Vietnam was crowned the winner of the Intervion Cherry Competition, organized and hosted by Russia in open competition with the western rival Eurovision.
It was the same leader of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, who ordered the resumption of the Intervision, a regional music competition from the Soviet era based on the “traditional family values”, after Moscow had been excluded from the Eurovision Song Contest in 2022 for the vast scale of Ukraine. Kiev defined the event “a hostile propaganda tool”.
Broadcast live from Russian TV and aired in some parts of Asia, Africa, South America and Europe, the interview was held in an arena outside Moscow with singers from 23 countries, which count a total population of 4 billion people, including China, India and Brazil.
The Vietnamese Duc Phuc, whose song is based on a popular fairy tale that tells of a famous king for having rejected an enemy army, was the winner decided by a jury made up of the participating countries. The prize consists of a trophy and 30 million rubles (just over 305,000 euros). Kyrgyzistan won second place, while Qatar ranked the third.
The Russian competitor, the ultranationalist singer Shaman, at the registry of Yaroslav Dronov, asked the jury to ignore his performance, as Moscow was the host nation. Saudi Arabia will host the competition next year.
The competition last night saw the participation of artists from the nations that Russia considers friends, such as Bieloruscia, Cuba, South Africa, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Putin opened the final with a video declaration in which he stressed that the world is changing quickly.
As proof that Donald Trump’s USA are perceived by Moscow less hostile than the previous administrations, a representative of the United States also had to participate in the interview. Vassy, a singer born in Australia and with an American passport, however, retired to the last minute after being subjected to “political pressure by the Australian government”, said the organizers in a press release. For now there are no statements from the Australian authorities. Vassy, in turn, had already taken the place of the American R&B singer Brandon Howard, who had abandoned the competition a few days earlier for “family reasons”.