Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

with their three OTI member stations: RCTV,

Venevisión Venevisión () is a Venezuelan free-to-air television channel and one of Venezuela's largest television networks, owned by the Cisneros Media division of Grupo Cisneros. History The company's roots date back to June 1, 1953, with the establis ...

and

Venezolana de Televisión Corporación Venezolana de Televisión (Spanish for: ''Venezuelan Television Corporation'') or VTV is a state-run television station based in Caracas, Venezuela, which can be seen throughout the capital and surrounding areas on channel 8. Programs ...

debuted in the OTI Song Contest in 1972 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

when the festival was held for the first time.

History

This country won the festival on two occasions, the first one in 1982 with the teenage boy band Unicornio performing the song "Puedes contar conmigo" (You can count on me). The second Venezuelan victory came in 1987 in Lisbon with Alfredo Alejandro, who performed the song "La felicidad esá en un rincón de tu corazón" (The happiness is inside a corner of your heart). Apart from their victories, the South American country got two second places in 1976 and 1979 and three third places in 1974, 1975 and 1994. Many Venezuelan singers well known in all

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, such as Jose Luis Rodríguez El Puma, her daughter

Lilibeth Morillo Lilibeth Rodríguez Morillo (born June 12, 1969 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan singer, songwriter, actress and television host. She is the daughter of singer and actress Lila Morillo and famous singer José Luis Rodríguez "El Puma". Biography L ...

Mirla Castellanos Mirla Castellanos, is a noted Venezuelan singer with a career spanning over 40 years. Often referred to as "La Primerísima", she started her career as a singer with the band "Cuarteto Los Naipes" in the 1960s before taking up a solo career. She h ...

, and Delia Dorta represented their country in the

OTI Festival OTI Festival ( es, Festival OTI de la Canción, pt, Festival OTI da Canção), often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) ...

with successful participations. Venezuela hosted the contest in 1979. The venue of the festival was the Bolivarian Army Circle Theatre of Caracas and the presenters were Eduardo Serrano and Carmen Victoria Pérez, who presented the event in a golden and blue colored stage. The opening theme of this edition of the festival was an orchestral fantasy based on the hymn, " Alma llanera".

Contestants

References

{{OTI Festival