Milli Vanilli and the fraud of the music world

When asked what he would do differently if he had a time machine, Fabrice Morvan mentions two things.

First, help his friend Rob with his addiction, he says. Secondly, sing himself on the records.

Morvan, 57, was once a superstar, performing to packed stadiums, selling tens of millions of records and winning a Grammy, at least for a time.

He was Fab, part of the successful 90s band Milli Vanilli.

It all started when Boney M. producer Frank Farian saw the Fab club dancers and his childhood friend Robert Rob Pilatus in Munich.

But his stellar career fell apart soon after, shattering his dreams and ruining his reputation.

The fact that they were lip-syncing their hits like Girl You Know It’s True and I’m Gonna Miss You sparked an industry-wide outcry, creating a scandal of historic proportions.

The band was “thrown to the wolves. A scapegoat,” says Morvan in an interview, while others “fled from their responsibilities.”

“When the story broke, they kept their mouths shut and were able to move. “They were able to pay for their children’s college, pay their mortgages, move up the ranks because they were attached to a very, very successful project,” he says.

“But as far as Rob and Fab were concerned, they were totally forgotten and very badly talked about.” But everyone they worked with must have known, Morvan says.

Farian, the producer who started the whole project, had others sing while the two boys danced. Then there was the record company and management in the United States, where the two young men faced harsh treatment when the facts came to light.

“They were able to walk away so easily due to the fact that they were very powerful people involved. And no one wanted to ruffle those feathers,” she says.

But for many it should have been obvious from the beginning, he says.

“When a foreigner walks into a room, the first thing you say is, ‘Hey, where are you from?’ That’s the first thing,” he says.

“I still have an accent. You know, maybe you can’t tell when I sing, but when I talk, you can still hear it. I’m not American. It’s obvious. And back then, she had a French accent, of course. And Rob had a Bavarian accent, which is even more difficult.”

“So when we landed in New York City and sat down with the executives, they knew,” Morvan says. Even today he is surprised that no one has sat down to ask him about it, not even journalists, he says.

“We made a deal with the devil,” Rob said at the duo’s highly publicized press conference after the scandal emerged.

He may also have been referring to the song Dance With A Devil, which they also did not sing. The two were seduced by fan love, recognition and attention, something they lacked at home, Morvan says.

To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the group’s founding, Sony released an album with the best of their career at the end of November, and in December the film Girl You Know It’s True, by director Simon Verhoeven, with Matthias, will also be released in theaters. Schweighöfer as Frank Farian.

Morvan, now a father of four, works as a singer and songwriter. But his friend Rob died in 1998, aged 33, and is buried in the forest cemetery in his hometown of Munich.

“I knew that wouldn’t last forever. On the other hand, when Rob developed his addiction, he became totally confused about what was really happening around us,” says Morvan.

Rob was older and seemed to internalize the lies. “I think he was like a sponge. He sank deeper into it,” Morvan emphasizes, adding that he himself wondered if things would even last until lunch.

That was the difference. “Because of her addiction, she absorbed everything much more intensely and lost herself in it.”

Morvan describes how the music industry worked, with producers bringing together and grouping composers, producers, arrangers, professional tools and specialists.

“So what is the difference between people not being able to reproduce what they did in the studio and Milli Vanilli? So, because I was crucified a long time ago, people celebrate today,” she says.

“It’s really strange for me. “I see it like on TikTok, like, wow, people are getting famous for being famous lip syncers.”

“There was no real crime here, but it cost a life,” says the Paramount documentary, which takes a closer look at what was happening behind the scenes more than three decades later.

Morvan’s summary, looking back: “It’s just that the truth will take the stairs while the lies will take the elevators.”

To know

• l The duet was created in 1988. Their hit Girl You Know It’s True sold more than 7 million copies worldwide.
• l In 1990 they won the Grammy for New Artist.
• l They had creative differences with the group’s creator, Frank Farian.
• l In November 1990 Farian called a press conference to inform that Fab and Rob did not sing and were only the image of someone else who did.