Milli Vanilli: How a Grammy heralded the end of the band’s career

A dream came true for 23-year-old Robert “Rob” Pilatus and 21-year-old Fabrice “Fab” Morvan from Munich when they signed their contract with producer Frank Farian (†2024) in January 1988. He has a big name in the music industry, his own music label and has already celebrated countless successes, including with Boney M. Now he wants to start a similar project with the two young dancers.

In his recording studio in Rosbach near Frankfurt am Main, the next successful piece is already in the drawer: “Girl You Know It’s True”, a cover version, sung at the time by Charles Shaw and Brad Howell. The two of them should only move their lips. They agree – because the contract leaves them no other choice, as they later explain. And her greatest wish is to become famous.

The song hits like a bomb. The song becomes a top 5 hit in 23 countries. By the end of the 1980s it had sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. It doesn’t take long before the wave of success spreads overseas. In the USA, her debut album in 1989 was certified six times platinum and was number one in the charts for seven weeks. This is followed by a month-long Club MTV Live tour through the USA. 107 cities in eight months. Even when there was a technical glitch during a performance in Bristol, Connecticut on July 21, 1989 and the playback stopped, the fraud was not discovered. The world is literally at the feet of the always well-styled, charismatic duo with their eye-catching dreadlocks and their cool dance moves.

Manager suggests Milli Vanilli for the Grammys

In the United States, Todd Headlee looks after the pop duo, assistant manager to Sandy Gallin, who has big stars like Michael Jackson and Dolly Parton under contract. He doesn’t know that his protégés have sold millions of albums and completed a successful tour, but haven’t sung a single note themselves. “Most people knew the secret, but I didn’t. Nobody told me anything,” he says later. “So I thought they would sing themselves.” He is also the one who ensures that Milli Vanilli are nominated for the most coveted music award in the world.

“We were in a meeting and I said, ‘I think Milli Vanilli could be nominated for a Grammy’. Everyone laughed and said they would never be nominated for a Grammy.” He calls the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and speaks with its president Mike Green, who is also the head of the Grammys. “I didn’t know how to get nominated at the time and he said they just write on their company stationery the phrase, ‘Please consider Milli Vanilli for a Grammy’.” He faxes the letter to the Academy. “When Milli Vanilli were among the nominations, the shit hit the fan.”

Even today, Morvan still remembers the evening of February 21, 1990. “We got out of the car and went in. The pressure was huge that day. There were all these stars. Finally we had to go on stage.” He breaks out in a cold sweat. “Performing at the Grammys in front of all these artists was nerve-wracking. These people had been working toward this point for years and we were catapulted here. It was crazy when they listed the names of the nominees.” In addition to Milli Vanilli, Neneh Cherry, Indigo Girls, Soul II Soul and Tone Loc were also nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Young Artist” category that evening. “I remember sitting there thinking the entire industry knew they weren’t singing themselves,” said Ken Levy, vice president of music label Arista.

Milli Vanilli’s fame and lies go to her head

Milli Vanilli won the prize in their category. In his acceptance speech, Pilatus said: “We would like to say that there are many artists here in the hall and many out in the world who can achieve what we have achieved today. The award goes to all artists in the world. Thank you very much.” After the show, Todd Headlee gets a call from an angry Sandy Gallin: “Look what you did,” he shouted. Headlee is irritated: “I thought: Why doesn’t anyone want them to win a Grammy?” The Grammy has finally propelled Milli Vanilli to the top of the music industry. But they are now more than ever in the public eye. It’s a crucial turning point in her career, which shouldn’t last too long from now on.

“After they won the Grammy, they completely took off,” Headlee said. “The more famous they became, the more airs and graces they got, and, among other things, demanded sushi in the dressing room.” In an interview with the news magazine “Time” just a few weeks after the award ceremony, Pilatus even claimed that they were more musically talented than Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger. “I am the new Rock’n Roll. I am the new Elvis,” he is quoted as saying. In order to cope with their high spirits and the lie surrounding their singing, the young men take more and more drugs and alcohol. “This burden on our shoulders became heavier and heavier,” remembers Morvan. “We drank more, took more drugs to somehow numb ourselves.”

At some point they can’t take it anymore. When Farian is already producing her second album, she will be releasing it with an appearance on November 3rd at “Wetten,dass…?” If you want to promote it, it’s enough for both of them. They don’t even show up for the video shoot for the new single “Keep on Running”. “Pilatus and Morvan had had enough. We wanted to sing. We wanted to prove ourselves as singers. We no longer wanted to be his puppets,” says Morvan. You get a reputable lawyer. “Our strategy was to annoy him. We demanded more money.” On the eve of the performance, Pilatus demands half a million marks from Farian, otherwise they would not perform. A driver brings a check for 450,000 marks to Linz, where the broadcast is recorded. They send him away and want to negotiate with Farian on the following Monday about a payment of one million marks for the new album.

But the meeting doesn’t even happen. Now Farian has had enough too. “I won’t let these two idiots blackmail me anymore,” he says to his assistant and partner Ingrid Segieth. The two flew to New York, where Farian dropped the bombshell on November 15, 1990 and made it public that the two artists had not actually sung their hits themselves. The result: an incredible shitstorm. CDs are publicly destroyed in the media, and a mother is suing the duo and their record company Arista for damages because her 14-year-old son was cheated. A US court rules that fans will get three dollars back for every CD they buy. Milli Vanilli has to return his Grammy – an unprecedented event in the award’s 33-year history.

At a press conference between Pilatus and Morvan on November 20th in a recording studio in Los Angeles, around 200 reporters attacked the two of them mercilessly. They explain that they were young and naive when they made a “pact with the devil.” The ultimate goal was to become famous. “We consider ourselves talented, we love the stage. That was our main goal. It wasn’t the money,” explains Pilatus. “If we hadn’t accepted the deal, we would still be in Munich and I would still be working at McDonalds.”

A new beginning under the name Rob & Fab fails, as does a planned comeback. While Morvan recovers from the scandal and later makes his own music, Pilatus slides deeper and deeper into the drug swamp, smoking cocaine and consuming crack. He comes into conflict with the law several times. After he went through another withdrawal in Germany in February 1998, Farian’s partner found him lifeless in his hotel room in Friedrichsdorf near Frankfurt am Main on April 3rd. He died of heart failure at the age of 33 as a result of an overdose of psychotropic drugs, cocaine and alcohol.

Watch the video above: “Milli Vanilli” retells one of the biggest pop scandals of the 90s based on a true story. The film with Matthias Schweighöfer in the role of the music producer was released in German cinemas on December 21st.

Sources: Paramount+, Time Magazine, Hesse show, Music Express, Los Angeles TimesDPA archive material