As heavily reported over the recent weeks, many people in authority inside Russia have expressed their concern about “Europe’s moral degrading.” Just after the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest final a number of reports suggested that Russia would organise their own song contest, as an alternative to the Eurovision Song Contest in protest of Conchita Wurst winning the 59th contest held in Copenhagen this month.
This alternative to Eurovision will be in the form of Intervision, this is a contest that began in 1977 and ran for four years, then returned in 2008 for one year. (The BBC had an interesting and in-depth article on Intervision a few years ago and for those who are interested you can check it out here.) Now the contest is set to return in October 2014 in a way of promoting ‘Family Values’.
Russian Ministers have stated that they are organising Intervision “an alternative to bearded Eurovision,” this works alongside the Russian ban on ‘Gay Propaganda’, which the ministers believe Conchita winning the contest goes against. Vitaly Milonov, Conservative Deputy in St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly has made his feelings clear on the matter: “The participation of apparently transvestite and hermaphrodite Conchita Wurst on the same stage as Russian artists live on TV is blatant propaganda of homosexuality and moral degradation,” and believes that Russia should not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest any longer.
Former-Soviet and Eurasian countries can participate in Intervision and currently it is reported that Russia will compete against China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, and Tajikistan. Countries that may participate, but have not yet confirmed include: Japan, South Korea, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Russia will select their representative for Intervision in a three-day qualification round, called “Five Stars,” from June 12-15 in Yalta, a resort city in Crimea. According to the Five Stars website, they had auditions for the qualifying round in Moscow on May 19 and 20. The ‘National Final’ will be a showcase of young Russian talent, in hope of selecting the winner of Intervision 2014.
The jury members for the qualifying round will be:
- Joseph Kobzon, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture
- Yuri Antonov, Soviet and Russian composer, singer and poet
- Viktor Drobysh, Composer and main musical producer of the “Five Stars” contest
- Irina Allegrova, Russian Singer
- Igor Matvienko, producer and composer (He has also suggested that all participants be clean-shaven)
The qualification round will also feature former-Russian Eurovision entrants: Julia Savicheva (2004), Buranovoskyie Babushki (2012), Dina Garipova (2013), and Dmitry Koldun, the 2007 entry from Belarus.
What are your thoughts on Intervision? Will this revival last long?
