Intervision Song Contest
| Intervision Song Contest | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Music competition |
| Created by | International Radio and Television Organisation |
| No. of episodes | 8 contests |
| Production | |
| Production locations |
|
| Production companies | International Radio and Television Organisation 1965–68: Czechoslovak Television 1977–80: Telewizja Polska |
| Original release | |
| Release | 12 June 1965 – 22 June 1968 |
| Release | 24 August 1977 – 23 August 1980 |
| Related | |
| Sopot International Song Festival | |
The Intervision Song Contest (ISC) was an international song competition organised by the International Radio and Television Organisation (OIRT) between 1965 and 1980, and broadcast live to national broadcasters via the Intervision network. The contest took place in several locations in Czechoslovakia, and in the Forest Opera in Sopot, Poland. It was the Eastern Bloc equivalent to the Eurovision Song Contest.
The ISC was organised from 1965 to 1968 and again from 1977 to 1980. 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".
In 2008, an unrelated contest with the same name took place, as an attempt to revival, though subsequent editions planned in both 2014 and 2015 did not materialise. After the Russian broadcasters withdrew from the European Broadcasting Union upon being excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, another revival was announced by the Russian Ministry of Culture in 2023, with Russian president Vladimir Putin signing a decree for it to be held in Moscow later in 2025.