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On Sunday, February 23, he left a collection of images that made one seriously wonder about the realization of Viña 2020, just hours before the beginning of its opening day with a menu of artists headed by Ricky Martin. An O’Higgins hotel besieged by a mob and with almost no windows, after being stoned, became the focus of greatest concern for authorities and organizers, Channel 13 and TVN in the middle of the afternoon.
But the Puerto Rican managed to reach Quinta Vergara and, after making emergency decisions that altered the initial planning – the entertainers Martín Cárcamo and María Luisa Godoy would have to open the evening, skipping the opening act, since many of the singers and dancers of which they were staying at the hotel–, the festival managed to finish its first day, completed the following by taking unprecedented security measures, and carried out its 61st edition, one of the most complex in its history.
You will not be able to say the same in 2021, after Channel 13 and TVN, in conjunction with the Municipality of Viña del Mar, agreed not to hold the next year’s contest and define a return to the event for 2022, due to the difficult panorama that draws the pandemic for the music event with the highest audience in Latin America.
On what other occasion did Viña face the danger of not being realized? The first time dates from 57 years ago. The 1973 edition was preceded by an agitated social context, marked by the imminent parliamentary elections a month later and the “truck drivers’ strike” in October 1972. In a highly polarized environment, the selection of artists ended up being the protagonist, with the additions of two groups located in the antipodes, Los Huasos Quincheros and Quilapayún.
The latter after going on stage were greeted with blunders and attacked with a series of elements thrown from the audience. “It became a pitched battle, we in the pit received everything that was thrown away,” recalled the historic conductor, Horacio Saavedra, a few years ago. A performance that, by decision of the director of the broadcast, Gonzalo Bertrán, was not finally broadcast (at a time when the festival was broadcast on TVN, but on a delayed basis).
Another source of tension was the folkloric competition, which ended up giving its winners before a notary public. In second place was a candidate who faced criticism: Canción a la Bandera de Chile, with lyrics by Pablo Neruda and set to music by Vicente Bianchi, voiced by Los Fortineros.
The first version of the contest under the dictatorship also faced complexities. Promoted by the Pinochet regime, the 1974 event had among its most controversial episodes the interpretation of Libre, by Nino Bravo. Argentine comedian Bigote Arrocet had to respond to how his performance at La Quinta was read, assuring that it was only a tribute to the singer who died a year earlier, rather than a show of support for the Military Junta.
Fifteen years after that edition, the festival faced the difficulties of a context that in just a few more months would welcome the YES and NO plebiscite. In an event that included presentations by Chayanne and Los Enanitos Verdes, the most memorable note was marked by José Luis Rodríguez, “El Puma”, when launching his phrase “Sometimes you have to listen to the voice of the people”, under the leadership of Antonio Vodanovic and Pamela Hodar and the hubbub of the audience.
Americans Mr. Mister also contributed their own in 1988. Singer Richard Page delivered “greetings for artists threatened with death. The artists of the world are with them ”, although his words were not broadcast by the broadcast of the time, in the hands of TVN.
Four months after the triumph of NO at the polls, the event once again began an edition that was infected by the country’s stage. The event in 1989 added Emmanuel, Roberto Carlos and the Americans REO Speedwagon, who this time did not repeat the words of their compatriots from the previous year. An unprecedented system for awarding the contest prizes made its premiere, which left the choice of who would get the Seagull and who would not get to a jury.
