Canberra reportedly pushed pop star Vassy to drop out of the competition<\/p>\n
Australia pressured pop star Vassy to withdraw from the Intervision song contest in Moscow at the last moment, its organizers have claimed.
\nBorn Vasiliki Karagiorgos, the singer, who holds both Australian and US citizenship, was slated to represent the US in the televised competition on Saturday.
\n\u201cFor reasons beyond the control of the organizers and the US delegation, and due to unprecedented political pressure from the Australian government, singer Vassy will not be able to perform in the contest\u2019s final show,\u201d the organizers announced on the contest\u2019s website just hours before the event.
\nThey explained that Australia had \u201cissued an official note addressed to the artist\u201d earlier that same day, adding that\u00a0Intervision \u201cremains outside politics and is dedicated solely to the development of arts and international cooperation.\u201d
\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, a member of the contest\u2019s supervisory board, said the organizers are \u201cnot striving for any political effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Vietnam wins revived Intervision song contest in Moscow<\/p>\n
Vassy has not commented on her abrupt exit, and Australia has made no public statements regarding her participation.
\nSinger Brandon Howard was initially set to represent the US but withdrew just days before the event, citing a family emergency. The organizers then announced Vassy as his replacement.
\nRussia revived Intervision, drawing inspiration from a Soviet-era contest of the same name, after it was banned from Eurovision due to the conflict in Ukraine.
\nArtists from 22 countries participated in the contest, with Vietnam\u2019s Duc Phuc taking home the prize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canberra reportedly pushed pop star Vassy to drop out of the competition Australia pressured pop star Vassy to withdraw from the Intervision song contest in Moscow at the last moment,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t