Intervision Song Contest
The Intervision Song Contest (ISC) was an international song contest for artists from Eastern Bloc countries. It was the communist equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest. Its organiser was Intervision, the network of Eastern Bloc television stations. The contest would usually take place in the Forest Opera in Sopot, Poland.
| Intervision Song Contest | |
|---|---|
One of several logos used by the Intervision Network between 1977–1980. | |
| Genre | Song contest |
| No. of episodes | 5 contests |
| Production | |
| Production company | Intervision |
| Original release | |
| Release | 1965 – 1968 |
| Release | 24 August 1977 – 23 August 1980 |
| Release | 28 August – 31 August 2008 |
| Related | |
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The ISC was organised from 1965 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1980. 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. 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.