Peru in the OTI Festival
The participation of Peru in the OTI Festival began at the first OTI Festival in 1972. The Peruvian participating broadcasters were Panamericana Televisión and Compañía Peruana de Radiodifusión, members of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana. They participated in all twenty-eight editions of the festival, and hosted the event twice: in 1982 and 1997. Their best result was second achieved in 1973.
Peruvian first participant, Betty Missiego, would represent Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 with "Su canción", placing second.
History
Even though the debut of Peru in the festival was not successful, the following entries, which were selected internally, were much more promising. In fact, in 1973, "El mundo gira por tu amor" performed by Gabriela de Jesús, placed second.In 1977, "" by Cecilia Bracamonte managed to place sixth and turned into a hit in the South American country. In 1982, when the event was hosted in Lima for first time, "El signo en la frente" by Elsa María Elejalde managed again to enter the top 10 with a seventh place.
In 1988, "Partiré, buscaré" by achieved third place, and in 1996, "Bendito amor" by ended in the same place. Rocky Belmonte, returned to the event in 1990 and 1994. The last Peruvian representative in the event was Anna Carina, who, although she didn't manage to reach the top 10, turned into a well known personality in the country.