Chile was represented at the OTI Festival 1981 with the song "", written and performed by Florcita Motuda. The Chilean participating broadcasters, (TVN), (UCTV), and (UTV), jointly selected their entry through a televised national final. The song, that was performed in position 21, placed fifth out of 21 competing entries, tied with the entry from Colombia with 18 points. Florcita Motuda had already represented Chile in 1978.
(TVN), (UCTV), and (UTV), held a national final jointly to select their entry for the 10th edition of the OTI Festival. Twelve songs were shortlisted for the televised final.
The broadcasters held the national final on Saturday 31 October 1981, beginning at 21:30 CLST (00:30+1 UTC), at the Holiday Inn Cordillera Hotel in Santiago. It was staged by UTV, presented by , and broadcast on TVN's , UCTV's , and UTV's . Coco Legrand made a guest performance.
The members of the jury were: Luis Benko, Héctor de Aguirre, Raquel Argandoña, , Reinaldo Tomás MartÃÂnez, and Miguel Zabaleta.
The winner was "", written and performed by Florcita Motuda; with "", written and performed by , placing second; and "", written by Buddy Richard and performed by , placing third. The first prize was endowed with a monetary amount of US$5,000, the second prize of US$3,000, and the third prize of US$2,000.
On 5 December 1981, the OTI Festival was held at the National Auditorium in Mexico City, Mexico, hosted by Televisa, and broadcast live throughout Ibero-America. Florcita Motuda performed "" in last position of the 21 competing entries. At the end of the voting, the song placed 5th, with 18 points tying with the song form Colombia.
The festival was broadcast on TVN's , UTV's , and UCTV's on delay at 21:30 CLST (00:30+1 UTC) with commentary by .
Each participating broadcaster, or group of broadcasters that jointly participated representing a country, assembled a jury who awarded 5âÂÂ1 points to their five favourite songs in order of preference. Due a communication failure with the Chilean broadcasters, their stand-in delegate present at the festival venue was instead used to vote for Chile.