In the aftermath of the Second World War, Europe was divided not only by borders and ideology, but by the airwaves.
In the West, the European Broadcasting Union built Eurovision into an unprecedented cultural phenomenon. In the East, the OIR and, later, the OIRT constructed their own international broadcasting network: Intervision. What began as a system of television exchange would become something far more ambitious. It would become a stage on which nations could compete, cooperate, and project their visions of modernity.
From the first experiments of the 1960s and the forgotten Golden Clef contests of Prague, through the glittering years of Sopot in the 1970s, Intervision brought together performers from across the socialist world and beyond. Its stages were filled with pop stars, political symbolism, technological ambition and the contradictions of a divided Europe.
Then the world that created it disappeared.
The fall of communism seemed to consign Intervision to history. But the name survived. Decades later, Russia began reviving the concept, transforming an old Eastern European broadcasting tradition into a new instrument of cultural diplomacy. As relations between Russia and the West deteriorated, the old rivalry between broadcasting systems took on a new meaning.
Today, the Intervision Song Contest is back.
But what exactly has returned?
INTERVISION: A Song Contest And A Cultural War traces the forgotten history of the contest and the broadcasting networks behind it, from the ruins of postwar Europe to the stages of the 21st century. It is a story about music, television, technology and politics. A story about the enduring struggle over who gets to define European culture.
Because sometimes the most important battles are not fought on a battlefield.
They are fought on the airwaves.
