During the Cold War, the Soviet Union created a Eurovision competitor

After it was banned from Eurovision, Russia resurrected its Cold War-era version

Russia was barred from the Eurovision Song Contest following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In 2025, President Vladimir Putin announced the revival of Intervision, a similarly structured song contest that the Soviet Union had organized throughout the Cold War.

The first Eurovision took place in 1956

The contest was organized by the European Broadcasting Union, a collective of public broadcasters, to help unify postwar Europe. The first Eurovision took place in the spring of 1956 in Lugano, Switzerland, and was broadcast in black and white.

Unpacking Eurovision's inevitable political commentaries

According to the European Broadcasting Union's rules for Eurovision, politicizing the contest is prohibited. Richard Wennberg explores how wars in Europe and elsewhere have complicated the song contest's unitarian goals.

Some non-European countries compete in Eurovision

Eurovision includes the non-European competitors Australia and Israel, who were invited to participate in the 2015 and 1973, respectively, due to the countries' affinity for the song contest. Previously, Morocco competed in Eurovision (once, in 1980), though it no longer does.

Eurovision voting largely follows cultural blocs

In 2025, France's AFP analyzed the voting data from every Eurovision Song Contest and found that how countries vote often reflects long-standing cultural associations, with Nordic countries, Baltic states, and former Soviet nations tending to vote in solidarity.

Eurovision is expanding to Asia

The Eurovision Song Contest Asia will hold its inaugural contest on November 14, 2026. A similar attempt at adapting for the United States, called the American Song Contest, was launched in 2022 but did not return for a second season.

Watch tATu represent Russia in Eurovision 2003

The duo was already internationally known, thanks to their breakout 2002 hit "All The Things She Said," when they performed on the Eurovision stage in Latvia. Their performance of "Ne Ver, Ne Boysia, Ne Prosi" wasn't enough to propel them to victory, though; they ended up in third place, behind entrants from Turkey and Belgium.

Soviet control spread across Eastern Europe after WWII

In the late 1940s, the USSR solidified control over Eastern Europe by installing pro-communist regimes in countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania—often through rigged elections and political repression.

How Eurovision selects its winners

Competing acts are judged by a combination of music industry professionals, peers, and viewers, creating a suspenseful on-air tally to reveal the contest's ultimate winner.

The Italian music contest that inspired Eurovision

Italy's Sanremo Festival began in 1951 as a way to boost tourism in the Italian Riviera during the offseason, with three acts performing original songs on a national radio broadcast. The format would be replicated five years later by Eurovision, though Sanremo is still around.

Sparkling wine was a political tool in the Soviet Union

To show the world that the Soviet Union had recovered after the devastating famine of the early 1930s, leader Josef Stalin turned to a surprising source: sparkling wine. Stalin believed that if everyday citizens could access luxury goods like caviar and Champagne, it would show socialism had succeeded. The result was Sovetskoye Shampanskoye, a Soviet-made sparkler that achieved his goal of availability and affordability if not quality.

The Soviet Union had a similar sphere of influence policy during the Cold War—the Brezhnev Doctrine

Articulated in 1968, the Brezhnev Doctrine claimed the Soviet Union's right to intervene militarily in its satellite states to prevent any deviation from communist rule. It was used to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia that same year and the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Learn how the Soviets won the early space race

This video traces how Cold War arms competition transformed rocketry into a symbol of global power, following pioneers like Tsiolkovsky and von Braun through World War II and into the 1950s, culminating in the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik I in 1957.

Watch the 'Riverdance' performance from Eurovision 1994

The Irish step dance show didn't compete in Eurovision, but it did perform as an "Interval Act" during the 1994 broadcast while votes were being tallied, earning a standing ovation. The next year, it premiered in Dublin as a stage show and continues touring the globe today.

The US and the USSR each boycotted Olympic Games during the Cold War

The US led a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In retaliation, the USSR and its allies skipped the 1984 Los Angeles Games.

The story behind ABBA's Eurovision victory

The Swedish group competed in 1973 with the song "Ring Ring," but it failed to get them past the preliminary round. That changed with their 1974 performance of "Waterloo"—a song written by their agent, who was convinced it'd be a hit on Eurovision—propelled them to victory, beating out Olivia Newton-John, who was competing for the United Kingdom.

A major US-designed polio vaccine was first tested in the Soviet Union

Albert Sabin's live attenuated virus vaccine—requiring two drops in the mouth—didn't garner political support in the US, so it was tested in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s.

Watch Celine Dion perform at Eurovision 1988

By 1988, the 20-year-old singer was already a star in her native Canada but was a relative unknown outside the French-speaking world. That changed when she represented Switzerland at Eurovision, performing "Ne Partez Pas Sans Mo." She'd go on to win the contest that year and soon become one of the bestselling artists in the world.

Before Biosphere 2, the Soviet BIOS-3 system tested semi-closed ecosystems

Built from 1965 to 1972, the habitat hosted 10 experiments with crews ranging from one to three individuals who had their air recycled by algae and grew their own wheat and vegetables. However, dried meats were routinely brought into the facility to balance crew members’ diets.

Reagan’s 'tear down this wall' speech challenged Soviet control of Berlin

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin Wall and urged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” The speech became one of the most iconic moments of the Cold War and a symbol of growing pressure on the Eastern Bloc.

The Slavic Ded Moroz is a more secular version of Santa Claus

Atheism was long a central part of Soviet politics. One facet was an attempt to wipe out religious holidays, Christmas (and Santa) included. Ded Moroz, or Father Frost, is the Soviet version of Santa, who also travels by carriage and has a long white beard.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

The International Space Station is made up of two incompatible segments

Before collaborating due to financial difficulties, Russia and the US had independently been working on developing their own space stations. A specialized adapter was created to connect the Zarya and Unity modules and create the foundation for the ISS.

The Flying University was an illegal initiative to provide higher education to women

Restrictions from the Russian Empire on women's education drove Polish academics to set up illegal meetings where classes could operate in secret. Lecture locations constantly changed, keeping the university secret from Russian authorities for two decades.

Revelations about quiz show ‘Dotto’ led to a larger scandal across the industry

The show, which aired on both CBS and NBC in slightly different iterations in 1958, followed a fairly standard question-and-answer format, with correct answers slowly revealing an image that contestants needed to solve. Despite its popularity, the show was canceled after it was revealed that one contestant had been provided with answers to the questions. That revelation led to similar scandals with four more shows over the next few months.

Davos hosts the world’s oldest international invitational ice hockey tournament: the Spengler Cup

Founded in 1923, the Spengler Cup is the world’s oldest international ice hockey tournament, held annually in Davos. Created to promote reconciliation after World War I, it remains one of the sport’s most prestigious invitational events.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Search a massive database of over 4 decades of clues from the TV quiz show 'Jeopardy!'

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

The 2026 Ebola outbreak in the DRC is spurring new Ebola vaccine development for the Bundibugyo species.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

'Silent' fireworks have gained more interest in recent years as a quieter celebratory option.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.