Latest news with #IntervisionSongContest
Korea Herald
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Russia's revived Soviet music contest to take place in September
MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia will hold its "Intervision" music competition in September, organizers announced on Wednesday, after authorities revived the Soviet-era competition that was meant to rival Eurovision. Moscow has been banned from taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest over its Ukraine offensive and President Vladimir Putin earlier this year ordered for the USSR-version of the contest to be held in Russia this year. The Intervision Song Contest — mainly made up of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc states — was held in the 1960s and 1970s to rival the West. Organizers said that Intervision 2025 will be held in Moscow's LIVE Arena on Sept. 20, promising artists from "various continents" and "unforgettable emotions." The European Broadcasting Union, the organizer of Eurovision, banned Russia after its February 2022 offensive in Ukraine, meaning it cannot enter or broadcast the contest. Russia has in previous years been a serious Eurovision contender, and took part in the contest since 1994, winning it in 2008. Putin issued a decree in February setting out a plan to hold the alternative contest. The Intervision Song Contest was held in the 1960s and 1970s, before being replaced by the Sopot International Song Festival, held in the Polish Baltic coast city of Sopot, and drawing artists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Alla Pugacheva, Russia's most famous artist considered as the country's pop queen, won the competition in 1978.
Malay Mail
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Malay Mail
Russia's Intervision reborn: Putin's decree brings back Soviet-style music contest
MOSCOW, May 1 — Russia will hold its 'Intervision' music competition in September, organisers announced on Wednesday, after authorities revived the Soviet-era competition that was meant to rival Eurovision. Moscow has been banned from taking part in the Eurovision Song Contest over its Ukraine offensive and President Vladimir Putin earlier this year ordered for the USSR-version of the contest to be held in Russia this year. The Intervision Song Contest — mainly made up of the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc states — was held in the 1960s and 1970s to rival the West. Organisers said that Intervision 2025 will be held in Moscow's LIVE Arena on September 20, promising artists from 'various continents' and 'unforgettable emotions.' The European Broadcasting Union, the organiser of Eurovision, banned Russia after its February 2022 offensive in Ukraine, meaning it cannot enter or broadcast the contest. Russia has in previous years been a serious Eurovision contender, and took part in the contest since 1994, winning it in 2008. Putin issued a decree in February setting out a plan to hold the alternative contest. The Intervision Song Contest was held in the 1960s and 1970s, before being replaced by the Sopot International Song Festival, held in the Polish Baltic coast city of Sopot, and drawing artists from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Alla Pugacheva, Russia's most famous artist considered as the country's pop queen, won the competition in 1978. — AFP
Euronews
05-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Russia to relaunch Soviet-era Eurovision Song Contest rival in Moscow under Putin's orders
Following Russia's ban from competing in Eurovision in 2022 after the country's invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has ordered the return of Intervision, a Soviet-era singing competition that last took place more than 40 years ago. On Monday 3 February, the Russian leader signed a decree directing officials to bring back the Intervision Song Contest in Moscow this year, with the goal of 'developing international cultural and humanitarian cooperation.' While Eurovision has become a glitzy, global spectacle celebrating diversity and LGBTQ+ representation - last year's winner, Nemo from Switzerland, was the first non-binary contestant to take home the trophy - Russia's rebooted Intervision will strike a much different, sober tone. Do not expect any bearded drag queens, outrageous wigs, sequinned costumes or pride flags. Plans for the rebooted contest stress a commitment to 'traditional universal, spiritual, and family values,' making it clear that this is Russia's ideological counter-programming to the flamboyant pop extravaganza that is Eurovision. Russian senator, Liliya Gumerova, told state media that Intervision would "promote real music" and reject "fake values that are alien to any normal person." A brief history of the Intervision Song Contest Launched under the former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the Intervision Song Contest took place in Czechoslovakia (1965 to 1968) and later in Sopot, Poland (1977 to 1980), replacing the Sopot International Song Festival during that period. The format was similar to Eurovision: Eastern Bloc countries connected via the Intervision television network could each send a performer, where a jury chose the winner after watching the performances. Despite its clear political undertones, the contest wasn't completely isolated from the West. European nations like the Netherlands and Spain occasionally sent entries, and in a surprising twist, Finland - a country that maintained neutrality during the Cold War - won the final Intervision contest in 1980. 'It was live, and it was in a wonderful outdoor theatre. And it was very big, I think 15,000 people or maybe even more,' recalls Marion Rung, the Finnish singer who won that final Intervision Song Contest. 'It looked very much like Eurovision. It was a fantastic orchestra, and a fantastic conductor,' she told Euronews from her home in Helsinki. However, the contest was cancelled in 1981 due to political turmoil, particularly with the rise of the Solidarity movement (Solidarność), an independent trade union that opposed the ruling communist government in Poland, as well as growing unrest in the Warsaw Pact countries. But now, over 40 years later, Russia is determined to bring it back. Who will participate in the revived Intervision Song Contest? The Kremlin claims that "almost 20 countries" are prepared to participate in Intervision, including all members of the BRICS and CIS blocs. Among them are China, India, and Brazil - nations that have not participated in the Western sanctions. North Korea, whose soldiers have come to Putin's aid in the war in Ukraine, already takes part in the Own Asiavision Song Contest, so it's unclear whether they would take part. Putin has attempted to resurrect Intervision before. In 2014, as Russian officials decried what they saw as Eurovision's 'moral decay' following Austrian drag queen Conchita Wurst's victory, Moscow announced plans to relaunch the contest in Sochi. But the project never materialised. The resurrected competition is now set to take place this autumn in Moscow.
