History Music / MilliVanilli

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millivanillireal_1074.jpg
[[caption-width:350:The "Real" Milli Vanilli.]]Charles Shaw, one of the real vocalists in the actual Milli Vanilli band, actually spoke out at one point that he had sung on the album and that Rob & Fab were frauds, but Frank Farian paid him $150,000 to retract the statements and keep quiet. Rob Pilatus by this time was making cocky statements to magazines such as "I'm the new [[Music/ElvisPresley Elvis]]" and the two were increasingly pressuring Farian to let them record actual vocals on the next Milli Vanilli album. Having had enough of all the pressures, Farian finally confessed on November 12, 1990, that the duo did not, in fact, sing any of the Milli Vanilli material. To say that there was a backlash would be, uh... putting it pretty mildly.

-->~ '''Fabrice Morvan'''

* ThatSyncingFeeling: When the record began to skip

Producer Frank Farian, formerly the songwriter behind Boney M, had been a producer for some time after, and sought to create a group that combined pop music with hip hop. The studio musicians he assembled were musically up to par, but the vocalists - Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and twin sisters Jodie and Linda Rocco - didn't seem to fit any sort of marketable image. In what was a common practice in Farian's time - Boney M was fronted by Bobby Farrell but the vocals were usually sung by Farian, Marcia Barrett and Liz Mitchell - Farian hired two models he found in a Munich dance club to serve as the frontmen for the band, tempting them with a large advance and then informing them that they were going to lip sync all the music in public. The pair, already signed, reluctantly agreed.

Rob & Fab [[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-20/news/mn-4948_1_milli-vanilli returned their Best New Artist Grammy]], a class-action lawsuit was filed, and Arista Records responded to the media backlash by dropping Milli Vanilli from their roster and deleting their music from their archives, effectively putting their music out of print. Refunds were even issued to concertgoers and record buyers. In an effort to regain some semblance of a public image, Rob & Fab went on ''The Arsenio Hall Show'' and performed "We Can Get It On" using their own vocals. It was too little, too late, however, as they were already pariahs in the music world.

The original band recorded and released ''The Moment Of Truth'' under the name The Real Milli Vanilli, while Rob & Fab, under that name, released a self-titled album. [[DeaderThanDisco The public, however, was done with the whole thing]], and neither album created much fanfare. Rob, Fab, Farian and the original band reconciled in order to put out a comeback album entitled ''Back And In Attack'' in 1998. This remains unreleased due to unfortunate circumstance: Rob Pilatus, after having fallen on hard times, abusing drugs and even committing robberies, was found dead of an alcohol and prescription pill overdose on April 2, 1998. He was 32 years old.

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: An oft-forgotten part of this whole mess was that having frontmen who simply acted as TheFaceOfTheBand was quite common in Europe. Not crediting the ''actual band'', however, was quite something else.

* WeDontSuckAnymore: Attempted with their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew38sjEH91c appearance]] on ''Series/TheArsenioHallShow'', when they sang the new song "We Can Get It On" by themselves. They did indeed sing it... but their nervous, unpolished vocals (with a little VocalRangeExceeded on Fab's part) impressed nobody, and the subsequent album failed miserably.

* OhCrap: The duo fled the stage when the record started skipping.

* RepetitiveAudioGlitch: The point when people started to catch on to the fraud.

[[YMMV/MilliVanilli YMMV page here.]]

* NonSingingVoice

->''Girl, you know it's- [[WhamLine Girl, you know it's-]] [[BrokenRecord Girl, you know it's-]] [[TheReveal Girl, you know it's-]]''

----

** KarmaHoudini: That is, except for Frank Farian, who went right back to producing and even spawned a few short-lived hitmakers in the 1990s, like La Bouche, Le Click and No Mercy.

[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millivanillirobfabgrammy_2573.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[FunnyAneurysmMoment .....Awkward.]]]]There are scandals in the pop music world, and then there's '''Milli Vanilli,''' a musical duo made up of Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus (listed in the liner notes of their hit record ''Girl You Know It's True'' as "Rob & Fab, The Brothers Of Soul"). Milli Vanilli were one of the most promising young pop acts of their time, and released the singles "Girl You Know It's True," "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It On The Rain," to major success. However, their tenure on the charts ended abruptly when it was discovered that Rob & Fab were not only lip synching their songs, but never actually sung the tracks on record.

[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/MilliVanilli YMMV page here]].

* BrokeTheRatingScale: WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead once flipped to one of Milli Vanilli's videos, to which they had the rare response of staring in horror, unable to make any of their trademark wisecracks, and then changed the channel.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Hoo boy. They made an appearance on TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 as the Princess' favorite pop group, but after the scandal, their performance was overdubbed by an instrumental piece, rendering the cartoon Rob & Fab voiceless over the new music. Oddly appropriate, isn't it?

In late 1989, the image showed the first sign of crumbling when Rob & Fab were caught lip synching at a performance in Bristol, Connecticut. A performance of "Girl You Know It's True" stumbled when the recording skipped ([[BrokenRecord "Girl you know it's- "Girl you know it's- "Girl you know it's- "Girl you know it's- "Girl you know it's-"]]) This was made worse by the fact that the whole thing was caught by {{MTV}} cameras. This didn't seem to divert their success, as in February of 1990, they won a Grammy for Best New Artist.

----

[[caption-width-right:300:[[FunnyAneurysmMoment .....Awkward.]]]]There are scandals in the music world, and then there's '''Milli Vanilli,''' a musical duo made up of Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus (listed in the liner notes of their hit record ''Girl You Know It's True'' as "Rob & Fab, The Brothers Of Soul"). Milli Vanilli were one of the most promising young pop acts of their time, and released the singles "Girl You Know It's True," "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It On The Rain," to major success. However, their tenure on the charts ended abruptly when it was discovered that Rob & Fab were not only lip synching their songs, but never actually sung the tracks on record.

[[caption-width-right:300:[[FunnyAneurysmMoment .....Awkward.]]]]There are scandals in the pop music world, and then there's '''Milli Vanilli,''' a musical duo made up of Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus (listed in the liner notes of their hit record ''Girl You Know It's True'' as "Rob & Fab, The Brothers Of Soul"). Milli Vanilli were one of the most promising young pop acts of their time, and released the singles "Girl You Know It's True," "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It On The Rain," to major success. However, their tenure on the charts ended abruptly when it was discovered that Rob & Fab were not only lip synching their songs, but never actually sung the tracks on record.

** That is, except for Frank Farian, who went right back to producing and even spawned a few short-lived hitmakers in the 1990s, like La Bouche, Le Click and No Mercy.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Hoo boy. They made an appearance on TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 as the Princess' favorite pop group, but after the scandal, their performance was overdubbed by an instrumental piece, rendering the cartoon Rob & Fab voiceless over the new music.

* {{TheBandMinusTheFace}}s: The Real Milli Vanilli.

* SecondAlbumSyndrome: For both the boys and the real band.

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Hoo boy. They made an appearance on TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3 as the Princess' favorite pop group, but after the scandal, their performance was overdubbed by an instrumental piece, rending the cartoon Rob & Fab voiceless over the new music.