Since then, it has been cancelled due to the questioning of the voting system of the latter contests, the lack of sponsors, the low quality of the entrants and the withdrawal of some of the most iconic countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Spain.

The main goal of the festival was to generate a process of cultural and artistic fellowship between the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries.

The broadcasters that were eligible to participate in the OTI Festival needed to be active members of the Ibero-American Television Organisation.

The OTI Song Contest was held for first time on 25 November 1972 at the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos of Madrid.

Spain, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Panama, Portugal, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico were the debuting countries.

The festival expanded even further away from the traditional Ibero-American sphere, to the point that even the United States and the Netherlands Antilles took part in the event.

Many famous singers such as Juan Gabriel, Luis Miguel, Lucero, or the girl band Pandora, tried to represent their country in the OTI Festival, but they didn't win the national contest.

Marcos Llunas won the OTI Festival 1995, two years before representing Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997.

The aim of this attempt to bring to life the festival was to give the opportunity to young performers to show their talent.

The broadcasting union was renamed as "Organización de Telecomunicaciones de Iberoamerica" (Iberoamerican Telecommunications Organisation) the organisation evolved from being a television contents exchange platform to include members of a broader nature such as newspapers and telephone-internet companies apart from TV and radio channels.

The main goal of the organisation was to try to recreate the festival between Mexican singers and artists from the Latin community of the United States.

[7] In February 2022, RTVE announced Hispavision, a song festival where Spanish-speaking Latin American countries will take part alongside Brazil and Portugal as invited nations.

[8][9] In 12 July 2022, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced its expansion of the Eurovision Song Contest brand to Latin America.