In 1968, the Iron Curtain cracked open just a little: At the Intervision music festival in Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia, stars from both Eastern and Western Europe shared the stage for the first time — just weeks before Soviet tanks put an end to the cultural policies of the Prague Spring. More than twenty years later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, another pan-European music competition took place — this time, Western broadcasters invited artists to a joined Eurovision Song Contest. Intervision faded into obscurity.

Luckily, the European performance group BOYS* IN SYNC has a passion for song contests and grand show moments! In InterEuroVision, they shine a light on the forgotten Intervision festival, perform the hits from East and West in their native languages, and explore the political dimensions of both contests: What symbolic meaning does Intervision hold for us today? Why do we know so little about this historic event? And what does this tell us about the way we perceive European history?

Today, international conflicts continue to influence the Eurovision Song Contest and hamper the unpolitical, joyful atmosphere that the contest hopes to communicate. At the same time, Eurovision has partly become a stage for queer empowerment. Even if international singing competitions are supposed to appear unpolitical, they always have a political motivation, too. The show numbers, commentary and songs of Inter- and Eurovision can tell us about these connections…