I’ve known Kim since 1995, when we were both active in the Eurodance scene. We met one night at a Sony label party in Krefeld (we were label mates at that time); I was with my project The Free, she was performing her first solo single. As most lasting friendships go, we did not hit it off immediately, but we both knew even then that our paths would always cross. Sure enough, it would be another two years before we would meet again. We had always been very friendly towards each other, but we wouldn’t become musically involved with each other until 2004, when I contacted her about performing with me.

It was at this show that Kim and I discovered how similar we were, both musically and personally. We talked for hours about our experiences in the German music business; our decisions to leave our home country to persue our dreams; the setbacks, disappointments and failures we’ve both experienced, the fierce determination we both shared to make our mark on the music world in general, as well as our love for cooking, family, science fiction (Kim is a nerd, just like me) and all things silly. Later on that year she called me for a job as background singer with a well known German pop / classic duo, and we spent four days together preparing for the show, simultaneously laying the foundation for what would become a deep, lasting friendship. That bond became even stronger three years later, as I was recording my first album with ‘iO’ (my band with the three musicians from the German rock band Guano Apes); I had written the song “The Last To Know” as a duet, and Kim was the only singer I wanted for this track. My dream to finally record a song with her became reality, and the process brought us even closer together.

When Kim called me and informed me about The Voice of Germany, I was very reluctant to be a part of it, based on my previous experiences with casting shows. It was only when she said to me, “I don’t want to do this alone” that I realized that this was our chance to show Germany what we were all about, together. We went through the audition phases, the Blind Auditions and the Battle phases together, always pushing each other to be better, to not give in to doubt or fear, to be the best we could be and still stay true to who we were.

When Rea Garvey sent me home in the first live show, I was of course hurt, but Kim was devastated. It was hard for me to witness how much my exit affected her, but as it was during the whole process, I tried to keep her spirits up and her focus on the task at hand. As the show progressed, all of the rage, disappointment and sadness I felt disappeared with each round Kim came further. Every time she is on stage, I truly feel like it’s me up there, and it feels good. The emotion she pours into every performance is a testament to her will to succeed, her passion as an artist and her beauty as a human being. We are mirror images of each other, as she always says; I’m the ‘male’ Kim, and she’s the ‘female’ Charles.

I will not be in the audience to support her on the final leg of her journey through The Voice of Germany, but I know that whatever the outcome, she has already won. Millions of people now know what only a handful of people have been aware of all along; that Kim Sanders is a creative force, a very gifted artist and a special human being. Words really can’t describe how proud I am of this amazing woman, and to be her friend is an honor. She’s the last of us pros in this show, and to me she personifies what is best about our business, and what it means to live out your dreams.

Kim Sanders, if anyone deserves to be proclaimed “The Voice of Germany”, it’s you. It’s within your reach, so take it, sis. For both of us.

I really love reading your feedback, so please leave a comment below!

“I thought it was a singing competition, but in the end it’s just a television show”, Butch Williams proclaimed after his departure from “The Voice of Germany”. Back then I thought his statement was just a case of sour grapes; only later did I realize the wisdom of his words.

His opinion resonates with the majority of the pro and semi-pro musicians who were a part of the show who, like me, asked the question: is this finally a talent show “for us”, or are we pawns in a game designed to boost the credibility of yet another new casting show? As many who watched the show in the beginning recognized, a little less than half of the talents in the show were “professional” singers; people who either earned their living making music or had some form of stage experience. Many of the talents were personal friends or colleagues of mine, and we all rejoiced in the possibility of finally being able to show our talent to a national television audience. Germany would finally get to see some “real” talent. It was glorious.

The Blind Auditions began, and the ratings went through the roof. People were (and still are) talking about “us”. We were in the spotlight; people were excited by the prospect of having a talent show on German TV with such amazing singers. “Where did all of these great singers suddenly come from?” was the question everyone was asking. We were filled with pride, because millions of people who would have never otherwise paid attention to us were on our side. Maybe this is the start of something special.

Then came the Battle Rounds, and with them the slow transformation from something new and exciting to something known and predictable. One by one, the number of pros were slowly, methodically started to dwindle. In hindsight, it was almost scientific how selective the process was. Some of the choices made then are to this day still controversial, but television thrives on controversy. One by one, old and new friends were picked off, until there were only 24 of us left. I was lucky enough to be one of the few pros left standing.

What started in the Battle Rounds was carried over to the live shows. It seemed to many of us to be systematic, precise, almost surgical in its execution. Some had questionable songs but still sang fantastic. Some were not 100 per cent fit vocally, but gave great performances. With every live show, another pro was sent home by his or her coach, for reasons that were hard to understand for many. Some talents were kept because of their “improved artistic development” (so they said), which is an odd justification to those who thought the show was about finding the best singer. To many of us, what started out as a search for “The Voice” became something else entirely.

“That’s the game” many would argue, correctly so. The problem was, many of us (audience included) assumed that this game would indeed be different. For a time, it was. Was it naive to go into it thinking otherwise? Perhaps. Others will say that those who appeared on the show at all have already won, due to the exposure that was gained. The reality, however, looks different for many of us. Some are able to capitalize on their new found notoriety; others are not.

The point, however, lies somewhere else. Given how it all started and how it seems like it will end (Kim, Mic and Ole are the last three pros left in the competition, and I really hope they make the final cut), I and many other former candidates can’t help but feel that this format – as great a showcase for true talent as it is here in Germany – has built its reputation at our expense. Without question, there are still fantastic singers in the competition. That said; if it really was about “The Voice”, the talent pool in the final two rounds would have looked dramatically different.

There’s no business like show business.

I look forward to your feedback. Please leave a comment below!

The short version of the story: I was convinced by a very good friend of mine who is also in the competition. She was asked if she knew anyone who might be interested in trying out for the show, and the first person she thought about was me. We talked about it for a while , and it was when she said to me, “I can’t do this by myself!” that I decided to give it a shot. I was invited to come to the casting and the rest, as they say, is history.

One thing I must say: as someone who doesn’t really follow casting shows or TV talent competitions -although I worked as a vocal coach on two such shows: the first season of the German versions of “X-Factor” and “My Name Is…”- being a candidate on one is definitely a different experience than working behind the scenes. More on that later. In the meantime, be sure to check out the trailer for “The Voice Of Germany”: I’m featured on it.

This is by far the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me besides getting married and becoming a father. I’ll update you on everything happening with the show as it happens. Wish me luck!

[UPDATE: unfortunately, the trailer can currently only be viewed in Europe. As soon as there is a version on YouTube, I'll let you know.]

(Logo used by permission of ProSieben Television, Schwarzkopff TV and Talpa Distribution B.V.)

1. THE ATMOSPHERE. Being among over 30,000 people from 25 different countries in one venue, all there to celebrate music, is a great experience. Of course some songs were better than others, but overall the energy in the audience was very positive.

2. THE STAGE SHOW. I’ve been to hundreds of concerts in my life, and I’ve never been more impressed with the staging, lighting, and overall visuals as I was with the ESC. I think the appropriate word is “amazing”. Most impressive was the speed with which all the acts were set up to perform. Of course, with so many acts (25 performers in under 2 hours) it was obvious that everything was done half-playback, but there were no technical problems. For a live show being broadcast around the world, that’s pretty impressive.

3. THE “POSTCARDS”. The announcement of each song via video “postcards” was in my opinion brilliant. The way each presentation was set in Germany, yet featured people from the competing countries living and working in specific German cities was marketing genius, because it presented Germany as a truly multi-cultural country. Given the debates that have been going on in Europe over the last few years regarding immigration, it was refreshing to see a country actually embracing their multi-cultural status.

4. THE OPENING NUMBER. I admit, I HATED the winning song from 2010, Lena’s “Satellite”. Absolutely. Hated. It. That being said, The way Stefan Raab and crew performed the song in Big Band-style, was very entertaining. It made me actually like the song. Imagine that.

5. THE HOSTS. I actually think that Stefan Raab, Anke Engelke and Judith Rakers did a great job hosting the show. They were funny, engaging, and their timing was good. They also showed that Germans can actually be entertaining to an international audience.

Overall, I’d say that the Eurovision Song Contest was very interesting. Of course there were some negative things as well, which I’ll talk about in the next post.

Nice Bathrooms

That being said, there are in more cases than not certain little things that can greatly influence how a musician performs their duties at such events. An example is the quality of the hotel room they’re booked in; specifically, the cleanliness of the bathroom. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m more than a little spoiled when it comes to hotel accommodations, since I’ve been fortunate enough to worked my way up far enough in the pro musician food chain as to (almost) always get a decent hotel in the cities that I perform, always paid for by the client. I’m somewhat of a bathroom fetishist; it’s usually the first thing I check when I enter a room, and over the years I’ve seen some really “interesting” things in some really top hotels, all in the bathroom. I’ve stayed in rat holes with very clean bathrooms, and in 5-star hotels with really disgusting ones, and everything in between. Let’s just say that an improperly cleaned hotel room is a mood killer in just about any situation, but especially when you want to relax before a long show, and very many of my fellow musicians (at least the singers I know) spend a large chunk of their time in the bathroom; our vanity dictates this.

Long Gigs

Roughly eighty percent of a musicians time at a company party of similar event is spent waiting. Waiting. Waiting even more. Keep in mind that the average band arrives at a venue five hours or more before the show actually starts, depending on the size of the venue, the position of the band in the overall evening plan, and the preparation and serving of the food (if there is food to served, which there almost always is). A typical show starts between 8 and 10 PM, with “dinner music”, a.k.a. “music to be ignored by”. I hate dinner music. Seriously. There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than trying to entertain people who aren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to you. It’s often the case, however, that the band will play instrumental music, so that’s a small consolation. Afterwards, the party goes into full effect.

Very often we run into the situation that the event organizer, who generally always makes a big fuss about something prior to the start of the event, will ask us for an extra set, because he or she is so excited (alcohol-induced, of course) about the great job the band is doing, that we obviously have to play longer. I attribute this euphoric attitude to the age-old notion that musicians perform on stage purely for the fun of it; in other words, making music is “not a real job”, so it should be no problem if we play all night long, as long as we get a little extra for it. “Not a real job”; I often wonder how these event organizers would react to the knowledge that many of the pro musicians they hire for their events earn probably much more on average than they do. So much for “not being a real job”…

The Gala Event Food Chain

We musicians are indeed a spoiled bunch, at least most of the time. Granted, I’ve only ever worked as a musician in Europe, so I have no idea how it is to work a similar scene in the States, but I can imagine it’s pretty much the same everywhere. Having said that, there is a certain hierarchy in the event business; we musicians are somewhere in the middle of the food chain. We very often enjoy the perks of getting special treatment from the heads of the organizations for which the event is being held, being allowed to mingle with the guests, eating the same meals as the guests, and being able to leave right after our performance is done, all luxuries not afforded to the others who also make such events possible like the technical crew, caterers and bartenders, security personnel and cleanup crew, or the event agencies themselves.

At the end of the day, however, we are no less “service crew” as the others are: we have to do what we’re told, when we’re told to do it. When we’re asked to play extra sets, more often than not we honor that request, for the simple fact that not honoring it could jeopardize our standing with the client, thus making the prospect of future gigs at other events doubtful, thus affecting a future source of income. Over the years, though, I’ve modeled my attitude toward such requests after the motto, “not all money is good money”. Sometimes, though, beggars can’t be choosers, especially if you have bills to pay and a lifestyle to support.

So, what have I learned from my latest road trip?

1. Everyone was a musician at some point in their existence.

2. For some people, speaking into a microphone is the highlight of their year.

3. If you see a group of 4 or more men huddled around the dessert table, it’s most likely the band.

4. DJ’s have a much easier job than musicians do.

5. DJ’s have a much harder job than musicians do.

6. If one person asks if the band can play longer, it’s most likely the one who will actually pay the band.

7. If more than one person asks if the band can play longer, they most likely have nothing to do with the ones who actually pay the band.

8. Sometimes we take the amount of time we spend traveling for granted.

9. As a songwriter, I envy the person who wrote “I Will Survive”.

10. As a musician, If I ever meet the person who wrote “I Will Survive”, they’re getting punched in the nose.