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Russia ready to organize its own Eurovision-style contest

2025-09-20 11:17:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Russia ready to organize its own Eurovision-style contest

Artists from 23 countries will perform in the Russian song contest, called Intervision, a revived Soviet-era event. The show aims to promote "traditional family values," Moscow says.

Tonight is the final. Intervision is a Soviet-era competition, relaunched by President Vladimir Putin as a conservative response to the West's glitzy, liberal, and queer-friendly Eurovision Song Contest.

Russian artists have been banned from participating in Eurovision since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

So what is Intervision and what does this organization contain?

Moscow says the competition aims to promote "national identity" and "traditional values".

There will be no "perversions and mockery of human nature," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, in a remark that appeared to be aimed at Eurovision's pro-LGBTQ+ stance. The queer community in Russia has faced persecution in recent years.

Among the 23 countries participating in the event near Moscow are not only former Soviet republics such as Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but also Russia's partners in the BRICS, Brazil, China and India.

Artists will compete for a cash prize of 30 million rubles (€306,000; $360,000), with organizers hoping that more than a billion people will watch the gala evening on television.

Russia will be represented by ultranationalist singer Yaroslav Dronov, also known as Shaman, who will perform the song "Straight to the Heart".

Geopolitics is in the spotlight

Apart from Serbia and Belarus, no country from Europe will be represented in the contest, and this is an illustration of the freezing of Euro-Russian relations due to the war in Ukraine.

But unlike its partners in Europe, the United States has not shied away from the Kremlin-backed event.

Australian-born singer Vassy will take the stage for the US, which will also be represented on the jury by rock singer Joe Lynn Turner./ CNA





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