The Recording Academy's Grammy awarding nights always come to an end with endless controversies. From Kendrick Lamar getting snubbed, Billie Eilish 'over-winning' everything, and Cardi B winning the Best Rap Album despite her ghostwriting controversies. Forget about ghostwriting, but have you ever thought of winning a Grammy without ever singing your own songs, even on the studio version?
This is the story of Milli Vanilli, and how greed in the music industry destroyed the potentially talented duo.
The Formation
Young and talented with shiny feet, the German RnB duo Milli Vanilli consisted of Fabrice ‘Fab’ Morvan, and Robert ‘Rob’ Pilatus had a promising future in the music industry back in the 80s. They were the face of commercial success with supporting physiques: tall, good looking, and ripped. They had a masculine vibe that magazine covers and media love, and they would ask a female from their audience to come on the stage while they "sing" their hit.
German record producer Frank Farian formed the duo in 1988. Their US debut album, Girl You Know It's True, was a huge commercial success. Spending 41 weeks on the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart, the record won them a diamond certification plaque under their belt. Not only that, but it also did earn them a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1990.
The Lip-syncing Scandal
They were young, fresh off the boat, and desperate to break it through the spotlight. Little did they know that they were trapped into an endless storm of embarrassment. After such a promising kick-off, you might think that everything will go easy for the duo, but not until they performed for the Club MTV Tour in Bristol, Connecticut, on July 21, 1989, before they even touched their Grammy trophy. When they performed their mega-blockbuster hit Girl You Know It's True, the backing vocals kept glitching and repeating its chorus 'Girl, you know it' numerous times. Rob had to run off the stage because it was his part.
Fans weren't aware at first, because they thought it could be a turn-tabling technique, but journalists did raise their eyebrows, dig out, and break down the duo's interviews. They found out that the duo spoke 'a mediocre level of English language,' like on March 1990 edition of Time magazine when Rob claimed that he is 'the new Elvis,' only for Fab to deny it recently in a 2017 interview with VladTV, saying "He was misunderstood (because he hadn't fully grasped the language)"
As the lip-syncing accusation grew louder, the group's popularity soared higher, and all the awards they'd received felt like a ticking bomb.
The Moment of Truth
Months passed by, and the moment of truth came on November 20, 1990, when the duo decided that they couldn't live in the fallacy any longer. They gave a press conference to more than 100 journalists to return their Grammy award.
"We lived in a project. We had no money. We wanted to be stars," explained Rob, as reported by The Washington Post. "We think we are talented. We love to be onstage. We knew if we didn't accept that (offer), we knew we would still be in Munich. I would still work at the McDonald's ... We really love our fans. We just hope that they understand we were just young and we wanted to live the life the American way."
What's saddening about the duo is that they could actually sing, but it's never a part of Frank's plan. Every time they tried to lay their real vocals, Frank would prevent them. "The plan is, you guys are in front, the boys are in the back. That's it," Fab told VladTV further. "We never met (the actual singers). He kept everybody separate. We met one of them real short."
The real voices behind the Milli Vanilli moniker were Brad Howell, John Davis, Gina Mohammed, Ray Horton, Charles Shaw, Jodie & Linda Rocco. They formed a pop group named The Real Milli Vanilli and had one studio album, The Moment of Truth, under their belt.
The Road of Recovery
As controversies and lawsuits kept backfiring on them, Rob and Fab tried to get back on their feet, moved to Los Angeles, signed to Joss Entertainment Group, and hired Sandy Gallin as their new manager. They released a studio album under a new moniker, Rob & Fab, and disbanded the group shortly after the label's financial problem. However, in 1998, they agreed to restore their old stage name and make a Milli Vanilli album with their voices, titled Back and In Attack.
The backlash Rob and Fab had faced was fierce, and it affected Rob severely. He committed several crimes and encountered a number of problems with the law, including vehicle theft and drug consumption. After developing a severe addiction issue, on April 2, 1998, Rob was found dead in his hotel room in Germany during the eve of the new album’s promo tour.
"It was deep. He was trying to get out of it, but it was very difficult," Fab told VladTV. "We were brothers to the end."
Following Rob's tragic death, the Back and In Attack album was never released. Now, Fab is much more fluent in English and released his debut album as a solo artist, Love Revolution, in 2003.