Fabrice “Fav” Morvan and Rob Pilatus, in the latter half of the 1980s, were two young black men who made a living as back-dancers for pop singer Sabrina Salerno.
In 1988, during one of the presentations of this Italian artist, they both met the German producer Frank Farian who, impressed by the dance skills and good looks of the two friends, decided to sponsor them as a new pop duo.
The duo, by the way, would be called Milli Vanilli and would only perform songs in English.
But there was a small problem. Morvan and Pilatus did not compose music, they did not play any instruments and they did not sing either.
THE STORY BEHIND “MACARENA”, THE SONG THAT MADE THE WOLD DANCE
However, this situation did not intimidate Farian, who sought out various artists (Charles Shaw, John Davis and Brad Howell, who were good musicians and singers but did not have marquee physical attractiveness) to perform and sing various musical recordings.
The idea was simple: these artists would remain anonymous and instead (both in the videos and live performances) Fabrice Morvan and Rob Pilatus would appear because, in Farian’s opinion, they had a «much more attractive image».
Milli Vanilli’s first album, “All or nothing”, was released in the same year 1988 and immediately reached the top of the music charts in various European countries, such as Great Britain and Germany.
Both Morvan and Pilatus appeared on the album cover, but who performed the songs was not specified.
THE TRAGIC LIFE OF HERVÉ VILLECHAIZE, THE REMEMBERED «TATTOO» OF FANTASY ISLAND
The good reception of the album earned them a contract with Arista Records, an important North American record company, which produced their second LP: “Girl, you know it’s true”.
This new album, which contained a new version of the most popular songs from the previous album and several new songs, would reach platinum status for its millionaire sales.
The album’s title track topped the charts in the US and so did other singles the duo recorded especially for the US market («Baby Don’t Forget My Number»; «Girl I ‘m Gonna Miss You” and “Blame It on the Rain”, which reached #1 on the charts for the entire year of 1989).
But at the end of that year the first mishap occurred. While the duo was presenting their songs in a concert for the MTV network in Connecticut, the playback of the song «Girl you know it’s true» unexpectedly failed (the first chords and the verse of the song began to be repeated, while the singers continued their act usually).
MACGYVER, THE SECRET AGENT OF VICTORINOX KNIVES
Realizing the technical failure, Morvan and Pilatus had no choice but to retire – quite embarrassed – to their dressing rooms.
That incident ignited the first suspicions. In addition, there were not a few journalists who wondered how these European singers (French and German) pronounced English so well when they sang, if in the interviews they gave they could barely put together a few coherent sentences in that language.
The group’s second album, unlike the first, explicitly featured the names of Morvan and Pilatus on the album cover as song singers.
But, in December 1989, the soloist Charles Shaw committed the first infidence: he confessed to the New York newspaper Newsday that he was the real soloist of the group and that Pilatus and Morgan were just simple impostors.
AUTOMAN THE SERIES OF A FUTURE PAST
Despite this burning statement, in February 1990 Milli Vanilli won a Grammy Award for New Artist of the Year, which increased his fame worldwide.
That same year they also received the American Music Awards for having sold almost ten million records in 1989.
Pilatus, overwhelmed by sudden success and money, would even manage to confess in Time magazine that the duo were more talented than artists like Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger or Bob Dylan himself.
In the same year 1990, the suspicions of fraud would become more acute, especially when the frequent discrepancies between the voices of the two singers and the playback of the live presentations were noticed.
‘BAYWATCH: GUARDIANS OF DE BAY’, ACTION IN SWIMSUIT
Morvan and Pilatus, quite nervous about this situation, began to pressure producer Frank Farian to use their own voices for the songs on the duo’s next album.
Fraud is discovered
Farian, who was afraid of making a fool of himself if he released a third album using the real voices of Morvan and Pilatus, could not stand the siege of the duo and on November 12, 1990 he preferred to publicly confess the whole truth: vocalists Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were not the real singers of Milli Vanilli and only limited themselves to offering their image on record covers and on stage.
Four days after this confession, and after strong pressure from the American press, Milli Vanilli was stripped of the Grammy Award they had won just nine months earlier.
The Arista Records label, meanwhile, immediately deleted all Milli Vanilli albums from its catalogues.
Beverly Hills 90210: A teenage hit marked by big egos and rivalries
In 1991 Frank Farian wanted to relaunch the career of Morvan and Pilatus under the name of The Real Milli Vanilli, but the album they released (ironically called «Moment of Truth») was received with indifference.
Two years later, the original couple tried their luck again by actually performing their songs under the name Rob & Fab, but this new attempt was also a resounding failure: they barely sold two thousand copies, a ridiculous figure compared to their millionaire sales of yesteryear.
In 1998, Frank Farian planned to return to musical work with Morvan and Pilatus, so that they would both record a pop album with their real voices.
But the plan was foiled after Rob Pilatus died of a drug overdose in Germany (he is said to have become a drug addict as a result of the 1990 music scandal).
«Top Cat», the animated series that failed in USA and became a phenomenon in latin america
Today, the unprecedented story of Milli Vanilli inspired the experimental opera «WOW», which was performed in New York and represents different moments in the history of the musical duo: from their artistic beginnings to the technical problem on stage that revealed that the band did «playback», or the press conference in which the singers were forced to return the Grammy award.
A story of fraud that, with the death of Rob Pilatus, became a true tragedy.
