Mexico was represented at the OTI Festival 1979 with the song "", written by Roberto Robles and , and performed by . The Mexican participating broadcaster, Televisa, selected its entry through a national televised competition with several phases. The song, that was performed in position 13, placed eighth out of 21 competing entries, with 18 points.

National stage Televisa held a national competition with four televised qualifying rounds and a final to select its entry for the 8th edition of the OTI Festival. This eight edition of the National OTI Festival featured 32 songs, of which ten reached the final. In addition to the general competition, awards were given for Best Male Performer, Best Female Performer, Best Musical Arrangement, and Breakout Artist, among all the competing artists.

The shows were held at Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico City, were presented by Raúl Velasco, and were broadcast on . The musical director was , who conducted the Single Union of Music Workers of Mexico orchestra when required. Hermanos Zavala, the single mixed backing choir of four voices, were credited on the songs they accompanied.

+ Competing entries on the National OTI Festival – Mexico 1979 Song Artist Songwriter(s) Conductor "" Octavio Octavio "" Emmanuel Roberto Cantoral Chucho Ferrer "" Johnny Laboriel Felipe Gil "" "" Manolo Muñoz "" Los Randall Víctor Aguilar "" and Viola Guadalupe Trigo Mario Patrón "" María del Sol Graciela González "" Los Cava Los Cava "" Salvador Amor Ramón Amor "" Yoshio Roberto Cantoral "" Tirzo Paiz Tirzo Paiz "" Ga-bí Víctor Alberti "" Irasema Irasema "" Fernando Riba Fernando Riba "" Óscar Salvador "" Víctor Yturbe "" Grupo Hermanos and friends Martha Cano "" Grupo Tabasco Armando Manzanero "" Joan Sebastian Joan Sebastian "" Luis Augusto Herba Luis Augusto Herba "" Rosalba "" José Roberto José Roberto "" Benito Castro Benito Castro "" Felipe Gil Felipe Gil Chucho Ferrer "" Grupo Aria 8 "" Yuri Irasema "" Gilda Cuitláhuac Delgado "" Los Cinco Amigos José Sierra Flores "" Sergio Esquivel Sergio Esquivel Jonathán Zarzosa "" Eduardo Magallanes "" Luis Daniel and Jaime Sergio Ortiz

Qualifying rounds The four qualifying rounds were held on Saturdays 21 and 28 July, and 4 and 11 August 1979. There were eight entries in each round, of which the ten highest-scoring entries among the 32 competing advanced to the final. Ten expert jurors present in the hall and five remote provincial juries scored all the entries.

The jurors present in the hall were: , Gustavo Rivera, Guillermo Acosta, Manú Dornbierer, Tino Martin, Ernesto Juárez, Consuelo Chávez, Rogelio Brambila Pelayo, Elías Cervantes, and Alfredo Gil, who was the chairperson.

+ Result of the qualifying rounds of the National OTI Festival – Mexico 1979 Song Artist Result First qualifying round – 21 July 1979 1 "" Los Cinco Amigos 2 "" Salvador Amor 3 "" Luis Daniel and Jaime 4 "" Benito Castro Qualified 5 "" Los Randall Qualified 6 "" Gilda 7 "" Tirzo Paiz 8 "" Second qualifying round – 28 July 1979 1 "" Grupo Hermanos and friends 2 "" Luis Augusto Herba 3 "" Rosalba 4 "" José Roberto 5 "" Grupo Aria 8 6 "" Felipe Gil 7 "" 8 "" Johnny Laboriel Qualified Third qualifying round – 4 August 1979 1 "" and Viola 2 "" Octavio 3 "" Yuri 4 "" Joan Sebastian 5 "" Grupo Tabasco Qualified 6 "" Sergio Esquivel Qualified 7 "" Emmanuel Qualified 8 "" Qualified Fourth qualifying round – 11 August 1979 1 "" Los Cava 2 "" Ga-bí 3 "" Fernando Riba 4 "" Irasema 5 "" Yoshio Qualified 6 "" María del Sol 7 "" Manolo Muñoz Qualified 8 "" Víctor Yturbe Qualified

Final The final opened with a medley of the seven previous winners of the national festival performed by the orchestra conducted by and the backing choir. Following each of the competing entries, each of the performers received on stage a finalist diploma delivered by a celebrity such as: Héctor Meneses, Lolita de la Colina, Silvia Pinal, and Sergio Corona. The interval act featured a performance of the cast of .

The same jurors present in the hall for the qualifying rounds were also present for the final, with the exception of Acosta who was replaced by Peter Ulrich. For the final competition, five international members were added: Tomás Fundora, Omar Marchant, Joaquín Blaya, Pilar Candel, and Rafael Martínez Amador. They were joined by five remote provincial juries of five members each located in Guadalajara, Nuevo Laredo, Mérida, Veracruz, and Monterrey. Each of the ten present jurors and the five remote juries scored between 1 and 10 points each of the finalists. After all the competing entries had been performed, the spokesperson of each remote jury announced their points in the order of performance via telephone; while the jurors in the hall showed their scores, that had already been previously counted, on boards all at once for each of the songs.

The winner was "", written by Roberto Robles and , and performed by ; with "", written by Roberto Cantoral and performed by Emmanuel, placing second; and "", written and performed by Sergio Esquivel, placing third. The final results were met with loud booing from some of the audience. The festival ended with a reprise of the winning entry.

+ Result of the final of the National OTI Festival – Mexico 1979 Song Artist Points Result 1 "" Grupo Tabasco 122 7 2 "" Sergio Esquivel 166 3 3 "" Emmanuel 168 2 4 "" 172 1 5 "" Los Randall 122 7 6 "" Manolo Muñoz 143 5 7 "" Yoshio 147 4 8 "" Benito Castro 119 10 9 "" Johnny Laboriel 139 6 10 "" Víctor Yturbe 122 7

+ Detailed Vote of the National OTI Festival final – Mexico 1979 Song Provincial juries scope="col" rowspan=2 Total scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" 1 ""8667689122 2 ""768710128166 3 ""91010109120168 4 ""78799132172 5 ""6756791122 6 ""86686109143 7 ""89767110147 8 ""6555890119 9 ""77676106139 10 ""7697786122

+ National International

+ Provincial Jury Coordinator/Spokesperson Members Guadalajara Alejandro Pickering Carvajal Nuevo León Ramoncita Esparza Mérida Rodrigo Rubio Veracruz Antonio Liaño Monterrey Horacio Pedraza

Merit awards In the final, the nine jurors who were present in all the qualifying rounds voted aloud for the Best Male and Female Performer Awards and Breakout Artist Award among the three shortlisted artist in each category. The members of the orchestra voted for the Best Musical Arrangement Award among the three entries shortlisted.

Yoshio received the Best Male Performer Award; Estela Núñez the Best Female Performer Award; Eduardo Magallanes the Best Musical Arrangement Award for ""; and Yuri the Breakout Artist Award. The four winners of the merit awards received both a gold and a silver medal.

+ Best Male Performer Artist Votes Result Yoshio 8 1 Emmanuel 0 3 Manolo Muñoz 1 2

+ Best Female Performer Artist Votes Result 3 2 6 1 Ga-bí 0 3

+ Best Musical Arrangement Song Arranger Votes Result "" 37 1 "" 29 2 "" Mario Patrón 14 3

+ Breakout Artist Artist Votes Result Yuri 9 1 0 2 María del Sol 0 2

Official album Las 10 finalistas del Festival OTI 79 is the official compilation album of the eighth edition of the Mexican National OTI Festival, released by Productos Especiales CBS in 1979. The vinyl LP features the studio version of the ten songs qualified for the national final.

At the OTI Festival On 8 December 1979, the OTI Festival was held at the in Caracas, Venezuela, hosted by (RCTV), , (TVN), and (VTV), and broadcast live throughout Ibero-America. Estela Núñez performed "" in position 13, with Eduardo Magallanes conducting the event's orchestra, and placing eighth out of 21 competing entries, with 18 points.

Voting Each participating broadcaster assembled a jury who awarded 5–1 points to their five favourite songs in order of preference.

+ Points awarded to Mexico Score Country 5 points 4 points Spain 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Mexico Score Country 5 points Venezuela 4 points Argentina 3 points Puerto Rico 2 points Spain 1 point Portugal

References