After Henry Maske was asked not to use his original entry music, the "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff, he started looking for something similar for the part of his fight night that was so important to him, the entry. The fact that at the end of the road "Conquest of Paradise", first used in October 1994 in Halle (Westphalia) in the Garry Weber Stadium, was used as a new companion to open fight night, inspired many spectators additionally. The subsequent rapid increase in sales success of the single "Conquest of Paradise", which had been on the market some time before, and the LP "Vangelis - 1492: Conquest of Paradise" was no different.
For Henry Maske the day had come to say goodbye after a long career. Musically, too, he wanted to say goodbye to the audience that had meanwhile been “spoiled” on RTL in all respects.
The voice of the Italian singer Andrea Bocelli caught his eye during the summer of 1996. Thereupon he contacted Jürgen Otterstein, at that time managing director of Eastwest Records, publisher of Vangelis, and expressed his wish to have his farewell song created with this artist and their "conte partirò" as a basis. A musical dream couple was quickly found. Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli sang a version “Time to Say Goodbye” specially composed for this last evening of the fight. On November 23, 1996, both stars climbed into the ring in Munich's Olympia Hall to get the more than 12,000 spectators in the hall and almost 18 million people in front of the television in the mood for the next match between Virgil Hill and Henry Maske.
The story of "Cursed To Fight" begins in tranquil southern Baden. Henry Maske is a guest at Europa-Park, Germany's largest amusement park. He is particularly fond of one of the attractions: The curse of Kassandra. Strictly speaking, it's a melody that he can't get out of his head. He decides if he ever got back in the ring it would be to this music. When his decision is made to fight Hill again, he contacts his friend and owner of Europa-Park, Roland Mack, and the production studio powerstation.
The melody from the curse of Kassandra is to be expanded, recomposed and arranged to create the entry music. Several variants of the piece emerged within 2 months until Henry Maske decided on the final version shortly before his fight. The Greek-spoken opening credits are about Kassandra, the seer who curses all those who are responsible for her downfall.
The title of the Henry Maske song developed from this story: "Cursed To Fight" - cursed to fight.
The new composition is a musical mirror of emotions, of hope and anxiety, a struggle for the right decision, which dissolves in the brilliant finale and leaves no more doubt:
I'm back - and the curse has turned into a blessing.
In addition, Henry Maske has released four of his own CDs under the title "power & glory". All CDs were released by eastwest Records Warner Music, Hamburg.