It was held in Acapulco, Mexico, following the country's victory at the 1973 contest with the song "Que alegre va María" by Imelda Miller.

As with the previous editions, both the state-financed and the privately funded TV and radio stations that were members of OTI (Iberoamerican Television Organisation) participated in the event, sending their entrant and competing song.

This was proved with the debut of Univision, the biggest Spanish-speaking TV channel in the United States, and the Netherlands Antilles, which, although not a Spanish- or Portuguese-speaking country, has cultural ties with Latin America, particularly Venezuela.

Although the singer didn't win the contest, his participation was acclaimed and he experienced a significant increase in popularity to the point that he became a symbol of Latin American pop music.

[2] Another important performer was the Nicaraguan Hernaldo Zúñiga, who was already building a successful and recognized career as a singer-songwriter in his debuting home country.

[3] The Chilean José Alfredo Fuentes, who had been selected in a national final, also made a significant contribution to the third edition of the festival.

The host country, which was Mexico, represented by Enrique Cáceres, appeared thirteenth on stage, while the performance round was closed by the Venezuelan entrant José Luis Rodríguez with the song "Vuélvete" (Return).

(Wooden pencil) (The mountain of life) (But... my homeland) (Old river, friend river) (The land belongs to everyone) (Everything will be ours) (Today I just sing for singing) (Because I'm the wife I shall wait) Although the voting system followed the same dynamics of the previous years, with national juries from all the nineteen participating countries, this time the voting process was slightly modified.

Due to the sudden increase in the number of participating countries and the considerably longer performance round as a result, the OTI members decided to make the voting process more quick and agile.

Nydia Caro, who represented the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, with her song "Hoy canto por cantar", allowed the country to win for the first time with 18 points[4] Tanya Zea, who represented Guatemala with the fan favorite song "Yo Soy" placed second place, being 4 points behind Nydia Caro.

In third place, with 3 points behind Tanya Zea and 7 behind Nydia Caro was José Luis Rodríguez, with his equally warmly received song "Vuélvete".

[5] Nydia Caro, after her victory, was given a hero's welcome upon her arrival to San Juan and was received by a huge crowd of people at the airport.

Regardless of the controversial message of her song, her entry became an enormous hit in all of Latin America and launched the international career of the singer.