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 1870 entries from 53 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.

We had exactly 20 minutes to rehearse with the Yamaha Pops Orchestra. There were 8 backing vocalists and did they have pipes! We had a problem though because the song was "Don't Break the Silence" and they kept singing "Don't Blake the Sirence".

The song was arranged in the style of Jim Steinman, who composed and produced Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell" and Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart". It was a very powerful, very rock-oriented song where the middle part of the song slowed down to a ballad. You could hear a pin drop and only a guitar strumming, then it would escalate. The lyrics had to be sung properly. So I was allowed to work with the vocalists for about 30 minutes and the Yamaha Foundation let me rehearse twice. Back in Germany I also taught hi-fashion models to speak English and I gave vocal lessons, so I was pretty good at helping them sing the lyrics phonetically correct.

We flew to Japan a week before the festival, mostly because of the jet lag and getting over it. The flight with JAL was fabulous. So was the stopover in Moscow where armed soldiers roamed the terminals and you couldn't leave your gate for any reason. Once in Tokyo, we stayed at The National Hotel downtown. We were given food coupons to use because the price of a hamburger was around $45 and a steak was $150. Everything was very expensive there.

During that first week, I met and became fast friends with France Joli, the celebrated Canadian singer who had had some success previously with the dance track "Come To Me" in the US and Canada. Her mother had accompanied her and we shared many meals and just downtime together. She was a genuinely nice person.

There were two nights of competition. The first night was the semifinals and the second night was the finals. There was a panel of judges, I believe there were ten. They were positioned a couple of rows from the stage. At the end of my performance during the finals, my conductor Rainer jumped from the orchestra pit down to the stage which must have been ten feet or more. He was so excited because the performance, the orchestra, the ambiance and the excitement in the room was incredible. People were standing up, clapping and screaming. It was the most wonderful experience in my career. Listen to my live performance here.

All I could say to Rainer as we were walking to where we were supposed to sit and wait for the judges results was that I was positive my performance was the winner! No one had even come close to such a production!

There were two white staircases on either side of the humongous stage and that was where we were supposed to sit. As we are sitting there and I am excitedly going on about how I thought I won, Rainer looks at me deadpan and says, "You can't win. France Joli is the winner." Now, mind you the festival is still in full swing as I was entry number one. We couldn't speak while the acts were performing but we could during the interludes. When I was able I said WHAT? He said again, very agitated this time, "You are not the winner. You can't be the winner because it was determined before we went to Japan who the winner was." I stared at him dumbfounded and in disbelief. He continued to say, "The record company and I knew that if we told you the highest place you could get was 2nd and that the contest was fixed with no chance of winning, you wouldn't go to Tokyo." I nearly fell off the step. I felt like I was moving in slow motion in the twilight zone. All I could think was wait a minute! I spent 6 months preparing for this performance. What you're saying cannot be true! I was convinced he was lying to me but I didn't know why. The awards portion of the show started and my name was called. I had won Outstanding Song Award. Rainer and I both got up and started walking across the stage to collect the award. Most Outstanding Song Award and Outstanding Song Awards were given in addition to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. So I had renewed faith that I could still win! I said this to Rainier and he nearly stopped me in mid-stride on the stage and yelled at me. He said "NO!! You will not take 1st place! It's fixed!"

It hit home when my name was called for 2nd place. I did everything I could to walk back across that stage and smile and be gracious and accept my second award of the evening. This should have been the most fabulous moment of my career or any singer's career, and I was devastated! After the show, we all went back to the hotel where we were to prepare for the press conferences and lavish parties. I had many interviews and ceremonies which was good because all I really wanted to do was cry. I couldn't even look at France Joli. How could she? She knew the whole time!

My record company was right. I would have never been involved in such a deception. It went against everything I believed in.

This was the most famous song contest in the world and global artists like Céline Dion, Bryan Adams, Tina Charles, Eros Ramazzotti, Daniela Romo, Gianna Nannini, Demis Roussos, Bonnie Tyler, B.J. Thomas, Erasure, Cissy Houston, Italian singer-songwriter Alice and many others participated in this festival over the course of almost 20 years. Did they know it was fixed in the years they performed?

It was very difficult for me when I got back to Germany. I cried for months. I wanted nothing more to do with my record company even though I had a contract. To add fuel to the fire, my record company kept the $3000 2nd place prize money to "offset" my "expenses".

I can't help but wonder if the festival was held today what the outcome would have been. Between the internet, social media, cell phones with cameras and an app for everything, I don't think the Yamaha Foundation could have gotten away with it. It does make a person ponder the possibility, even with the viewer voting and all the tracking involved in today's "reality" talent shows like American Idol, X Factor, The Voice, etc; Are talent contests fixed?

Live at the Budokan Hall, Tokyo Japan:

The studio version performed on Swiss TV (SRF) 1985: