Antonio Andrés Vodanovic Paolinelli (born in Santiago, March 2, 1949) is a Chilean commercial engineer, radio broadcaster and Television Presenter of Croatian/Dalmatian origin.^[1]

The son of Croatian and Italian immigrants, his parents wanted an education for him that would assure him the promising future they came to Chile for.

A good student at the Luis Campino Institute of Humanities, he did not hesitate to become a university professional, thus trying to opt for medicine, but without achieving the necessary score he changed his mind and decided to study commercial engineering and law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alongside Maria Piedad Gumucio Eguiguren, to whom he was married for 28 years, and having two daughters: Carolina and Macarena.

Vodanovic got his first taste of television in 1972, when he hosted Campeonato Estudiantil, a program that rewarded different vocal talents of the time and was broadcast on Channel 13.

At that time he also worked as a reporter for the program Sábado Gigante.

In the mid 80's he had the opportunity to internationalize his television career, since he was the host of different programs of the Spanish International Network (SIN) (currently Univision) in the United States, for 10 years.

Within this context, in 1989 he led the OTI Song Festival with Don Francisco, Mario Kreutzberger and Lucy Pereda.

In 1994 he emigrated to Red Televisiva Megavisión, where in addition to animating the Viña del Mar Song Festival, he produced and conducted Sal y Pimienta for an entire five years, among other programs. Also, in 1999 he was hired by Channel 13, to animate the Viña Festival again and work on other projects such as Nace una Estrella and Maravillozoo, for almost five years.

In subsequent years he conducted (in its first three editions) the Festival de la Canción de La Serena, and participated in the Canal 13 program, Locos por el baile (2006), where he was eliminated in the first round.

Then he emigrated to Chilevisión, where he was a judge of Chilean Talent for several seasons and, later, he animated the program Hazme Reír in 2013.

Antonio returns to the screens in 2020 as a judge for the show Yo soy, on Chilevisión.

His leap to fame came in 1976 when, for the first time, he animated the Viña del Mar Song Festival.

His charisma allowed him to achieve a unique connection with the public and forge an image of his own, due to his driving style and repetitive phrases that he used in the competition, among which "Viña tiene Festival" stands out.

His career as a presenter was always linked to the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, since when in 1994 the transmission of this event was passed to Red Televisiva Megavisión he was also hired by the private station. Likewise, when the concession of the Festival fell to Channel 13, in 2000 with the XLI edition of the contest, Vodanovic also changed its television station. His last animation of the Viña Festival was the 2004 version, after 28 years in that role.

In the 50th version of the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, in 2009, he made his last appearance on the stage of the Quinta Vergara, where, amidst the emotion and ovation of the audience, he said goodbye very gratefully and humbly, and the monster gave him the silver torch.

When he was about to "offer" him other awards, Vodanovic said that "the torch was enough, because with the affection of the audience he took all the prizes".^[2]