Officially, Milli Vanilli was a
techno-dance singing duo consisting of
Rob Pilatus of
Germany and Fabrice Morvan of France. They released one album in late 1988, "Girl You Know is True". From that period up to early 1990 it spawned five Top 10 hits - the title track, the #1 "Don't Forget My Number", the #1 "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You", the #1 "Blame It On the
Rain" and entering the new decade with "All or Nothing". In early 1990, they were caught lip-synching "Blame It On the
Rain" live on TV during a
music awards show. The previous year the tape skipped during a "concert" that also revealed the duo'
s lip-synching. Allegations flew. Later in the year the duo said they wanted to do some real singing on their next album. They revealed to a
music employee that all they did for the record was pose for the album cover and have the project credited to them under the name "Milli Vanilli". The shit really hit the
fan after that. The duo'
s album sold multi-platinum but was soon deleted. They had to return their Grammy for Best New Group, the first time that ever happened. Milli Vanilli was disgraced in what is possibly the biggest sham in
music history. Still, they were used in a Pepsi TV ad the following year, lip-synching to an opera record. A year later, they released an album under their real names, supposedly the vocals were the duo's own. It sank like a stone in a pond. Pilatus commited
suicide in 1998. Fabrice is still living. The term "Milli Vanilli" now is used to denote fraud and fakery.
Since that time other performers like Madonna, Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears have been caught lip-synching on stage. Not as much fuss has been made about any of that. Hmmmm. It's a damn shame that the Milli Vanilli story has come to what it is. Their first album has some really good songs on it, but they will never be released again and we probably
never will hear them again because of the big scandal. There'
s some terrific
music on it, it'
s just a shame that the wrong people
got all the credit for it.
