Mexico in the OTI Festival

The participation of Mexico in the OTI Festival first began at the second OTI Festival in 1973 held in Belo Horizonte and continued continuously until the last edition in 2000 held in Acapulco. Televisa, member of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), was responsible for the Mexican participation. During the contest’s run, it was one of the most successful countries with a record six wins, including a back-to-back victory in 1989 and 1990, and fourteen top 3 finishes.

History
Mexico had initially expressed its desire to take part in the first OTI Festival in 1972 held in Madrid. In fact, Telesistema Mexicano, had selected Alberto Ángel "El Cuervo" as their representative with the song "Yo no voy a la guerra" composed by Roberto Cantoral, but the entry was disqualified because both the OTI and some voices in Francoist Spain felt that the song had political intentions, which made it unsuitable to compete in the contest.

So Televisa, Telesistema Mexicano's successor, entered the contest for the first time the following year in the second edition of the contest. Mexico was the most successful country of the history of the festival along with Spain, with six victories each. Apart from the victories, the country ended in the top 10 on nineteen occasions.

The first Mexican victory came in its first participation, in 1973 in Belo Horizonte, with the song "¡Que alegre va María!" sung by Imelda Miller. Two year later, in 1975, the country won again the contest in San Juan with the song "La felicidad" sung by Gualberto Castro. One decade later, in 1985, México won again with the song "El fandango aquí" sung by Eugenia León. This was a very controversial victory, which was attributed to the solidarity with the country because of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, that destroyed the capital city. 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 in Lima with the song "Se diga lo que se diga" sung by Iridián.

Televisa hosted the OTI festival six times, in 1974 and 1976 in the Ruiz de Alarcón Theatre in Acapulco. In 1981 and 1984 in Mexico City, being the National 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. It was also going to host the contest in 1999 in Veracruz, but it had to be cancelled due to floods in the host city.

National final
The Mexican OTI Song Contest trajectory is known for its popular national final, the "National OTI Contest", 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 Swedish Eurovision Song Contest counterpart, the Melodifestivalen, due to the interest that it created and the big names who tried to represent México in the main OTI Festival.