OTI Festival 1988

OTI Festival 1988
OTI Festival 1988
Date and venue
Final	19 November 1988;
Venue	Teatro Nacional Cervantes; Buenos Aires, Argentina
Organization
Organizer	Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI)
Production
Host broadcaster	Argentina Televisora Color (ATC)
Director	Roberto O. Muñoz
Musical director	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Presenters	Pinky; Juan Alberto Badía;
Participants
Number of entries	22
Non-returning countries	Brazil; Canada
	Participation map Participating countries Countries that participated in the past but not in 1988;
Vote
Voting system	Each member of a single jury awards 5–1 points to its five favourite songs in a secret vote
Winning song	Argentina; "Todavía eres mi mujer"

The OTI Festival 1988 (Spanish: Decimoséptimo Gran Premio de la Canción Iberoamericana, Portuguese: Décimo Sétimo Grande Prêmio da Canção Ibero-Americana) was the 17th edition of the OTI Festival, held on 19 November 1988 at the Teatro Nacional Cervantes in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and presented by Pinky and Juan Alberto Badía. It was organised by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) and host broadcaster Argentina Televisora Color (ATC).

Broadcasters from twenty-two countries participated in the festival. The winner was the song "Todavía eres mi mujer" performed by Guillermo Guido representing Argentina; with "Un mundo diferente" by Marco de Brix representing Paraguay placing second; and "De tu boca" by Taty Salas representing the Dominican Republic and "Partiré, buscaré" by Rocky Belmonte representing Peru both placing third.

Location

Teatro Nacional Cervantes, Buenos Aires – venue of the OTI Festival 1988.

The Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) designated Argentina Televisora Color (ATC) as the host broadcaster for the 17th edition of the OTI Festival. The broadcaster staged the event in Buenos Aires. The venue selected was the Teatro Nacional Cervantes, which is the national stage and comedy theatre of the country. It was opened in 1921 and was designed by Fernando Aranda Arias and Emilio Repetto.

On 14 November 1988, a cocktail reception was held at Hotel Libertador upon the arrival of the delegations, attended by all the participating artists, executives from the participating broadcasters, OTI officials, and numerous accredited journalists.^[1]

Participants

Broadcasters from twenty-two countries participated in this edition of the OTI festival. The OTI members, public or private broadcasters from Spain, Portugal, and twenty Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of Ibero-America signed up for the festival. From the countries that participated in the previous edition, Brazil and Canada did not return.

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

Three performing artists had represented the same country previously: Ced Ride had represented the Netherlands Antilles in 1977, Marco de Brix had represented Paraguay in 1983, and Paulette had represented Panama in 1986.

Participants of the OTI Festival 1988^[2]
Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)	Conductor
Argentina	ATC	Guillermo Guido	"Todavía eres mi mujer"	Spanish	Carlos Castellón	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Bolivia		Mimi	"Sólo un despertar"	Spanish	Nicolás Suárez Eyzaguirre	Nicolás Suárez Eyzaguirre
Chile	TVN UCTV UTV	Cecilia Castro	"Es mi libertad"	Spanish	Loreto Valenzuela Baudrand Alfredo Sauvalle	Miguel Pizarro
Colombia	Inravisión^[a]	Harold Orozco	"Latinoamérica"	Spanish	Harold Orozco	Jaime Rodríguez
Costa Rica	Univision Canal 2	Frank Victory	"Hoy le canto al mundo"	Spanish	Frank Victory Ricardo Sáenz	Rodrigo Sáenz
Dominican Republic		Taty Salas	"De tú boca"	Spanish	Juan Luis Guerra	Manuel Tejada
Ecuador		Ketty Pazmiño	"Juan Cansino"	Spanish	Ramiro Montalvo	Ramiro Montalvo
El Salvador	TCS	Walter Artiga	"No está bien"	Spanish	Walter Artiga	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Guatemala		Ricardo Arjona	"Con una estrella en el vientre"	Spanish	Ricardo Arjona	Vinicio Quezada
Honduras		Gloria Janet	"Te amo"	Spanish	Tony Sierra	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Mexico	Televisa	María del Sol	"Contigo y con el mundo"	Spanish	Miguel Alfonso Luna José María Frías	Jesús Medel
Netherlands Antilles	ATM	Ced Ride	"Una canción para una nación"	Spanish	Ced Ride	Erroll Colina
Nicaragua	SSTV	Raúl Hernández	"Niña"	Spanish	Nelson Aragón	Francisco Cedeño
Panama		Paulette	"Ven"	Spanish	Lorena Moreno Wilton Vargas	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Paraguay	Teledifusora Paraguaya	Marco de Brix	"Un mundo diferente"	Spanish	Antonio Medina Boselli	Oscar Cardozo Ocampo
Peru		Rocky Belmonte	"Partiré, buscaré"	Spanish	Jorge Tafur	Jorge Tafur
Portugal	RTP	Luís Filipe	"Vivo a vida cantando"	Portuguese	Benis de Fonseca Luís Filipe	Jaime Oliveira
Puerto Rico	Telemundo Puerto Rico	Sandra Rogers	"Para ser feliz"	Spanish	René Ferrer Sandra Rogers	Druco Gandía
Spain	TVE	Álex & Christina	"Dulce maldición"	Spanish	Christina Rosenvinge Álex de la Nuez	Eduardo Leiva
United States	Univision	Miguel Ángel Mejía	"Así somos, así soy"	Spanish	América Vázquez Miguel Ángel Mejía	Rodolfo Martínez
Uruguay	Sociedad Televisora Larrañaga	Daniel Mantero	"Secreto enamorado"	Spanish	Daniel Mantero	Julio Frade
Venezuela		Iñaki	"Hoy he vuelto a reír"	Spanish	Fernando Osorio Juan Carlos Pérez Soto	William Croes

Festival overview

The festival was held on Saturday 19 November 1988, beginning at 20:00 DST (23:00 UTC). It was directed by Roberto O. Muñoz, and presented by Pinky and Juan Alberto Badía. The musical director was Oscar Cardozo Ocampo, who conducted the 40-piece orchestra when required.

The show was opened with Estela Raval performing a song composed for the occasion by Chico Novarro. Jaime Torres made a guest performance playing the charango. The hosts presented Raúl Velasco with an honorary plaque awarded by the OTI for his contributions to the OTI Festival throughout its history. While Pinky was doing one of the presentations, an anonymous intruder entered the stage and greeted her with two kisses.

The winner was the song "Todavía eres mi mujer" performed by Guillermo Guido representing Argentina; with "Un mundo diferente" by Marco de Brix representing Paraguay placing second; and "De tu boca" by Taty Salas representing the Dominican Republic and "Partiré, buscaré" by Rocky Belmonte representing Peru 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 Ricardo Porto, undersecretary of OTI mass communication; and the third prize trophy by Nicanor González, president of the OTI programs committee. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

Winner

Results of the OTI Festival 1988^[2]^[3]
R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Ecuador	Ketty Pazmiño	"Juan Cansino"	0	14
2	Bolivia	Mimi	"Sólo un despertar"	0	14
3	Peru	Rocky Belmonte	"Partiré, buscaré"	16	3
4	Mexico	María del Sol	"Contigo y con el mundo"	14	5
5	Honduras	Gloria Janet	"Te amo"	0	14
6	Dominican Republic	Taty Salas	"De tú boca"	16	3
7	Venezuela	Iñaki	"Hoy he vuelto a reír"	0	14
8	United States	Miguel Ángel Mejía	"Así somos, así soy"	0	14
9	Costa Rica	Frank Victory	"Hoy le canto al mundo"	2	10
10	Argentina	Guillermo Guido	"Todavía eres mi mujer"	26	1
11	El Salvador	Walter Artiga	"No está bien"	0	14
12	Guatemala	Ricardo Arjona	"Con una estrella en el vientre"	1	12
13	Chile	Cecilia Castro	"Es mi libertad"	6	7
14	Colombia	Harold Orozco	"Latinoamérica"	6	7
15	Puerto Rico	Sandra Rogers	"Para ser feliz"	0	14
16	Panama	Paulette	"Ven"	0	14
17	Nicaragua	Raúl Hernández	"Niña"	1	12
18	Spain	Álex & Christina	"Dulce maldición"	2	10
19	Uruguay	Daniel Mantero	"Secreto enamorado"	14	5
20	Paraguay	Marco de Brix	"Un mundo diferente"	25	2
21	Netherlands Antilles	Ced Ride	"Una canción para una nación"	0	14
22	Portugal	Luís Filipe	"Vivo a vida cantando"	6	7

Song presenters

Each of the competing entries was introduced to the audience by a celebrity:

Ecuador – none^[b]
Bolivia – Horacio Ranieri
Peru – Cristina
Mexico – Betiana Blum
Honduras – Orlando Netti
Dominican Republic – unknown
Venezuela – Lupita Ferrer
United States – Andrea del Boca
Costa Rica – Marta González
Argentina – Iris Marga
El Salvador – Lucía Miranda
Guatemala – Pablito Ruiz
Chile – Silvana Di Lorenzo
Colombia – Jorge Barreiro
Puerto Rico – Juan José Camero
Panama – Ambar La Fox
Nicaragua – Julio Numhauser
Spain – Estela Raval
Uruguay – Marta Bianchi
Paraguay – Amelita Baltar
Netherlands Antilles – Ethel Rojo
Portugal – Carmen Yazalde

Jury

Each of the nine members of the single jury awarded 5–1 points to its five favourite songs, and wrote its vote anonymously on a ballot. The members of the jury were:

Juan Carlos Calderón – songwriter
Roberto Cantoral – singer-songwriter
Susana Rinaldi – tango singer
Mario Cavagnaro – singer-songwriter
Antonio Cerviño – musician
Casto Darío – singer
Norma Aleandro – actress
Shegundo Galarza – conductor
José José – singer

Detailed voting result

Production used a computerized system to register the voting. The hosts announced in ascending order the results of each ballot, which were picked in random order. Viewers in the theater and at home were shown the results using a projector-board installed in the hall. During ballot 5, host Pinky accidentally announced the top result in first place, and it was registered 1 point to Uruguay instead of 5. To fix this, the computer generated random full results, and reverted them afterwards. After correctly registering one ballot, the points accumulated so far were displayed.

		Jury									Classification
		Ballot 1	Ballot 2	Ballot 3	Ballot 4	Ballot 5	Ballot 6	Ballot 7	Ballot 8	Ballot 9	Points	Place
Contestants	Ecuador										0	14
	Bolivia										0	14
	Peru			3	1	4	4	3	1		16	3
	Mexico	3			3		2		4	2	14	5
	Honduras										0	14
	Dominican Republic		1		5		5			5	16	3
	Venezuela										0	14
	United States										0	14
	Costa Rica	2									2	10
	Argentina	4	3	5				5	5	4	26	1
	El Salvador										0	14
	Guatemala	1									1	12
	Chile					2		4			6	7
	Colombia			4				2			6	7
	Puerto Rico										0	14
	Panama										0	14
	Nicaragua					1					1	12
	Spain		2								2	10
	Uruguay			1	2	5	3		3		14	5
	Paraguay	5	4	2	4	3	1	1	2	3	25	2
	Netherlands Antilles										0	14
	Portugal		5							1	6	7

Broadcast

The festival was broadcast in the 22 participating countries and in Aruba, 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.

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Argentina	ATC			^[4]
Chile	TVN		Andrea Tessa, Juan Carlos Duque, and Pancho Aranda
	UTV	Canal 11
	UCTV	Canal 13
Costa Rica	Univision Communications	Univision Canal 2		^[5]
Mexico	Televisa	Canal 2		^[6]
Netherlands Antilles	ATM	TeleCuraçao		^[7]
Paraguay	Teledifusora Paraguaya	Canal 13 RPC	Menchi Barriocanal and Bruno Masi
Portugal	RTP	RTP1^[c]		^[8]
Spain	TVE	TVE 2	Carlos Herrera	^[9]
United States	Univision^[d]			^[10]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries and territories
Country	Broadcaster	Channel(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Aruba	TeleAruba			^[11]

Notes

^ Through the programadoras: Caracol Televisión, Punch, RTI Televisión, RCN Televisión, JES, and Datos y Mensajes.
^ Presented by Juan Alberto Badía alone
^ Delayed broadcast on 24 November at 22:00 WET (22:00 UTC)
^ Delayed broadcast later that day by all Univision affiliates, each in their own time zone.

References

^ "Están tocando nuestra canción". Página 12 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina. 15 November 1988. p. 20 – via Internet Archive.
^ ^a ^b XVII Festival de la canción OTI 1988 (Television programme) (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Argentina Televisora Color. 19 November 1988.
^ "Festival de la OTI 2 (1980-1990)". eurovision-spain.com (in Spanish). 3 December 2020.
^ "TV". Página 12 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina. 19 November 1988. p. 15 – via Internet Archive.
^ "TV". La Nación (in Spanish). San José, Costa Rica. 19 November 1988. p. Viva-17. Retrieved 20 October 2025 – via Google Books.
^ "Programación de televisión para hoy sábado" [Television programming for today, Saturday]. El Informador. Guadalajara, Mexico. 19 November 1988. p. 2-D. Retrieved 15 October 2025.
^ "Agenda Curaçao". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 19 November 1988. p. 14 – via Delpher.
^ "Rádio - Televisão". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 24 November 1988. p. 31 – via Casa Comum.
^ "Álex y Cristina representarán a España en el Festival de la OTI". La Tribuna de Albacete (in Spanish). Albacete, Spain. 19 November 1988. p. 31 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers.
^ "Phoenix and Tucson TV Listings". Casa Grande Dispatch. Casa Grande, United States. 19 November 1988. p. 8 – via Casa Grande Public Library.
^ "Agenda Aruba". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 19 November 1988. p. 11 – via Delpher.

[3] Through the programadoras: Caracol Televisión, Punch, RTI Televisión, RCN Televisión, JES, and Datos y Mensajes.

[5] Presented by Juan Alberto Badía alone

[10] Delayed broadcast on 24 November at 22:00 WET (22:00 UTC)

[13] Delayed broadcast later that day by all Univision affiliates, each in their own time zone.

[1] "Están tocando nuestra canción". Página 12 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina. 15 November 1988. p. 20 – via Internet Archive.

[contestAV-2] XVII Festival de la canción OTI 1988 (Television programme) (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina: Argentina Televisora Color. 19 November 1988.

[esp-4] "Festival de la OTI 2 (1980-1990)". eurovision-spain.com (in Spanish). 3 December 2020.

[6] "TV". Página 12 (in Spanish). Buenos Aires, Argentina. 19 November 1988. p. 15 – via Internet Archive.

[7] "TV". La Nación (in Spanish). San José, Costa Rica. 19 November 1988. p. Viva-17. Retrieved 20 October 2025 – via Google Books.

[8] "Programación de televisión para hoy sábado" [Television programming for today, Saturday]. El Informador. Guadalajara, Mexico. 19 November 1988. p. 2-D. Retrieved 15 October 2025.

[9] "Agenda Curaçao". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 19 November 1988. p. 14 – via Delpher.

[11] "Rádio - Televisão". Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal. 24 November 1988. p. 31 – via Casa Comum.

[12] "Álex y Cristina representarán a España en el Festival de la OTI". La Tribuna de Albacete (in Spanish). Albacete, Spain. 19 November 1988. p. 31 – via Virtual Library of Historical Newspapers.

[14] "Phoenix and Tucson TV Listings". Casa Grande Dispatch. Casa Grande, United States. 19 November 1988. p. 8 – via Casa Grande Public Library.

[15] "Agenda Aruba". Amigoe (in Dutch). Willemstad, Curaçao. 19 November 1988. p. 11 – via Delpher.

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OTI Festival
Contests	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
Countries	Argentina Aruba Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Guatemala Honduras Mexico Netherlands Antilles Nicaragua Panama Paraguay Peru Portugal Puerto Rico Spain United States Uruguay Venezuela