Milli Vanilli

Milli Vanilli was a pop and dance project created by Frank Farian and featured Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on February 21, 1990.

Milli Vanilli became one of the most popular pop acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, their success turned to infamy when their Grammy was revoked after it was revealed that the lead vocals on the record were not the actual voices of Morvan and Pilatus. The material intended for Milli Vanilli's second album was released under the names of the actual singers, dubbed The Real Milli Vanilli. Although Morvan and Pilatus later released an album using their actual voices, it was a commercial failure.

On the eve of a potential comeback tour in 1998, ten years after Milli Vanilli's initial debut, Pilatus was found dead in a Frankfurt, Germany, hotel of an apparent drug overdose. Fab Morvan went on to pursue a solo career with mixed results.

Milli Vanilli's debut album All or Nothing was released in Europe in mid-1988. The success of the record caught the attention of Arista Records who signed the duo. Arista deleted several tracks from the original album, added several new ones, remixed many of the tracks and renamed the album to Girl You Know It's True for release in the American market in early 1989. This version of the album went six times platinum and led to the re-release of the title track, which peaked at number 2 on the Hot 100 in April of that year and was certified platinum.

The U.K. release featured the original first album and the remix album together as "2 X 2". Even greater commercial success followed, as the pair's next three singles "Baby Don't Forget My Number", "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" and "Blame It on the Rain" all reached number 1. A fifth and final single "All or Nothing", also made the Top 5 in the beginning of 1990 in a remixed form which sampled the "Keep On Movin'" beat from UK soul act Soul II Soul.

The first sign that the group was lip-synching happened in late 1989 during a live performance on MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut. As they performed onstage live in front of an audience, the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" jammed and began to skip, repeating the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." over and over on the speakers. They continued to pretend to sing and dance onstage for a few more moments, then they both ran offstage.

In December 1989, one of three singers on Milli Vanilli's hit debut album, and that Pilatus and Morvan did not sing on the album. Farian confessed to reporters on November 12, 1990, and as a result of American media pressure, Milli Vanilli's Grammy was withdrawn four days later. However, their three American Music Awards were never withdrawn because the organizers felt the awards were given to them by music consumers. Arista Records then dropped the act from its roster and deleted their album and its masters from their catalog, taking Girl You Know It's True out of print.

Music Videos

 * All or Nothing
 * Baby Don't Forget My Number
 * Blame It On The Rain
 * Girl I'm Gonna Miss You
 * Girl You Know It's True
 * Keep on Running
 * We Can Get It On