Milli Vanilli

Milli Vanilli
Fab Morvan (left) and Rob Pilatus (right) with NARAS President C. Michael Greene, February 1990.
Background information
Also known as	Rob & Fab
Origin	Munich, Germany
Genres	Dance, new jack swing, pop, funk, hip hop
Years active	1988–1990
Labels	Arista Records, Hansa Records
Past member(s)	Fab Morvan Rob Pilatus

Milli Vanilli was a German musical group, a musical project created and formed in Munich by producer Frank Farian.^[1] They consisted of Fab Morvan (born 1966) and Rob Pilatus (1965-1998). They were popular in the late-1980s.Their 1988 debut, Girl You Know It's True, sold more than 7 million copies worldwide and earned them the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1990.^[2][3] In the same year, people found out that the group never sang anything at all.^[4] Even at concerts, they pretended to sing (lip synching) while a recording was played. This created controversy and eventually led to the end of Milli Vanilli in 1990.

German producer Farian was known for using questionable methods.^[5] Often his performers were not necessarily the ones singing, as in the cases of Bobby Farrell of Boney M. or Milli Vanilli.^[6] This method, which was very common in those years in European pop music, was replicated in the United States by the group C+C Music Factory, who used a model in their videos and performances, while the original voice was, in some songs, by singer Martha Wash.^[7]

On November 15, 1990, Farian publicly admitted that Morvan and Pilatus were not the real singers of Milli Vanilli but were lending their likeness and lip-syncing to songs performed by other people,^[8][9] and on November 26, 1990, Frank Farian introduced the real singers during a photo shoot.^[10]

1. ↑ "Frank Farian, the Man Behind Milli Vanilli, Is Dead at 82". The New York Times. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
2. ↑ "Milli Vanilli win the best new artist Grammy". History Channel. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
3. ↑ "Milli Vanilli win the Grammy Award in 1990". Dailymotion. February 21, 1990.
4. ↑ "Pop Duo Milli Vanilli Didn't Sing Hit Album". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
5. ↑ "Frank Farian: Boney M's mastermind was one of pop's greatest oddballs". The Guardian. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
6. ↑ "The Boney M Story And Exploitation At Its Finest". medium.com. Retrieved Jan 13, 2024.
7. ↑ "Martha Wash: The Most Famous Unknown Singer of the '90s Speaks Out". RollingStone. Retrieved September 2, 2014.
8. ↑ "Blame It on The Tape: A Behind-the-Scenes Oral History of the Rise and Fall of Milli Vanilli". Billboard.com. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
9. ↑ "The Creator of Milli Vanilli Speaks Out-in His Own Words: Pop music: German producer Frank Farian admits that he should have been more candid about the duo's lip syncing, but please don't compare him to Saddam Hussein". Los Angeles Times. December 31, 1990.
10. ↑ "Frank Farian speaking with performers John Davis, Gina Mohammed, Ray Horton and Brad Howell". Youtube. November 26, 1990.