米利瓦尼利

Milli Vanilli () was a pop duo founded in 1988 in Munich, Germany, comprising Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. They combined pop, rap, R&B, disco and dance. The producer Frank Farian hired Brad Howell, John Davis, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco and Linda Rocco to sing on the records, and had Morvan and Pilatus pose as the performers, dancing and lip-syncing.

Milli Vanilli's debut album, All or Nothing, was released in Europe in 1988 and was repackaged by Arista Records for the US as Girl You Know It's True in 1989. It spent eight weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart and produced three number-one singles, making Milli Vanilli one of the most popular acts of the year. In 1990, they won three American Music Awards and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

Rumors spread that Milli Vanilli did not sing, owing to their French and German accents and a malfunction at a live show. After they pressured Farian to let them sing, in November 1990, Farian confirmed that their vocals were provided by other singers, leading to a backlash. Their music was pulled from radio rotation, their Grammy was revoked, and Arista deleted Girl You Know It's True from its catalog and refunded customers following several class action lawsuits. Farian defended Milli Vanilli as an art project combining musical and visual elements.

Farian repurposed songs planned for Milli Vanilli's second album as The Moment of Truth, released in 1991 under the name the Real Milli Vanilli, without Morvan and Pilatus. In 1993, Morvan and Pilatus released an album as Rob & Fab, which sold only 2,000 copies. A comeback album produced by Farian, Back and in Attack, was canceled after Pilatus's death from a drug overdose in 1998. Morvan gained the rights to the Milli Vanilli name, and continues to perform, singing live. In 2023, the documentary film Milli Vanilli and the biographical film Girl You Know It's True were released. In later years, Milli Vanilli came to be viewed with sympathy and some commentators saw them as victims of industry greed.

History

Formation and All or Nothing, 1984–1989

Rob Pilatus, from Munich, and Fab Morvan, from Paris, met at a Los Angeles disco in the 1980s and reconnected again in Munich. They bonded over their experiences growing up black in European cities. In Munich, they attempted to find work as backing singers, then formed their own act and recorded an album for a small record label that sold a few thousand copies. They also worked as dancers for pop singers and hosted club nights. According to Pilatus, they struggled financially and lived in a housing project.

Around this period, the German music producer Frank Farian recorded a cover of the Numarx song "Girl You Know It's True" with session musicians. Farian had previously created the 1970s disco band Boney M, whose frontman, Bobby Farrell, was a dancer who lip-synced to Farian's vocals. For "Girl You Know It's True", Farian enlisted studio vocalists including Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell and the twin sisters Jodie and Linda Rocco.