In Russia, a music competition “Intervision” may be held in 2024

At the St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova and General Director of Channel One Konstantin Ernst spoke about the initiative to hold the Intervision music competition, already in 2024. Igor Gavrilov I am sure that the competition will take place, it is not clear in what form.

An organization called Intervision has existed since 1960 as part of the International Broadcasting and Television Organization. The purpose of Intervision was the exchange of entertainment television programs between the countries of the socialist camp. The first members of the organization were the USSR, the GDR, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. In 1977–1980, the Intervision music competition was held in Sopot, Poland. This was a competition that had long been familiar to viewers of socialist countries, just under a new name. In 1978, Alla Pugacheva won Intervision.

In the 2000s, there was an attempt to revive “Intervision” as an expanded version of the then existing “Five Stars” competition. In 2009, the idea of ​​the competition was actively supported by Vladimir Putin – then he believed that this should be a competition for the SCO countries. The Prime Minister was deeply impressed by the Eurovision Song Contest, which Moscow hosted a few months earlier.

“We count on the active participation of the BRICS countries,” says Konstantin Ernst about the new Intervision. BRICS currently includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and from January 1, 2024 Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE will join the organization. If all the BRICS countries send their participants, it could be a very spectacular event. The organization represents countries with vibrant musical traditions and powerful, globally visible entertainment industries. At a minimum, these are India, China, Brazil, Egypt and Argentina.

Anyone who has encountered the organizational side of Eurovision (and Intervision will inevitably be compared with it) knows that this is a very difficult product in terms of production, and work on it goes on all year round. Eurovision is held under the auspices of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), from which Russia was expelled in 2022. There is a collective spending agreement between EBU members. Russia, presumably, is ready to bear the costs of organizing Intervision; nothing has yet been heard about the creation of an organization similar to the EBU under BRICS. Host countries have spent between €10 million and €30 million on Eurovision this century, and the production budget for Eurovision 2019 in Israel was €35 million.

The very word “Intervision” has been heard from presidential lips for a long time, and 2024 is the year of presidential elections. It would be strange not to use Intervision as proof of the triumph of democracy using the experience of the Moscow Eurovision 2009, the Sochi Olympics and the 2018 football championship with its international fan movement. In addition, the Moscow Eurovision, like the ceremonies of the Sochi Olympics, remains a source of special pride for Konstantin Ernst.

The topic of the international song competition worries in Russia even officials who are far from cultural issues. A member of the State Duma Committee on Construction and Housing and Communal Services, Sergei Kolunov, said in an interview in April of this year: “The domestic song competition should become international, like Eurovision, but only singers from states friendly to us should be allowed to participate in it.” Konstantin Ernst promises: “There will be no political restrictions or influences in this competition, this is a free platform on which all countries can present samples of their popular music.”

It is unlikely that the platform of the supposed “Intervision” is so free to accept someone like Dana International or Conchita Wurst. And there are doubts about “all countries”. And the point is not only that the current “unfriendly” countries will not rush into applications. After all, the K-pop group from unfriendly South Korea W24 recently performed at the “Fandom Fest” of the social network “VKontakte” and performed, among other things, the songs “Blood Type” and “A Million Scarlet Roses”, and the festival “Legends of Retro FM” announces the participation of pop veterans from unfriendly Italy, Germany and Austria. It’s simply hard to imagine that representatives of South and North Korea, Armenia and Azerbaijan, China and Taiwan, or China and India will simultaneously participate in the competition. Or, for example: pop artists in many countries have contracts with record majors Sony, Warner and Universal, who left the Russian market for obvious political reasons. Can you imagine these artists at Intervision?

Little has been announced about the rules of the new competition. It is known that within the framework of Eurovision, not artists, but songs compete, and their performers are mostly identified during the national selection, which is organized by television broadcasters. Will the organizers of Intervision manage to agree on a similar or some other model with their partners? And if different, then which one?

Song competitions similar to Eurovision have existed over the years in Africa, in countries united by the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Unions. But they did not live long, and there is a demand for such a competition in the world; just watch how persistently Australia rushes to Eurovision every year. So, despite the harsh political context, the prospects for Intervision are not hopeless. Here everything is “in the box”: Russia’s search for a new image, its technical readiness for events of this kind, its resentment towards the EBU, and the passion of Konstantin Ernst.