Intervision Song Contest

Intervision Song Contest
One of several logos used by the Intervision Network between 1977–1980.
GenreSong contest
No. of episodes5 contests
Production
Production companyInternational Radio and Television Organisation
Original release
Release1965 (1965) –
1968 (1968)[1]
Release24 August 1977 (1977-08-24) –
23 August 1980 (1980-08-23)
Release28 August (2008-08-28) –
31 August 2008 (2008-08-31)
Related
Sopot International Song Festival
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The Intervision Song Contest (ISC) was an international song competition organised by the International Radio and Television Organisation. It was the Eastern Bloc equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest. It was transmitted to national broadcasters via the Intervision network. The contest took place in Czechoslovakia, and in the Forest Opera in Sopot, Poland.

The ISC was organised from 1965 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1980.[1][2][3] Since 1977, it replaced the Sopot International Song Festival (Sopot ISF) that had been held in Sopot since 1961. In 1981 the ISC/Sopot ISF was cancelled because of the rise of the independent trade union movement, Solidarity, which was judged by other Eastern bloc communist governments to be "counter-revolutionary". A revived contest took place in 2008, though subsequent editions planned to stage the contest again in both 2014 and 2015 did not materialise.[4][5] After Russia withdrew from the European Broadcasting Union upon being excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, another revival of the Intervision Song Contest was announced by the Russian Ministry of Culture in 2023.[6]

  1. ^ a b Vuletic, Dean. "Dr. Dean Vuletic: Intervision: Popular Music and Politics in Eastern Europe". Universitat Wien. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  2. ^ Vuletic, Dean (25 July 2019). Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781350107397.
  3. ^ Vuletic, Dean (23 November 2021). "The Intervision Song Contest: Popular Music and Political Liberalization in the Eastern Bloc". Music and Democracy. Vienna, Austria / Bielefeld, Germany: mdwPress / transcript Verlag. pp. 141–156. doi:10.14361/9783839456576-006. ISBN 978-3-8376-5657-2.
  4. ^ Granger, Anthony (1 September 2014). "Intervision: 2014 Contest Is Cancelled". Eurovoix. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  5. ^ Granger, Anthony (14 March 2015). "Intervision: Contest Moved To Autumn 2015". Eurovoix.com. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  6. ^ "В России возродят советский фестиваль песен вместо "Евровидения"" (in Russian). The Moscow Times. 17 November 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2023.