30 Years Later: The Great Milli Vanilli Hoax

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

With three hit #1 singles, seven million albums sold and a Grammy for the best new artist they were cute, sexy and stylish and their catchy pop tunes certainly caught me. I thought it was pretty hilarious and disappointing when the truth came out they hadn’t sung a word but a good lesson that things aren’t always what they seem, nevertheless.

Pop music has always been part talent show, part magic trick. This has never been more apparent than it was on November 15, 1990, when German producer Frank Farian revealed in a press conference that then-superstars Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, members of the pop duo Milli Vanilli, hadn’t sung a note on Girl You Know It's True, their 1989 multi-platinum debut album.

Milli Vanilli truthers had long speculated that Rob and Fab, two guys with thick European accents and limited command of the English language, couldn’t possibly have crooned hits like “Girl You Know It’s True” and “Blame It On the Rain.” And yet the news came as a shock to many. Milli Vanilli instantly went from Top of the Pops to laughing stocks. Rob and Fab were stripped of the Grammys they had won for Best New Artist, and duped fans filed class-action lawsuits.

It was one of the biggest scandals in music history, though it wasn’t an isolated incident. Around the same time, dance-pop groups Black Box and C+C Music Factory got caught doing almost exactly the same thing.

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I remember their music playing on the radio in the kitchen at the restaurant I worked at back then. It was good stuff! Such a shame that it was lip syncing and the true vocalists got screwed!

What I don't understand is why the lip syncing? When the scandal broke and they were trying to do damage control they performed live and sounded good. With a little mixer magic it would have been great.