30 Years Since Milli Vanilli

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From Plagiarism Today:

30 years ago, in the summer of 1989, Milli Vanilli was one of the most important musical acts in all of the world. Their debut album, Girl You Know It’s True (All or Nothing internationally) had produced three number one hits in the United States and would go on to sell 7 million copies in the states and over 30 million globally.

It was a major feat for a band that, just a year and a half prior, didn’t really exist at all. Their rocket ride to stardom seemed too good to be true and, as we all know, it indeed was.

Within a few months, the duo would be at the center of a mammoth lip-syncing scandal. They would have their Grammy Award revoked (the only band to have that happen to) and the downward spiral would sadly end in the tragic death of one of the two members.

. . . .

Robert (Rob) Pilatus and Fabrice (Fab) Morvan met sometime in the early 1980s where they became friends

, bonding over similar experiences of growing up black in predominantly white European cities. They reunited in Munich, Germany in the later 80s and were working to make their mark as models, dancers, singers or anything they could do.

There they met German music producer Frank Farian who, on January 1, 1988, signed the duo to a contract. He had what he felt was a ready-made hit for them in the song Girl You Know It’s True and set about recording it.

However, according to Pilatus and Morvan, Farian lied and misled them, signing them on as singers but eventually deciding that they didn’t have the talent to become stars and re-recording their songs months later using studio musicians.

Though it is unclear what Pilatus and Morvan knew and when, after the swap out was made they did agree to go along with the scheme, becoming the face of the band and lip-syncing in concerts and other performances.

The album, released as All or Nothing in Europe and Girl You Know It’s True in the United States, became an instant success. It would be certified 6x platinum in the United States and five singles from it would chart, including three number ones.

The narrative many remember (or even hear) is that the entire thing began to fall apart when their background track began to skip during a concert. While this certainly did happen at a concert on July 21, 1989, it was far from the beginning or the end of the story.

Suspicions about Pilatus and Morvan were rife almost from day one. Interviewers would note their limited English skills and that often raised doubts privately about whether they had performed on the albums.

However, the concert itself didn’t actually change much. Those in attendance either didn’t notice the issue or wrote it off as a technical glitch.

. . . .

Instead, what sank the band was backstage tensions between Farian and the duo. Though the exact nature of the tension is hotly debated, it seems to be a combination of Pilatus’ erratic behavior and the duo’s insistence on singing for the next album.

For Pilatus’ part, he famously gave an interview proclaiming the band the “new Elvis” and comparing themselves favorably to musicians such as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger. Pilatus and Morvan have long denied this saying the quote is taken out of context and owed to the band’s limited understanding of English.

On November 14, 1990, Farian announced that he had fired the duo and that they did not sing on the records. This prompted the LA Times to sit down with Pilatus and Morvan where they admitted they had lied calling the past two years of their lives “Hell”.

Link to the rest at Plagiarism Today