Are Talent Contests Fixed?

My father retired from the Army in 1979. We had been stationed in Germany, for the second time. So when the family packed up and left Pirmasens where he was stationed, I moved to Munich where my record company was based. I loved Munich and I lived there almost 5 years. It was there that I formed my band ROCCO. We played all over the place for a couple of years, made a few records and eventually went our separate ways. It was a great time for me musically. Creating, writing, performing and making a living. Every singers dream!

In early 1984 I was "invited" to submit a song for the World Popular Song Festival which was to be held at the Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan on October 27 and 28, of the same year. This invitation came through my record company. The WPSF was grounded in 1970 by the Yamaha Foundation and formally ended in 1989. The Festival was comprised of two parts; the Japanese talent and the world talent. There were two 1st place or Grand Prix winners; one for Japan and one for the world. All other awards were only given to the world entries including Most Outstanding Song Award and Outstanding Song Award.


The selection process for the World Popular Song Festival was pretty strenuous. Over 3000 entries from 59 countries were submitted.

I believe I was the only American ever to represent the then West Germany. I was one of three artists who brought their own conductor, Rainer Pietsch. Rainer was also my producer and wrote the music to the song I would be performing, Don't Break The Silence, and I wrote the lyrics. He provided the score for the 82 musicians and 8 background singers as well. He had worked with Queen, Mack and other very well known German entertainers. He was a brilliant songwriter, producer, musician, and conductor. I designed my costume and the fashion house "Sweetheart" in Munich on Leopold Strasse created it. They used a fabric that had never been used before. It was a stretchy spandex type fabric that had clear yet opalescent sequins heat infused onto it. The military style jacket had buttons and epaulets from an 1890 military uniform. That costume cost 3000DM which at the time was around $2000. My record company agreed to pay for it.

There was no internal selection in Germany. Record companies around the world were invited to submit entries. You could represent a country as long as your record company was based there, as mine was. The majority of the entries were Eurovision winners, (Eurovision will celebrate 60 years in 2015) or had some record sales success in their respective countries. I was basically an unknown with a great song and a powerful voice. Another unprecedented act in the festival was that I actually opened the show both nights. I was chosen by the Yamaha Foundation to open the first night and I drew my name out of a hat to open the second night. That may be the only time that happened in the history of the festival.

Read the rest here: Are Talent Contests Fixed?