History Music / MilliVanilli

There have been many scandals in the pop music world, but none quite like Milli Vanilli.

The group's second album was eventually released in Europe and Asia under the title ''The Moment of Truth'', credited to "The Real Milli Vanilli". It had been edited from its original intended form to incorporate Ray Horton and Gina Mohammed, two younger, more "marketable" singers who simply re-recorded material already completed by the actual original band members or did backup vocals on finished tracks. They were incorrectly credited at many points on the album, but they did at least sing. Mohammed was falsely and retroactively given credit for the Rocco twins' vocals on the first album in order to further "legitimize" the new group. While the first single from the album was a hit in some countries, the group failed to maintain the success of its Rob & Fab-fronted incarnation.[[note]]They also released the album again under the band name "Try n B", gaining a little success without the name association, but nothing to write home about[[/note]]

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: An oft-forgotten part of this whole mess was that having frontmen who simply acted as the band's faces but contributed nothing more than their looks was quite common in Europe. Not crediting the ''actual band'', however, was quite something else. Namely, it wasn't an issue until the American repackaging of their first album outright lied and named Rob and Fab as the only two singers.

* YourNormalIsOurTaboo: An oft-forgotten part of this whole mess was that having frontmen who simply acted as the FaceOfTheBand but contributed nothing more than their looks was quite common in Europe. Not crediting the ''actual band'', however, was quite something else. Namely, it wasn't an issue until the American repackaging of their first album outright lied and named Rob and Fab as the only two singers.

* {{The Band Minus the Face}}s:

* ThatSyncingFeeling: Their infamous performance in Bristol, Connecticut, caught by MTV cameras, may well be the TropeCodifier. When the record began to skip during their 1989 ''Creator/ClubMTV'' concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]] and ended up fleeing the stage in a panic. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

* ThatSyncingFeeling: Their infamous performance in Bristol, Connecticut, caught by MTV cameras, may well be the TropeCodifier. When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]] and ended up fleeing the stage in a panic. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

** The duo ended up fleeing the stage after they were caught lip-syncing to "Girl You Know It's True" while in Bristol, Connecticut.

* ThatSyncingFeeling: Their infamous performance in Bristol, Connecticut, caught by MTV cameras, may well be the TropeCodifier. When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]]; both fled the stage in a panic, and Fab reports wanting to quit on the spot. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

* ThatSyncingFeeling: Their infamous performance in Bristol, Connecticut, caught by MTV cameras, may well be the TropeCodifier. When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]]. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

** This is also pretty much par for the course in UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}}. Most of the “filmy” songs are sung by designated Playback Singers, but they are “performed” by the movie’s lead actors and actresses. In “Bollywood concerts”, it is the actors and actresses who lip sync the songs on stage, with playback singers singing in rarer circumstances. That said, playback singers are given due credit and are considered celebrities in their own right.

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 [[AluminumChristmasTrees 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 Fabrice "Fab" Morvan and Rob Pilatus, two models and aspiring singers he found in a UsefulNotes/{{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, [[SunkCostFallacy already signed and having no way to pay back the advance]], reluctantly agreed.

* DownerEnding: The Milli Vanilli story didn't end well for anyone, especially Rob Pilatus who died of a drug overdose at the age of 32.

* NonSingingVoice: Probably the most (in)famous example in music history,

* ShoutOut: The group's name is a play-off of sophistopop band Music/ScrittiPolitti.

There have been many scandals in the pop music world, but none quite like Milli Vanilli. They were, in their most famous incarnation, a duo made up of Fabrice "Fab" 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, turning them into one of pop music's biggest punchlines overnight.

The debut, ''All or Nothing'' (1988) set the tone for their output, with {{Europop}} music informed by HipHop and {{Funk}}. Creator/AristaRecords, liking what they heard, snapped them up for a North American release. Leaving some songs behind, some new songs were added and the track list was shuffled into a new album, titled ''[[UpdatedRerelease Girl You Know It's True]]''. This album went six times platinum, and the title track became their SignatureSong.

In late 1989, the image showed the first sign of crumbling when Rob & Fab were [[ThatSyncingFeeling caught lip-synching]] at a performance at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut. A performance of "Girl You Know It's True" stumbled when the recording skipped ([[RepetitiveAudioGlitch "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 Creator/{{MTV}} cameras. This didn't seem to divert their success, as in February of 1990, they won a Grammy for Best New Artist.

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 14, 1990, that the duo did not, in fact, sing any of the Milli Vanilli material. Confronted by the media, the group copped to the deception. To say that there was a backlash would be, uh... putting it pretty mildly.

A week later, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences revoked their Best New Artist Grammy, and Rob & Fab [[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-20/news/mn-4948_1_milli-vanilli announced they were handing back the statuettes at a press conference]]. 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.

* SingingVoiceDissonance: Many people noticed even before the big reveal that Rob & Fob spoke in broken, heavily accented English yet seemed to sing and rap in perfect American English. This was obviously explained when it came out the singing voices they lip-synched to actually belonged to American-born musicians.
* ThatSyncingFeeling: When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]]. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

* 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. To his credit, Arsenio famously stated that he told the directors to shoot their musical sequence as incredibly as possible, stating that it'd be really cool if Milli Vanilli made a comeback.

* 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-"
* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Hoo boy. They made an appearance on ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfSuperMarioBros3'' as the Princess' favorite pop group, just ''two weeks'' before they revealed the lip syncing scandal. 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?

* ThatSyncingFeeling:
** When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]]. It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing, aka a "guide track", especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing).

!!Milli Vanilli provides examples of:

* BrokenRecord: "Girl you know it's- Girl you know it's- Girl you know it's-"

* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Hoo boy. They made an appearance on ''WesternAnimation/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?

** This was also the case with the aborted comeback album. Rob, who had fallen the hardest out of the two, willingly agreed to join Farian again, while Fab wanted nothing to do with the man who had ruined his career.

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: 2.
* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: ''Very'' 2.

** The Real Milli Vanilli, allegedly. In fact; it was that plus a few new pretty faces who hadn't been on the first album at all, but were shown more prominently in marketing material.

There have been many scandals in the pop music world, but none quite like Milli Vanilli. They were, in their most famous incarnation, a vocal duo made up of Fabrice "Fab" 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, turning them into one of pop music's biggest punchlines overnight.

[[caption-width-right:300: [[HarsherInHindsight ...Awkward.]] [[labelnote: Click here for the ''real'' Milli Vanilli.]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millivanillireal_1074.jpg[[/labelnote]]]]

In late 1989, the image showed the first sign of crumbling when Rob & Fab were [[ThatSyncingFeeling caught lip-synching]] at a performance in Bristol, Connecticut. A performance of "Girl You Know It's True" stumbled when the recording skipped ([[RepetitiveAudioGlitch "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 Creator/{{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: [[HarsherInHindsight ...Awkward.]] [[labelnote: Click here for the ''real'' Milli Vanilli.]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millivanillireal_1074.jpg]][[/labelnote]]]]

[[caption-width-right:300: [[HarsherInHindsight ...Awkward.]]]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/millivanillireal_1074.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:The "Real" Milli Vanilli.]]

There are scandals in the pop music world, and then there's Milli Vanilli, a musical duo made up of Fabrice "Fab" 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.

A week later, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences revoked their Best New Artist Grammy. Rob & Fab [[http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-20/news/mn-4948_1_milli-vanilli announced they were handing back the statuettes at a press conference]], 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.

After three years of vocal lessons, Rob & Fab, under that name, released a self-titled album and even appeared on ''Series/TheArsenioHallShow'' to perform their lead single ACTUALLY live. [[DeaderThanDisco The public, however, was done with the whole thing]], and the album sold somewhere between 1,000 and 3,000 copies, going almost immediately out of print. In the late '90s, Rob, Farian and the original band reconciled in order to put out a comeback album in 1998, minus Fab, who wanted nothing more to do with Farian. 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.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: At the beginning of July 1989 they released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbUENJ5FjBk "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You"]] which contained the line "It's a tragedy for me to see the dream is over''... [[RepetitiveAudioGlitch three weeks later, the dream really was over]]

** When the record began to skip during their 1989 MTV concert, Milli Vanilli knew [[{{Pun}} the gig was up]].
** It's worth mentioning that there were those who just dismissed it at the time as merely an embarrassing moment caught live; MTV's "Downtown" Julie Brown, reflecting on it years later, mentioned that it was somewhat of a common practice at the time for artists to lip-sync to their own prerecorded singing (a "guide track"), especially if they were dancing around during their performance, rather than run the risk of ending up too out of breath to sing effectively (key words here being their ''own'' singing...).