0	17
16	Colombia	Ximena	"Cantando"	1	14
17	Panama	Leopoldo Hernández	"Canta a la vida"	2	11
18	Portugal	Paulo de Carvalho	"Amor sem palavras"	1	14
19	Peru	Cecilia Bracamonte	"Landó [es]"	3	6
20	Costa Rica	Manuel Chamorro	"Melodía de los amantes"	0	17
21	El Salvador	Ana Marcela D'Antonio	"Enséñame a vivir"	3	6

Each participating broadcaster^[d] appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective jury in the order of participation via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1977 festival are listed below.

•  Puerto Rico – Nydia Caro
•  Spain – Matías Prats Luque
•  Peru – Luis Ángel Pinasco [es]
•  El Salvador – Altagracia Arévalo

Due to the increasing number of participants and the resulting longer duration of the competition, the number of judges per country that had been used until then (five) was reduced and some rules were slightly modified.

Each participating broadcaster^[d] assembled a national jury located in its respective country, composed of three members each. Of those three members, at least one had to be a woman, and at least one had to be under 25 years old. The jury had three votes at its disposal that could distribute as wished between its favorite entry or entries, 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. To ensure that there was no vote switching, before the voting segment began each participating broadcaster announced to its national audience the vote of its jury in local opt-out from its studios. In the event of a tie for first place, the stand-in delegates from the countries not affected by the tie would vote to select the winning song from among the tied ones. If a tie persisted after this second round, the entries with the highest number of votes would be declared joint winners ex aequo.

All the countries gave their votes remotely by telephone, except for Brazil, the Netherlands Antilles, and the United States, which used the stand-in delegates. The countries voted in order of participation, but due to a communication problem with the spokespersons of Honduras, Ecuador, and Venezuela, these had to be left for the end, with Venezuela ending up unable to respond and having to also use the stand-in delegate.

The festival was broadcast in the 21 participating countries, where the corresponding OTI member broadcasters relayed the contest through their networks after receiving it live via satellite. The day after the festival, TVE aired a special episode of its variety show 300 millones dedicated to the event, which was transmitted to all OTI members.^[4]

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.
Argentina	Teleonce			[5]
Colombia	Inravisión[a]	Primera Cadena		[7]
Costa Rica	Telecentro	Telecentro Canal 6		[8]
Mexico	Televisa	Canal 2		[9]
Portugal	RTP	RTP1		[10]
Spain	TVE	TVE 1		[11]

This edition of the festival not only broke the record of participating countries with twenty-one, but also reached a record of potential viewers with a striking viewing figures of three hundred million, one hundred million more than the previous edition.

The Nicaraguan victory in the contest, its first and only victory, and also the only victory of a Central American country in the event, became a hit in Nicaragua and its success affected both the performer Eduardo González and the song's writer Carlos Mejía Godoy.^[12] The lyrics of the song were also regarded as highly representative of the serious problems in Latin American society such as poverty. The song tells the history of a boy known as "Quincho Barrilete" a poor boy who tries to earn an honest living and to save money so that his younger brothers could go to the school in the future. A part of the chorus says "Long live the young people of my homeland," who are a clear example of poverty and dignity. Due to the moving history that the lyrics told, the singer and the author are widely remembered in Nicaragua.^[13]

The song "Rómpeme mátame" by the Spanish band Trigo Limpio also became a hit in Spain and Latin America. Although the lyrics of the song were controversial because they described a tortuous and possessive relationship, the fourth place that the band got consolidated their career in Latin America. Three years later, they would represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest at the 1980 edition. Amaya Saizar, who was then the female vocalist of Trigo Limpio, would also participate in the Eurovision Song Contest at the 1984 edition as the female member of the band Bravo.

The Ecuadorian performer Marielisa also performed a song with a social background which was considered to be a response to the winning song of the festival in 1974 in Acapulco. While the message of the song of Nydia Caro states that songs don't improve the problems of the Latin American society, Marielisa's song, which ended fifth in the contest, states that those same problems must not be ignored.^[14]

Despite the shocking and unexpected last place of Mexico, partly due to the scandal that the victory of José María Napoleón in the national selection provoked, his song "Hombre" became a hit and launched his career, and he is now considered a superstar.^[15]

• 6th OTI Festival, Madrid 1977 at RTVE Play (in Spanish)