Putin forced to pay audience to attend his anti-Eurovision song contest to avoid flop

Vladimir Putin is paying people to attend his re-vamped anti-Western song contest aimed at replacing "woke" Eurovision. The dictator will recruit entrants from predominantly authoritarian states including China, Venezuela and Belarus to compete in an old Soviet competition called Intervision this month. While he insists that the televised contest "has already generated keen interest", evidence of audience members being offered cash in exchange for their presence suggests otherwise.

Attendees are being offered the equivalent of £56 to watch a pre-recorded dance mob and attend both a dress rehearsal and full-scale concert later this month, according to The Insider. Social media advertising used by the Kremlin to recruit participants also stipulated that they aren't allowed to wear yellow and blue clothing - Ukraine's national colours - ripped jeans or anything with a logo.

Paid audience members will have to sit through 13 hours of "dance flash mobs", set to be recorded this weekend, alongside a dress rehearsal on September 18 and the actual event - which Russia is expected to win - in Moscow on September 20.

Putin told other world leaders at an Asian security conference that the contest aims to restore "traditional values" and promote "universal, cultural and spiritual values", offering an alternative to "woke" Eurovision.

One potential attendee was told: "Those who endure at least 13 hours each day for both days will not only be paid 6,000 rubles (£56) but will also be guaranteed invitations for September 18 and 20 - but only if full passport data is provided, as access to the venue on these days will be strictly controlled."

Russia will be represented in the competition by pro-war patriotic signer Shaman, real name Yaroslav Dronov, 33, whose girlfriend is Kremlin moral guardian Yekaterina Mizulina, 40, head of Russia's Safe Internet League.

The US will be represented by Brandon Howard, 44, rumoured to be Michael Jackson's son.

Intervision previously ran between 1965 and 1968, and later between 1977 and 1980, as the then-Warsaw Pact socialist bloc's answer to Eurovision.

In its heyday, its bizarre communist-era voting system involved TV viewers turning their lights on or off to cast votes, with the results measured by electricity consumption.

Putin's revival of the contest is another attempt to prove he is not isolated by sanctions and due to his war with Ukraine, which has seen the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of people. He said it will also be aimed at "developing international, cultural and humanitarian cooperation".

It is not known whether Putin will sing at the contest, as he famously did in 2010, performing Blueberry Hill at a live charity event in St Petersburg. He went viral for singing in front of celebrity guests including Goldie Hawn, Kevin Costner and Sharon Stone, before he decided the West was Russia's implacable enemy.

Russia participated in Eurovision from 1994 to 2021, winning in 2008 with Dima Bilan performing 'Believe'. The contest was then hosted by Moscow in 2009 when Putin was Prime Minister, before it was banned from competing in 2022 following the illegal invasion of Ukraine.