When Vietnamese singer Duc Phuc held aloft the crystal cup trophy in Moscow’s Live Arena on Saturday night, he became the inaugural winner of new song contest Intervision — a Russian answer to Eurovision that some say is as much about politics and power as it is about performance.

In a show overflowing with thundering vocals and pyrotechnics, Duc Phuc’s song “Phu Dong Thien Vuong,” a heady mix of pop, rap and dubstep, saw off second-place Kyrgyzstan to take home the grand prize of 30 million rubles (about $360,000).

The final also brought the unexpected. Moments before the U.S. entrant, Australian-born Vassy, was due to take to the stage, the show’s presenters announced that she would not be able to perform due to “political pressure” from the Australian government. Another act, singer-songwriter Brandon Howard, had been slated to perform for the U.S. until three days before the final show. He ultimately dropped out due to “unforeseen family circumstances.”

Vassy told the Associated Press that she was not able to currently comment on the incident.

Then, as Russian singer Shaman finished his act, he delivered a passionate speech asking for Russia’s performance not to be considered by the international jury.

“Russia has already won by inviting so many countries to join us,” he said.

Glitter and geopolitics

For decades, the sequin-encrusted pinnacle of international music competitions has been Eurovision — the European Broadcasting Union’s continent-spanning celebration of song. Intervision wants to claim that crown. Much like Eurovision, the contest sees acts perform under their national flag in front of thousands in a bid to win votes and glory.

But beneath the glitter, geopolitics bubbles. Signed into life by special presidential decree in February — three years after Moscow was barred from Eurovision for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — the Russia-hosted Intervision gives Moscow a self-built platform back on the global cultural stage.

Kremlin officials insist that Intervision is not an example of Russian soft power. “What we are doing is diametrically opposite to the attempts to use sports, art, and any other human activities for political gains,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists in a pre-contest press conference.

Yet high-level Russian politicians have been consistently linked to promoting Intervision. President Vladimir Putin discussed the contest during his state visit to China at the start of September and recorded a special video message screened before the show began. Lavrov also appeared at the show, holding an interview between the first and second acts.

The competition’s importance in showing a Russia that has been embraced, not ostracized, by the world at large, despite its 3½-year war, is impossible to avoid.

“Eurovision pales in comparison to Intervision,” lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told Russian state news agency Tass. “(It) destroys the myth of Russian isolation.”

Russia wants an international stage

Intervision is modeled after a socialist-era contest of the same name hosted in Czechoslovakia between 1965 and 1968, and Poland between 1977 and 1980. Although the 2025 Intervision has been hailed as a revival, the competitions never sparked much interest in Soviet Russia, says historian Dean Vuletic, author of “Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest.”

Czechoslovak and Polish television “saw Intervision as a bridge between East and West,” Vuletic says. “They wanted to attract the attention of Western media, Western record companies.”

Foreign artists also used Intervision to build their global profile. Boney M famously featured as an interval act in 1979, where they performed their hit “Rasputin.”

In 2025, there are still plenty of artists ready to embrace a global audience, although most of the performers involved are from countries that take at least a neutral stance to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Intervision lineup featured 23 acts, including China, South Africa, Brazil, the UAE, India, Cuba, Ethiopia and Venezuela. Vassy, representing the United States, was a noticeable outlier.

The selection process for individual acts, however, is difficult to track. In its rules, Intervision says that co-organizers — the legal entity in charge of nominating acts, organizing broadcasts and promoting the contest in its home country — can range from national broadcasters to individuals, but there’s no public list to confirm who these co-organizers are.

As a result, some performers outweigh others for cultural clout, despite Intervision’s stipulation that all acts should be a “national star.” Russia’s entry, the ultra-patriotic Shaman, is one of the country’s most heavily promoted acts. Musicians like Kenya’s Sanaipei and Madagascar’s Denise and D-Lain also have loyal followings back home.

Other artists have a smaller profile. Egypt’s Moustafa Saad is best known as a soloist at the Alexandria Opera House, a relatively niche genre in the country.

It needs a key element now — fans

Yet if Intervision hopes to build a real legacy, the contest doesn’t need to win over musicians, but fans.

Content creator Henrik Larsson films Eurovision-based reaction videos for his YouTube channel. He’s one of a small group of creators to have posted Intervision-related clips. “It gave me a perspective of different songs apart from the world, not just Europe. And some of the songs are fantastic.”

But most Eurovision fan communities have ignored Intervision entirely. “Let the dictators and war criminals have their own little party where they can spout their propaganda and call it a contest,” read one comment on a popular Eurovision Reddit forum.

Aside from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Intervision has also made a public commitment to “traditional universal and family values” — an affront to many fans of the LGBTQ+-friendly Eurovision. Information about Vassy’s role as an ambassador for the NOH8 Campaign, a nonprofit promoting LGBTQ+ rights and gender equality, disappeared briefly from her Wikipedia page after her participation in the contest was announced. It was later restored.

It’s also unclear just how much interest Intervision will be able to command in Russia. The AP found several advertisements on online casting websites offering a small payment for anyone who would join the Intervision crowd.

Without a fan base or a central organization driving the competition onward, Intervision’s future will depend on political will. That’s risky, says historian Dean Vuletic. Both the Czechoslovak and Polish iterations of Intervision of the 1960s and 1970s ultimately fizzled due to social upheaval and changing political priorities.

As the 2025 show drew to a close, organizers announced that next year’s Intervision would be held in Saudi Arabia.

For now, Kremlin enthusiasm is in no short supply for the competition’s planned 2026 edition.

“In Soviet times, the party and government made decisions to promote a positive image of Russia abroad. Today, we must advance an objective portrayal,” Lavrov said. “Indeed, some of our perceived shortcomings provoke envy among many foreign counterparts.”

___

Associated Press writers Sarah Tetaud in Antananarivo, Madagascar, Nicholas Komu in Nairobi, Kenya, and Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo contributed.