Russia challenges Eurovision with its own global song contest

For Europe – along with a handful of other countries – the annual international song competition has long been Eurovision: a contest among dozens of musicians in a glitzy spectacle that draws more than 150 million watchers. But for Russia, Eurovision has been off the table since 2022, when it was banned due to its invasion of Ukraine.

So Moscow has launched its own version of Eurovision, with a more global – though somewhat less inclusive – bent. And that competition makes its debut this weekend.

Musicians from 23 countries will perform this Saturday at an arena near Moscow in the new Intervision international song contest. The event’s Russian organizers are promoting it as a forum that will promote traditional values and unique national cultures – in contrast, they argue, to Eurovision.

“Music is a language that unites people,” says Nidia Góngora, an award-winning singer who will represent Colombia in the competition. “In our Latin culture, music has helped us so much to survive times of terrible troubles. The musician has a responsibility to perform music in part as a means of helping people to face the problems of this world.” She says she’s delighted to be in Moscow, and she brushes away any questions concerning the geopolitical tensions that, inevitably, form the backdrop of the event.

Amid a growing global political rift, Moscow seems to be creating its own alternatives to many formerly universal events in order to pursue its own soft-power goals, while also providing exposure for its own athletes, artists, and entertainers, who are largely barred from Western-run venues these days. Today’s Intervision participants are coming from the more Russia-friendly countries of the Global South rather than from the former Soviet bloc. The Cold War-era mantra of such events was “peace and friendship,” while today’s message is more about shared – and vaguely nonliberal – values in a diverse world.

Andrei Razygraev, creative director of the competition, says there is no place for propaganda in Intervision, which is only about “music, friendship, and holding a multicultural event.”