Russia says America will join their anti-LGBT Eurovision rival
Putin is reviving Intervision, the Communist rival to Eurovision during the Cold War, as an anti-Ukraine, anti-gay alternative. They've just announced which countries will participate in September.
In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Broadcasting Union of European, Middle East and North Africa broadcasters had a difficult decision to make. Eurovision, the famous annual song contest that the EBU produces (the most-watched live entertainment event in the world annually) had always tried to keep politics out of the show. Even as tensions between Russia and Ukraine became an annual focal point of the contest after 2014, they turned to anti-booing technology to drown out the jeers in the arena during Russia’s performance (driven both by Crimea and Russia’s anti-gay campaign). But in 2022, after at least six countries said they would pull out unless Russia was banned, the EBU finally gave in. That set a variety of consequences into motion, including the calls of hypocrisy last year and this year when the EBU did not ban Israel from the contest.
The decision also set off a chain of events in Russia which has led to the revival of Intervision, the Cold War rival to Eurovision which used to be staged in Sopot, Poland with the participation of Communist countries. Putin’s government had long complained about the increasing presence of LGBT messaging during Eurovision, and Russia had already threatened to pull out after the bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst won the contest for Austria in 2014. Already at that time Putin was talking about reviving Intervision as a “family-friendly alternative” and staging it in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. One-time-Eurovision-winner Turkey had already done just that, with President Erdogan pulling Turkey out of the contest and launching a family-friendly alternative for folk music among Turkic-speaking countries and communities - Turkvision. But Eurovision has been hugely popular in Russia for many years starting from when they joined in the 1990s, and the government never had the nerve to pull out until they were kicked out. And now, Putin’s dreams of staging Intervision can finally be realised. It will take place in Moscow on 20 September. It will be the first Intervision since the old one was ended (because of lack of viewers) 45 years ago.