30 Years Later: The Great Milli Vanilli Hoax

[DGUtley]

30 Years Later: The Great Milli Vanilli Hoax -- When the news broke, it became one of the biggest scandals in music history. But it wasn’t an isolated incident.

Full disclosure: I had no idea who these guys were when this broke.

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.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/3...=pocket-newtab

[nathanbforrest45]

Who?

[Mister D]

I remember them. Late 80s. They were on the radio a lot. Blame it on the Rain was one of their hits.

[FindersKeepers]

I vaguely remember hearing something about that -- lol. Such fakers.

[Peter1469]

I remember them. Late 80s. They were on the radio a lot. Blame it on the Rain was one of their hits.

Yes it was.

[nathanbforrest45]

I actually do remember this. I wasn't a fan of their music by this point in my life but frankly I never much knew who was singing what even when I was a big rock and roll fan. I was more interested in the song than I was in who was singing it. Granted, groups like the Beatles or the Stones could be counted on for good songs but I remember there were songs I really liked that I didn't know for a long time were Beatles songs who. I never could and still can't distinguish the individual voices.

So, even if I had been a fan of Milli Vanilli music the fact that weren't the actual singers would have been interesting but not important.

[Cotton1]

In a Time magazine interview Milli Vanillis Rob Pilatus said he was the "New Elvis". Since he and Elvis both ended up face down in the carpet from a drug overdose I suppose he was the "new Elvis" lol.

https://www.memphisdailynews.com/new...ay-5-11//print

Week in Memphis History: May 5-11
By Bill Dries

MILLI VANILLI

(iloveoldschoolmusic.com)

1990: Milli Vanilli at the Mid-South Coliseum. Months before the Memphis show, the duo of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus had won a Grammy Award as the Best New Artist, and in a Time magazine interview, Pilatus had referred to himself as “the new Elvis.”
The previous December one of the three actual singers on the hit record had said publicly.

More at link