Alex Ovechkin will be taking his celebrity status to the international music scene. The Washington Capitals captain was announced as the official cultural ambassador for the Intervision 2025 song competition.
“We’re going for the record at Intervision’25!” the competition’s official X account posted on Saturday, referencing Ovechkin’s achievement of becoming the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer. “Now his mission is bigger than hockey: to inspire & unite nations through music!”
Ovechkin is no stranger to the music industry. He’s famously an enthusiast of the EDM and rap genres, even earning a name drop by Drake in Future’s 2022 track, “I’m On One.” He rapped himself in Sasha Belyi’s Champion back in 2012. Ovechkin even looked like a natural as a rock star, headlining a fake band the Capitals came up with to kick off the “Rock the Red” era in 2008.
Intervision 2025 is a Russian state-sponsored music competition, decreed by President Vladimir Putin in February as an alternative to the popular Eurovision song contest which the country was banned from in 2022 after it invaded Ukraine. The contest’s goal is to “develop international cultural and humanitarian cooperation,” per the decree. The Russian foreign ministry will be in charge of promoting the contest.
Participants will mostly comprise of nations friendly to the Russian government such as Belarus and some Latin American and Middle East countries. There will also be a representative from the United States as well. Artist Brandon Howard, who has charted songs in the Billboard 200 and collaborated on the official anthem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, will compete in the competition.
It’s not clear what Ovechkin’s duties as ambassador will be. The event is scheduled to take place September 20 in Moscow, which would be after his reported scheduled return to the United States to prepare for Capitals training camp.
