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.

Countries participating in Intervision in September 2025. Green: song already chosen, Purple: song not yet chosen

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.

After the fall of Communism, the Eastern Bloc countries that had been in Intervision started joining Eurovision in the 1990s

The participation of certain countries was certain: Russia, Belarus, Kazakhkstan - those former Soviet countries which chose to re-vassalize themselves after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. But today we got the shock announcement that the United States will also participate in the contest - at least, according to Russia.

At an event today to kick off the lead-up to the contest, the 20 competing countries were announced. They include Iran, China, Venezuela, Egypt, Qatar, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Uzbekistan and…the United States. The news has stunned European broadcasters today and elicited an angry response from Ukrainians. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said it considers Intervision to be “a tool of Russian propaganda” used to whitewash the aggressive policies of the Russian regime. According to the Interfax news agency, the ministry instructed its foreign diplomatic missions to take measures of "political and diplomatic response" against countries that intend to take part in Intervision. That promise was made before this announcement. The inclusion of the United States therefor puts Ukrainian diplomats in an awkward position.

Serbia, which already has difficult relations with Ukraine, is the only country on the list that also participates in Eurovision. No EU country is on the list, but there have been reports that Hungary (which pulled out of Eurovision a few years ago) is still considering joining.

While Eurovision is a contest between national public broadcasters who are members of the EBU, that is not the case for Intervision. The 2025 contest is being organised by the Russian foreign ministry, and Moscow says the ministry is directly coordinating participation with foreign governments. But with no confirmation from the US State Department, it’s not clear who exactly is making the decision about participation in Intervision. Some might be tempted to downplay this and say Russia is just trying to score a propaganda victory by inviting some random American to perform, but they are explicitly claiming that the governments of these 20 countries have taken the decision to join. And if they just wanted to troll by inviting random singers from the West without government approval, we surely would have seen some EU countries on the list.

Eurovision has always been political. But never more so than in recent years when the politics of Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine have overshadowed the contest to such a degree that it threatens its future existence. At the same time, it is also enormously culturally important - a fact not appreciated by most Europeans. It is the only popular output that Europe produces as a whole, and it is the only commercially successful consistent generator of charting pop music that has no involvement of Americans. In a continent that is culturally dominated by America, where 60% of chart music is produced in the US (as are 70% of films in theatres) that’s no mean feat. America has nothing like Eurovision (they tried and failed). Eurovision is the one time a year Europeans say ‘thanks but no thanks’ to the American juggernaut (except for the year Israel forced us to watch Madonna fall off the stage in an interval act). And mercifully, so far the Americans haven’t shown much interest in disturbing our tranquility. That is, until recent years when the song contest’s popularity has exploded on social media and streaming.

So the involvement of the American cultural juggernaut in a rival contest that has the explicit mission of destroying Eurovision is going to be very alarming - especially when it’s happening against the backdrop of Eurovision teetering on the brink as ten countries threaten to pull out over the easily-manipulated public voting rules that were introduced a few years ago. Russia, China and America have just banded together to overpower a song contest that is already hobbled at this moment. If Eurovision countries start leaving to join Intervision (the Balkans will be key to watch here) it could push the EBU into complete panic.

Intervision is initially going to be awful, especially if the experience of Turkvision is anything to go by. One of the (many) rules states that artists “may not insult the honor and dignity of society” and must maintain "traditional universal, spiritual and family values". But the involvement of the United States gives reason to worry. Intervision was a drab black-and-white affair in the 60s and 70s whose many myths in hindsight (such as voting being done by turning on and off light switches because people didn’t have phones) actually make it sound much more interesting than it was. “Family-friendly” Intervision will likely initially default to cringe-inducing folk performances that nobody watches, as happened with Turkvision. If the US takes this seriously and sends Trump-supporting popular artists like Carrie Underwood, Kanye West and Kid Rock (plus whichever artists inevitably fall in line in the coming months), it would cause the other countries to also take it seriously and send real pop music (just without the gay).

This is just the latest salvo against Europe by an American administration that despises this continent along with the plurality and freedom it represents. The threats are coming in the military, economic and cultural realms - all areas on which Europeans are dependent on America. The knives are out in Washington, and Europe is on the menu.