Intervision – the Soviet answer to Eurovision – has not been arranged since 1980 and then for countries in the former Eastern Bloc. But in 2022, Russia was excluded from Eurovision with reference to the Ukraine war and three years later – in February this year – Vladimir Putin signed a decree to revive the music competition.
Intervision will now be held on 20 September in Moscow and Russia will be represented by Shaman, known for his patriotic music after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and removed from Spotify for that reason. Among the other participating countries are Venezuela, Cuba, Qatar, Serbia, and Belarus, according to Politico.
Brandon Howard, producer and songwriter from Los Angeles, represents the USA.
Oskar Anersten, who made an SVT documentary about Intervision, believes that the competition is part of an information campaign with propaganda elements. He does not think that the competition will become an alternative to Eurovision, he says to Kulturnytt:
Most things suggest that it will be a flop, there are quite few participating countries as far as I can see, the question is also who will be able to see this.
