It’s been 35 years to the day since the Milli Vanilli scandal shook the music community. Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus, otherwise known as Milli Vanilli were enthralled in a deceptive lip-syncing controversy that saw their skyrocketing music career come crashing back down to earth. “Girl, you know it’s true” was a big lie...

The duo met in a nightclub in Munich, Germany where they initially clashed over, what else? Dating the same women... However, through these encounters they discovered a mutual love for music and decided to join forces to pursue pop-stardom.

They had built up some steam in the Munich music scene and eventually caught the attention of German music producer Frank Farian. Farian decided that Morvan and Pilatus were going to be the front-men for a new project which would go on to become Milli Vanilli.

When it came time to record their vocals, Farian came to the conclusion that they had the right look and everything, but he was not impressed by their vocals, so he went with the vocals that were already recorded by the studio singers. It was actually his plan all along. He got away with this by having everyone sign non-disclosure agreements beforehand.

The duo had already spent their $4000 advance and could not afford to pay it back, so they felt like they were forced to go along with it. They had no legal representation either.

Either way, the songs became hits and their ascension was rapid.

There were suspicions that two Europeans with heavy accents and limited English could record these vocals flawlessly, and those suspicions were all but confirmed during an MTV performance when their backing track began to skip during the performance of their #1 hit, “Girl, You Know It’s True”. However, all that was quickly swept under the rug.

in 1989, shortly after, their single, “Blame It on the Rain” topped the Billboard Hot 100, Charles Shaw, an original vocalist on “Girl, You Know It’s True” told the New York Newsday about how Morvan and Pilatus were imposters and how he was one of the original vocalists, along with John Davis and Brad Howell. He would retract his statement not long after, and it was reported that Farian allegedly paid him $150K to do so.

After all this, the duo decided they had enough. They confronted Farian and demanded to sing themselves in any future projects. Farian decided to cut ties with them and oust them publicly as frauds, ultimately bringing to light what we now know is true... girl.

The freefall that followed was ruthless. Arista records dropped them and deleted the music from their catalog. The Grammy’s revoked their Best New Artist Grammy award. It was the first time they had ever done that. The duo also faced lawsuits from angry fans. In the early 90’s, it seemed like they were the butt of every joke.

Since then, Morvan moved on, continued to make music and took it all in stride, as he has appeared in promos mocking the scandal. Pilatus did not take it so well. After a failed Rob & Fab comeback, he spiraled, spending time in jail and drug rehab facilities. He would eventually pass away in April 3rd, 1998 from an alcohol and prescription drug overdose in a hotel room in Friedrichsdorf, Germany. The duo had been working on a new Milli Vanilli album, "Back and in Attack", but it was never released.

0 of 15