Fab Morvan (left) and Rob Pilatus (right) with NARAS president C. Michael Greene (center), February 1990
Background information
Also known as
Rob & Fab
Origin
Munich, West Germany
Genres
R&B[1]
Years active
1988–1990
1997–1998
Labels
Arista
Hansa
Past members
Milli Vanilli Fab Morvan Rob Pilatus Session members Charles Shaw Brad Howell John Davis Jodie Rocco[2] Linda Rocco[3] Frank Farian
Milli Vanilli (/ˈmɪlivəˈnɪli/MIL-ee və-NIL-ee) was a German R&B music act from Munich. The act was packaged by Boney M. founder[4] Frank Farian in 1988 and consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus as the lip-syncing performers,[5] with the two actual main studio singers, Brad Howell,[6] John Davis[6] and studio singers, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco,[7] and Linda Rocco,[7][2] with an unrelated touring band. Their debut album, as All or Nothing in Europe, and expanded, including "Baby Don't Forget My Number" and "Blame It on the Rain", composed by Diane Warren,[8] as Girl You Know It's True in the United States, achieved international success and brought them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 21 February 1990.[9]
They became one of the most popular pop acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with millions of records sold. However, their success turned to infamy when it was discovered that Morvan and Pilatus did not sing any of the vocals on their music releases. Their Grammy award was revoked.[10][11][12] In 1998, they recorded a comeback album, Back and in Attack, but its release was canceled after Pilatus died the same year.[13]
^Blake, Meredith (27 October 2023). "'We wanted to sing all along': A new documentary seeks to reframe the Milli Vanilli controversy". Los Angeles Times. November 20, 2023
^ ab"Milli Vanilli voice steps into the limelight". 17 February 2014. Archived from the original on 13 April 2017. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
^Wiener, Candice (26 April 2021). "Girl You Know It's True The Real Voice of Milli Vanilli: Meet Jodie Rocco". Real Vegas Magazine. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^McCaul, Molly; Bennett, James II (23 June 2023). "A new film challenges what we know about Milli Vanilli". THE CULTURE SHOW. GBH. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Kaufman, Gil (20 February 2020). "Blame It on The Tape: A Behind-the-Scenes Oral History of the Rise and Fall of Milli Vanilli". Billboard. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^ ab"Here Are the Faces and Real Singers of Milli Vanilli [PHOTOS]". 99.9 KTDY. 9 January 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^ abHorton, Adrian (15 June 2023). "'People thought they knew the story': the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^Rich TVX News Network (31 October 2023). "Milli Vanilli on Paramount+: The Pact With the Devil — Linda Rocco Unveiling Secrets". Medium. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
^"32nd Annual GRAMMY Awards (1989)". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. 28 November 2017. Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
^Shriver, Jerry (28 January 2010). "Milli Vanilli frontman says duo were musical 'scapegoats'". USA Today. Archived from the original on 29 January 2010.
^Philips, Chuck (20 November 1990). "Milli Vanilli's Grammy Rescinded by Academy : Music: Organization revokes an award for the first time after revelation that the duo never sang on album". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^Philips, Chuck (16 November 1990). "It's True: Milli Vanilli Didn't Sing : Pop music: The duo could be stripped of its Grammy after admitting it lip-synced the best-selling 'Girl You Know It's True.'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 11 January 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
^"Milli Vanilli's Pilatus Dead At 33". Rolling Stone. 7 April 1998. Archived from the original on 22 June 2008. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
MilliVanilli (/ˈmɪli vəˈnɪli/ MIL-ee və-NIL-ee) was a German R&B music act from Munich. The act was packaged by Boney M. founder Frank Farian in 1988...
This is a discography of MilliVanilli, a pop/dance music project formed by Frank Farian in Germany in 1988, fronted by Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The...
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MTV and said that MilliVanilli had used a Synclavier and were not singing. Later that year, Frank Farian, producer of MilliVanilli, confirmed that the...
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numbers that incorporate vocals; to misattribute vocals entirely (e.g., MilliVanilli, a band which lip synced to recordings made by other singers), or to...
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- The Living Years Aaron Neville & Linda Ronstadt - Don't Know Much MilliVanilli - Girl You Know It's True Anita Baker, Sting & Stevie Wonder - Record...
Highbeam source, She is known for her reporting about the musical group MilliVanilli's lip syncing recordings and performances. In 2008, a judge ordered rap...
was vacated; this occurred in 1990 after it was revealed that winners MilliVanilli did not contribute their own vocals on their album Girl You Know It's...
and the actual vocals lip-synced by Rob Pilatus for the musical duo MilliVanilli. When Howell became a keyboardist and pianist, he appeared on chat shows...
In early 2021, Ratner announced that he will direct a long-gestated MilliVanilli biopic, which would be his first project since MGM's 2014 Hercules,...