In this case Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) with the song "Canta cigarra", performed by María Ostiz [es], was the winner of the previous year's edition.

As with the previous editions, both public and private television and radio stations that were members of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) participated in the event sending their performers and competing song.

In fact, Honduras, one of the less-favoured participating countries, which had withdrawn in 1975, returned to the event, and their national broadcaster selected their representing artist and song.

The Cuban singer Lissette competed in the festival representing the United States with her song "Si hay amor, volverá".

The Portuguese entrant was the well known Paulo de Carvalho, who was internally selected by RTP, as the representative of that country with the song "Amor sem palavras".

Guayo González, the Nicaraguan contestant, sang "Quincho Barrilete", a song addressing poverty, composed by the renowned Carlos Mejía Godoy.

RTVE presenters Mari Cruz Soriano and Miguel de los Santos [es] were the masters of ceremonies of this edition of the OTI Festival.

As with the inaugural edition, RTVE in collaboration with OTI, organised a draw in Prado del Rey a few days before the event to decide the order of the entrants.

The performance round was opened by the entrant from the Netherlands Antilles with his love song "Gente eres tú" with received a mainly cold welcome by the followers of the festival.

The host entrants, the popular Spanish band Trigo Limpio, were the sixth ones to take the stage, receiving, before and after, a warm welcome by the fans and later by the juries.

The successful Nicaraguan entrant Guayo González and his song "Quincho Barrilete" was the thirteenth to take the stage and was received with high interest due to the deep message.

Although the broadcast of the show to Ibero-America went properly, during the voting process, RTVE had problems contacting the jurors of some of the participating countries, namely Honduras, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

The song won the festival with a huge lead in points over his Dominican, American and Spanish counterparts which, although warmly received by the jurors and the audience, were not able to win the full attention of the juries.

The Brazilian entrant Lolita Rodrigues and her counterparts from Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica were heavily criticised and didn't receive points from the juries.

[6] The song "Rómpeme mátame" by the Spanish band Trigo Limpio, who were the host entrants, also became a hit in Spain and Latin America.

[7] Despite the shocking and unexpected last place of Mexico, partly due to the scandal that the victory of José María Napoleón provoked, his song "Hombre" became a hit and launched his career, and he is now considered a superstar.