{"id":158898,"date":"2025-09-21T09:07:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T09:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/158898\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T09:07:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T09:07:06","slug":"vietnams-duc-phuc-wins-intervision-russias-family-friendly-answer-to-the-eurovision-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/158898\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam\u2019s Duc Phuc wins Intervision, Russia\u2019s family-friendly answer to the Eurovision"},"content":{"rendered":"

With cheering crowds, glowing lights, a hint of political intrigue and a winning act in Vietnamese singer Duc Phuc, Russia\u2019s answer to the Eurovision song contest \u2013 \u201cIntervision<\/a>\u201d \u2013 gave off similar vibes as the competition that inspired it when it returned to Moscow on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Fans dressed in their national colors thronged the streets outside the \u201cLive Arena\u201d on the outskirts of Moscow as 23 acts from countries across the world, including China, India and Brazil, competed for a cash prize of 30 million roubles ($360,000). And there was no shortage of fans for the eventual winner, whose act saw him deliver a powerful ballad against a projected backdrop of a giant solar eclipse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m shocked, thank you so much \u2026 I couldn\u2019t even imagine that I would win such a large-scale (competition),\u201d the delighted singer told reporters after the competition final. \u201cIt\u2019s a surprise to me that I\u2019ve gained so many fans here \u2026 I\u2019m very grateful to all the viewers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Russia launched its international song contest at President Vladimir Putin\u2019s behest, with a Soviet-era name and acts intended to promote \u201ctraditional family values,\u201d after being banished from Eurovision<\/a> \u2013 and as a spectacle, it didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

But, like the European competition, which has become notorious for perceptions of political-bloc style voting, there was a hint of politics when the expected US contestant \u2013 electronic music artist \u201cVassy,\u201d a 42-year old dual US-Australian citizen \u2013 dropped out at the last minute.<\/p>\n

\"Vietnam's<\/p>\n

Vietnam’s Duc Phuc performs in Moscow on Saturday. – Olesya Kurpyayeva\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cFor reasons beyond the control of the organizers and the US delegation, caused by unprecedented political pressure from the Government of Australia, singer VASSY (a citizen of the United States and Australia) will not be able to perform in the final show of the contest,\u201d a statement from Intervision\u2019s organizers said.<\/p>\n

That announcement dampened Moscow\u2019s insistence that politics had no place at the competition, even as the organizers were quick to point out that the US remained a \u201cfull participant\u201d of the contest with former \u201cDeep Purple\u201d vocalist Joe Lynn Turner sitting in the jury.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, who was present at the event, was quoted as insisting: \u201cWe are not striving for any political effect. We want the original purpose of a person and his or her identity to be respected and realized in free interaction with others, enriching one another through the exchange of spiritual values.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that whiff of political intrigue only served to underline the origin of Intervision, which is a revival of the Soviet-era song contest by the same name that was held between 1965 and 1980. That iteration of Intervision was meant to be a vehicle for the Soviet Union to display its soft power, but also an answer to Europe\u2019s popular Eurovision song contest which was created in 1956.<\/p>\n

After Russia was kicked out of the Eurovision competition in 2022 for its full-on invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials began to plan for a revival of Intervision and in February of this year Putin signed a decree formally giving the go-ahead for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that the competition will become one of the most recognizable and beloved worldwide, because through dialogue, mutual respect, and the strengthening of trust between cultures, we become spiritually richer,\u201d Putin said in a video statement that was played in the venue at the beginning of the concert.<\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/p>\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses participants and spectators of “Intervision” via video link Saturday. – Alexander Zemlianichenko\/AP<\/p>\n

Unlike the Eurovision, which is largely made up of European countries, Intervision drew on acts from 23 countries across the world \u2013 mostly nations allied with Russia, including Brazil, China, Cuba and Venezuela but also former Soviet Republics such as Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikisatn and Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

And many of the participants were quick to give glowing reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stage was so powerful that it ate me fully and I couldn\u2019t control my imagination and gave my best on the stage,\u201d Tajikistan\u2019s participant, Farrukh Hasanov, told CNN shortly after his performance.<\/p>\n

His rival from the United Arab Emirates, Saif Al Ali, praised what he called the unifying character of the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have 23 countries performing here today. Music is the language of the community,\u201d Al Ali told CNN.<\/p>\n

Euro-pop vibes, but no pride<\/p>\n

While a lot of the music had Euro-pop vibes similar to Eurovision, there was a major difference between the competitions: while Eurovision often celebrates LGBTQ+ diversity, there were no rainbow flags or other pride symbols at Intervision as displays of such symbols are forbidden in Russia.<\/p>\n

Instead, the event had a clear \u201canti-woke\u201d agenda. Moscow has insisted that the competition is about showcasing the \u201ctraditional values\u201d of the home countries of the contestants.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeterosexualism is very important to us,\u201d one fan of the Russian participant \u201cShaman,\u201d bluntly told CNN outside the concert venue.<\/p>\n

Intervision aims to \u201cpromote universal, spiritual, family, cultural, ethical, and religious traditions of different nations,\u201d according to the song contest\u2019s official guidelines.<\/p>\n

But Russia\u2019s Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova said the competition was not meant to be about politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Intervision competition is about talented people, not political decisions. It is very important that the best, the most talented and the brightest performer who would conquer the hearts of the audience wins,\u201d Lyubimova told Russia\u2019s state news agency TASS.<\/p>\n

As the massive show drew to a close and the jury voted Duc Phuc of Vietnam the winner, there was time for one last announcement: Intervision will return again next year, when it will be hosted by Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With cheering crowds, glowing lights, a hint of political intrigue and a winning act in Vietnamese singer Duc…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,82994,75,82992,82993,44421,82995,58742,6639,82996,82997,348,5801],"class_list":{"0":"post-158898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-duc-phuc","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-eurovision-song-contest","13":"tag-intervision","14":"tag-moscow","15":"tag-political-intrigue","16":"tag-president-vladimir-putin","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-song-contest","19":"tag-traditional-family-values","20":"tag-tv","21":"tag-vietnam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}