The participation of Spain in the OTI Festival first began at the inaugural OTI Festival in 1972 hosting it in Madrid. Televisión Española (TVE), subsidiary of Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) and member of the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), was responsible for the Spanish participation. Its participation in the song contest was only interrupted once, when TVE withdrew from the edition of 1986, which was held in Santiago, as a protest against the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship.

OTI Festival, often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), featuring participants representing primarily Ibero-American countries. Each participating OTI member broadcaster submitted an original song primarily in Spanish or Portuguese to be performed on live television and transmitted to all OTI broadcasters via satellite. It was preceded by the Festival Mundial de la Canción Latina, held in 1969 and 1970 in Mexico.