• 1 Parmentier Florent and Bret Cyrille, “Avec Intervision 2025, la Russie lance son anti-Eurovision”, (...)
• 2 “Address and answers to the press by Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Fede (...)
• 3 Vuletic Dean, Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, p. (...)

1In September 2025, the sixth edition of the Intervision Song Contest brought together some twenty artists from countries of the former USSR, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas in a newly built concert venue on the outskirts of Moscow. Revived after a seventy-year history and a sixteen-season hiatus, the contest was an opportunity for states of the former communist bloc (including Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Serbia, and Kazakhstan), and several BRICS+ nations (such as Brazil, India, South Africa, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia), to take part in a cultural initiative designed to rival Eurovision while also presenting a deliberate counter-model1. Statements by Sergey Lavrov, a minister involved in shaping the contest, made clear the Russian state’s intent to directly challenge the organisers of the European contest2 who, since the early 2000s, have promoted a liberal consumerist model that, at least rhetorically, prioritises diversity and inclusivity3.

• 4 Shahbaz Maryam, Mustafa Ghulam and Nawab Sadia, “Indo-American Relations during Narendra Modi’s Era (...)
• 5 De Souza Rebecca and Hussain Syed Ali, “‘Howdy Modi!’: Mediatisation, Hindutva, and long distance e (...)
• 6 Audi Amanda and Queiroz Danilo, “Em ano eleitoral, Marcha para Jesus é terreno político em disputa” (...)
• 7 Böcskei Balázs and Német Szilvi, “From Unknown Subculture to Political Mainstream: The American Alt (...)
• 8 Derecha Fest, “DERECHA FEST | CÓRDOBA 2025 | COMPLETO | CON JAVIER MILEI”, YouTube, 04:08:28 (https (...)
• 9 Sauvage Grégoire, “En France, un gala controversé déroule le tapis rouge à l’extrême droite israéli (...)

2The use of spectacular cultural events to advance conservative political agendas is by no means unique to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Since the mid-2010s, right-wing and far-right leaders who have come to power around the world have staged similar events. In September 2019, a joint rally between Narendra Modi and Donald Trump in Houston, Texas, took the form of a mega-concert interspersed with political speeches before a crowd of more than 50,0004, prompting frequent media descriptions of the Indian Prime Minister as a “rock star”5. The traditional Marcha para Jesus, a religious cultural event organised by evangelical churches in many Brazilian cities, has since 2019 become a platform for former President Jair Bolsonaro6. Since 2021, MCC Feszt has brought together tens of thousands of young Hungarians every year near Budapest for several days of concerts, festivities and talks by politicians close to Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party or the US conservative right7. Music also plays a prominent role in Derecha Fest, an event organised by Javier Milei’s political entourage: at its second edition in 2025, each speaker – including the Argentine president – was introduced to blasting heavy metal music, with Milei’s triumphant, exuberant entrance also echoing that of a rock star8. Similarly, a year earlier, music played a central role in the Parisian “Israel is Forever” gala, organised by associates of the Likud and the Religious Zionist Party9.

• 10 Kazakov Vitaly, “Intervision: Russia’s bid to rival Eurovision song contest – but with more conserv (...)
• 11 EFE, “Bolsonaro thanks evangelicals for support at huge religious event”, Los Angeles Times, June 2 (...)
• 12 Gianello Pedro, “‘La Derecha Fest’: a libertarian festival in Córdoba with strict security, double (...)
• 13 Del Sarto Raffaella A., Israel Under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli (...)

3While these musical displays of power all form part of a broader movement of conservative reassertion, they draw on varying value systems. In Central Europe and Russia, they celebrate ideals of tradition and national sovereignty, positioned in opposition to a Western Europe portrayed as “decadent”10. In Latin America, such events often merge religious fervour, patriotism, and ultraliberalism, fuelled by a culture-war rhetoric tied to the rise of Pentecostalism – as seen in the rallies of Jair Bolsonaro11 and Javier Milei12. Elsewhere, these spectacles support ultranationalist or fundamentalist movements, exemplified by those aligned with Benjamin Netanyahu and Bezalel Smotrich13.

• 14 For a critical analysis of Puy du Fou, see Besson Florian, Ducret Pauline, Lancereau Guillaume and (...)

4These large-scale events borrow the visual and sonic codes of pop-rock culture and Hollywood blockbusters, deploying spectacular staging, technical effects, and epic aesthetics to foster mass appeal and ideological adherence. They construct and perform a particular image of “the people” through mainstream entertainment formats – whether mass-mediated spectacles or immersive experiences inspired by theme parks such as Puy du Fou in France and Spain14. In this sense, they contribute to the shaping of a kind of a cultural geography of contemporary right-wing movements, where moral, religious, nationalist, economic, and artistic references intersect.

• 15 See the investigation by Lemahieu Thomas, “Pinard, saucisson et Michel Sardou: comment Pierre-Édoua (...)

5Beyond these high-profile, politically orchestrated spectacles, a multitude of smaller-scale cultural expressions – militant anthems, campaign videos, support concerts, marches honouring national heroes, or community events – also reflect right-leaning aspirations to varying degrees. In France, for instance, such initiatives may seek to revive a rural-rooted national narrative through village festivals featuring fairs, parades, dances and communal feasts, etc.15. This diversity of actors, values and artistic forms complicates any attempt to categorise them under a single ideological banner. Rather than assuming the unity of a “right-wing” bloc behind these varied cultural productions, this issue therefore proposes to shift the focus and examine how recent works in social science approach political reconfigurations through the prism of music.

• 16 Camus Jean-Yves, “Une extrême droite sans filiation fasciste : les populismes xénophobes en Europe” (...)
• 17 Faria Carvalho Flaviane and Andrade De Oliveira Paiva Beatriz, “Brasil acima de tudo, Deus acima de (...)
• 18 Brown Wendy, Les habits neufs de la politique mondiale: néolibéralisme et néo-conservatisme, trans. (...)
• 19 De Orellana Pablo and Michelsen Nicholas, “Reactionary Internationalism: The Philosophy of the New (...)
• 20 Palheta Ugo, La Nouvelle Internationale fasciste, Paris, Textuel, 2022.
• 21 Worth Owen, Morbid Symptoms: The Global Rise of the Far-Right, London, Zed Books, 2019; Mulhall Joe (...)

6As a political category, “the right” refers to a broad repertoire of practices and ideas whose boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. It encompasses principles that are sometimes contradictory: the defence of free-market competition alongside the protection of cultural exception and national identity16, the call for law and of order alongside the valorisation of individual freedom17, and the preservation of social hierarchies and traditional or religious values alongside the assertion of meritocracy18. This diversity is further complicated by the erosion of traditional markers: political positions once referred to as “moderate right”, “liberal right”, “governmental right” or simply “right-wing” – and thus distinguished from a far right historically associated with the fascist and Nazi movements of the 20^th century – are now increasingly difficult to identify and situate. This ambiguity stems from recent experiences in government that have redefined political cleavages, as well as the growing porosity between the values and positions of mainstream right-wing and far-right parties19. It is further reinforced by the gradual structuring of what political scientists have described as the “reactionary international”, the “new fascist international”20 and the “global far right”21.

• 22 Amable Bruno and Palombarini Stefano, L’illusion du bloc bourgeois: alliances sociales et avenir du (...)
• 23 Bob Clifford, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics, Cambridge, Cambridge Universit (...)

7The contemporary right is a polymorphous phenomenon; its plasticity is evident in the normalisation of far-right themes, which now permeate the agendas of so-called moderate right-wing parties and even parts of the left22. This shifting of boundaries and principles complicates the task of defining political categories, leading researchers to emphasise the heterogeneity of movements that identify – or can be identified – as right-wing and to prefer an understanding grounded in plurality rather than a unified model23.

• 24 Bob, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics, p. 184-194.
• 25 Inglehart Ronald and Norris Pippa, “Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and (...)
• 26 Alter Karen J. and Zürn Michael, “Conceptualising backlash politics: Introduction to a special issu (...)

8In several national contexts, these developments have resulted in governments where far-right parties or their allies have held power, implementing policies that have eroded public services, redistributive mechanisms and minority rights, particularly those of women, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and foreigners24. These transformations have fuelled an interpretation of the rise of the right as a backlash – a reactionary pushback – where the classic economic left-right divide has given way to a new cultural divide opposing liberal-cosmopolitan elites to populist forces25. In this perspective, support for right-wing parties is seen less as an expression of economic interest than as a nostalgic reaction to long-term cultural shifts, or even as a form of resistance against the modernisation of social norms, economic globalisation, and the expansion of civil and social rights, driven by groups seeking stability amid rapid societal change 26.

• 27 Tiberj Vincent, “The politics of two axes: sociological variables, values and votes in France (1988 (...)
• 28 Tiberj Vincent, “For what it’s worth : la droitisation ‘par en bas’ n’a pas eu lieu”, Sociologie, v (...)

9Other analyses, however, propose a more nuanced reading. Sociologist Vincent Tiberj argues that these recent dynamics should be understood not as a simple desire to turn back the clock but as a structural shift in political and symbolic reference points. He proposes a two-axis model: one socio-economic, concerning redistribution, the role of the state, labour rights, and institutionalised solidarity; the other cultural, addressing national identity, cultural diversity, migration, gender, and social norms, distinguishing between more homogeneous visions of society and others based on pluralism and equality 27. This dual framework allows him to conceptualise a process of “droitisation” (rightward shift) not as a punctual conservative backlash but as a gradual transformation, observable on both the demand side (voters) and the supply side (political parties), and pertaining to distinct dimensions of political positioning. In this regard, the concept of droitisation accounts for the ideological and programmatic diversity encompassed by “the right,” across different national contexts and political cleavages28.

• 29 Simon Yannick, Composer sous Vichy, Lyon, Symétrie, 2009; Chimènes Myriam and Simon Yannick (eds), (...)
• 30 Ginot-Slacik Charlotte, Musiques dans l’Italie fasciste (1922-1943), Paris, Fayard, 2019.
• 31 Gilbert Shirli, Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps, Oxford, Cla (...)
• 32 Contreras Zubillaga Igor (ed.), “Tant que les révolutions ressemblent à cela” : l’avant-garde music (...)
• 33 Aedo Javier Rodríguez, “Exil, dénonciation et exotisme: la musique populaire chilienne et sa récept (...)
• 34 Buch Esteban, Trauermarsch: l’Orchestre de Paris dans l’Argentine de la dictature, Paris, Éditions (...)
• 35 Chernavsky Analía, “The ‘Dança da Terra Issue’ (1943): Heitor Villa-Lobos and the Vargas Dictatorsh (...)

11In the field of studies on the relationship between music and political power, historians have produced a wealth of knowledge on music under so-called right-wing regimes. Much of this research has focused on the effects of autocratic, nationalist and fascist regimes on music and musical life throughout the 20^th century. Whether examining musical life in France under German occupation29 or in fascist Italy30, the experiences of Jewish musicians under the Nazi death apparatus31, musical creation under Franco in Spain32, or the conditions of artists under authoritarian or dictatorial regimes in Chile33, Argentina34 and Brazil35, scholars have analysed the various processes at work at the intersection of political power and musical production. These include the dynamics of ideological and administrative control in places of training and dissemination (such as music organisations and institutions, record companies and radio stations), the subjugation of musical production through diverse mechanisms (varying degrees of programming guidance, censorship, or even torture), and the trajectories of the actors involved (perpetrators and collaborators, victims and witnesses, resistors and opportunists).

• 36 Hunter James Davison, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, New York, Basic Books, 1991; Bo (...)
• 37 Hewison Robert, Culture and Consensus: England, Art and Politics Since 1940 [1995], new ed., London (...)
• 38 Since Dick Hebdige’s seminal work (Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London, Routledge, 1979), the (...)
• 39 Cohen Stanley, Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers [1972], 3^rd ed., (...)
• 40 Jones Steve, “Ban(ned) in the USA: Popular Music and Censorship”, Journal of Communication Inquiry, (...)
• 41 Stephens Randall J., The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock ‘n’ R (...)

12Such mechanisms are also found in political situations considered democratic, particularly in the English-speaking world during the second half of the 20th century. Several works have shed light on the effects of the “culture war”36 on musical creation, waged by conservative movements in the 1980s during the administrations of Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom, both of whom invoked economic and moral arguments to justify restrictions on public investment in culture37. These political choices were accompanied by restrictive legislation targeting subcultures such as reggae, heavy metal, punk and even pop38, and have been analysed through the lens of “moral panic”39. However, attempts at censorship by conservative circles date back further: in the 1940s, jazz musicians in both Europe and the United States were targets of hate speech and violence40. Similarly, early rock ‘n’ roll musicians faced organised campaigns of intimidation by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan41.

• 42 Robin, Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace; see also OECD, The Culture Fix: Cr (...)
• 43 Métais-Chastanier Barbara, “Nouveau fascisme et Pop Contestation”, Agôn, Points de vue series, 2015
• 44 Mahoudeau Alex, La panique woke: anatomie d’une offensive réactionnaire, Paris, Textuel, 2022; Silh (...)
• 45 Dupuis-Déri Francis, Panique à l’université: rectitude politique, wokes et autres menaces imaginair (...)
• 46 Lopez Louis-Valentin, “Donald Trump prend les rênes du Kennedy Center, qu’il juge trop ‘woke’”, Fra (...)

13Today, cultural and artistic spheres are challenged by several converging dynamics. First, neoliberal policies have gradually shifted responsibility for cultural funding to private operators, weakening public systems of direct support42. Second, artistic productions are regularly targeted in clashes between critical approaches and conservative viewpoints. These controversies take many forms: accusations of elitism directed at cultural institutions under the banner of a particular conception of cultural democratisation43, claims of attacks on morality or religion, criticism of supposed “woke” ideologies44 focused on themes such as sexual orientation and gender identity, or rooted in critical race theory. In some cases, such clashes have led to the defacement of works, the removal of books or recordings from libraries, bookshops or record stores, or the cancellation or interruption of exhibitions, theatre performances or concerts45. In other cases, cultural institutions have been taken over entirely by those in power46.

• 47 In 2024, several hundred artists took a stand against the cultural policy choices made by right-win (...)
• 48 See, for example, Preda Caterina, Art and Politics Under Modern Dictatorships: A Comparison of Chil (...)

14These attacks, taken up or amplified by political, media or religious intermediaries, contribute to a climate of uncertainty and self-censorship in the artistic world. In this context, cultural actors navigate three main paths: complying with the demands of those in power, actively defending creative freedom through their art or public statements47, or occupying a sort of middle ground by depoliticising themselves to preserve visibility and access to resources48 – a dilemma that concerns both artists and all intermediaries involved in music production and distribution, from programming to radio and record production.

• 49 Thomas Jonathan, “Jean-Marie Le Pen et la SERP: le disque de musique au service d’une pratique poli (...)
• 50 Pujolas Marie, “Polémique: qui se cache derrière les masques des ‘Brigandes’?”, France Info, Octobe (...)
• 51 Waldman Paul, “Jason Aldean cashes in on the right-wing fantasy of violent retribution”, The Washin (...)
• 52 There is a wealth of academic research exploring the ties between metal scenes and far-right moveme (...)
• 53 Coutagne Gabriel, “Comment Oliver Anthony, chanteur anonyme de country, s’est hissé au sommet des c (...)

15However, while certain actors or structures in the music world may face the effects of public policies implemented by right-wing parties, music can also serve as an active vehicle for values and imagery associated with the right. As Jonathan Thomas has shown regarding the Société d’Études et de Relations Publiques (SERP) founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen, music publishing can be employed strategically: by releasing records combining military songs, historical archives and popular music, between 1963 and 1999, the SERP constructed a collective memory and a fantasised national identity intended to mobilise listeners around Le Pen’s political project49. Similarly, identity-focused rock bands such as In Memoriam and Les Brigandes50 explicitly address nationalist and conservative themes in their songs. This ideological role of lyrics extends to other contexts, from Jason Aldean’s Trumpist country music in the United States51 to 1990s Norwegian black metal52, which draw on literary sources to cultivate an imaginary of national purity. Music can also be instrumentalised for political communication: productions by professional or amateur artists can be used in election campaigns or as part of event staging to promoting the image of candidates or elected officials, as with Olivier Anthony’s songs during the Republican primary for the U.S. presidential election in 2023–202453.

• 54 “‘YMCA’, l’ancien hymne gay de Village People récupéré par Donald Trump”, France Info, 20 January 2 (...)

16This political exploitation goes so far as to lead to a re-evaluation or even a rewriting of the original meaning of certain productions, either with the approval of their creators, as illustrated by the political transformation of the disco hit “YMCA” by the Village People, a gay anthem from 1978 that became Donald J. Trump’s victory anthem in 202454, or without their consent, as was the case on several occasions with Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” (1984), a condemnation of the Vietnam War that was hijacked as a patriotic anthem by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

• 55 See Buch Esteban, La “Neuvième” de Beethoven: une histoire politique, Paris, Gallimard, 1999.
• 56 Deniau Jean-Philippe, “‘C’était un concert satanique’: deux militants de Civitas jugés pour avoir e (...)

17These processes of repurposing, appropriation, instrumentalisation, and reinterpretation are all the easier when applied to wordless music, as in the case of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, “Ode to Joy”, which became the anthem of the European Union after previously serving as the anthem of the Republic of Rhodesia, a short-lived white nationalist state located on the borders of what is now Zimbabwe55. The circulation of musical signifiers thus reveals their plasticity as floating political signifieds, such as the second movement, “Allegretto”, of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which was used as the soundtrack for a clip (widely commented on social media) in which the far-right polemicist Éric Zemmour declared his candidacy for the French presidential elections on 30 November 2021, parodying King George VI’s inspirational radio speech announcing the entry into war of Great Britain and the Commonwealth in The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper, 2010). Finally, religious spheres provide further arenas for musical conservatism, whether in gospel stars’ support for Jair Bolsonaro (Lima 2023) or in Catholic mobilisation against concerts deemed blasphemous, as American organist Kali Malone experienced when her performance was blocked by the far-right fundamentalist movement Civitas56. In these diverse cases, music functions as an aesthetic, moral and political medium for identity construction.

• 57 On this point, see the concept of “critical formalism” developed by Lydia Goehr, in The Quest for V (...)

26Elena Rovenko thus brings to light a set of operations specific to the current Kremlin regime, particularly since the invasion of Crimea in 2014, which seems to have marked a turning point in the way the political power seeks to permeate all aspects of the symbolic life and imagination of Russian citizens. In doing so, she analyses a system of cultural control inherited from the Soviet period, but whose methods have been adapted to a contemporary context in which elements of popular culture (musical and literary folklore) have already been filtered through globalisation. By reminding us how culture remains a central element in political projects aimed at forging a collective identity – that is, forming a “people” (regardless of the image ascribed to the “people”) – the author emphasises that such operation is necessarily political. They act upon aesthetic forms which, while sufficiently malleable to allow their meaning to be manipulated, retain a degree of aesthetic resistance to these political rewritings. Otherwise, the authorities would not need to expend so much energy controlling artistic creation and heritage57.

• 58 In this regard, the philosopher and economist Frédéric Lordon excludes certain social-democratic an (...)

28Even if we admit, as Frédéric Lordon suggests, that the territory of the right begins with the acceptance, even slight, of the sovereignty of capital58, and even accounting for the growing fluidity of the political field, the contributions gathered in this issue focus on objects whose placement on the right side of the political spectrum is hardly in doubt. The articles presented here offer an initial empirical comparison of several contexts – Canada, the United States, Russia, and France – which, while not providing an exhaustive map, allow us to grasp the tension between political and cultural actions rooted in specific national contexts and the transnational circulation of repertoires of action, symbols, and values associated with right-wing movements. Whether embedded in nationalist, authoritarian or populist enterprises, these case studies show how music can contribute to the construction of political adherence by bringing together symbols and collective imaginaries. Together, they outline an analysis of contemporary modes of political and ideological legitimisation through music and sound.

• 59 Bédarida François, Histoire, critique et responsabilité, Brussels, Complexe, 2003, p. 326.
• 60 Avanza Martina, “Comment faire de l’ethnographie quand on n’aime pas ‘ses indigènes’? Une enquête a (...)

29This collective endeavour also prompted broader reflection on the position of researchers studying politically sensitive subjects, which are often closely linked to current events but sometimes contrary to their own beliefs. often closely tied to current events and sometimes at odds with their own beliefs. Throughout the preparation of this issue, we were confronted with multiple questions – not only as academic coordinators but also as researchers facing a dual constraint: on the one hand, the obligation to produce analyses that respect the deontological rules of our profession, and on the other, the need to embrace the civic and moral dimension of the critical studies submitted to us – what François Bédarida terms the “social responsibility of the historian” [our translation]59. While these two imperatives do not oppose one another, they led us to adopt a constant reflexive stance, in line with the recommendations of political scientist Martina Avanza, for whom reflexivity is a necessary condition for the non-empathetic study of social groups whose values we do not necessarily share60. In the social sciences, understanding does not imply agreement, and we maintain that it is possible to maintain an analytical and reflexive view of political or symbolic worlds that are sometimes in stark contrast to the researcher’s own values.

• 61 On the difficulties of writing a history of the present – a history of what is “still there” – see (...)

31The question of temporality arises in a specific way: working on ongoing phenomena, “in the heat of the moment”, involves dealing with heterogeneous materials – media discourse, digital archives, objects circulating on social networks – and accepting that part of the analysis remains open and evolving. Recent historiographical and digital tools (such as the Internet Archive) certainly enrich these investigations into the hypercontemporary, but they do not eliminate the difficulty of analysing an object whose contours are redrawn as the investigation progresses61. Nevertheless, the question of sources, their reliability, and all the precautions related to what is known as the administration of evidence remains a necessary condition for scientific investigation.