Milli Vanilli

Blame it on the producer

Raise your hand if you’d watch a Milli Vanilli biopic. The following two minutes of video have me ready to produce it myself.

I want to know way more detail about the Milli Vanilli story. The older I get, the more interested I am. So I searched a little further and - well whaddya know? It’s like someone was reading my mind.

I am sooooo ready for this movie, but of course I’m also nervous that it won’t be very good.

I should clarify, I’m not some kind of Milli Vanilli super-fan. I was a radio disc jockey when their music was on the charts. I laughed it off when they were exposed.

But more than three decades later, the music industry has changed - a lot. And it has me wondering so many things about this scandal.

The first thought that always pops into my head when the subject comes up is - are we supposed to believe that Milli Vanilli is the only instance of this happening, or are there more and we simply don’t know about them?

Here’s what I do know - Milli Vanilli wasn't the first time producer Frank Farian pulled a fast one. Look up the German-Caribbean group Boney M. Also, look up the origins of the Milli Vanilli song “Girl You Know It’s True.”

Farian seemed to have a knack for using other people’s material, bodies, and faces.

Here’s the thing, though. Why did it ever matter?

Nowadays musical acts around the world are lip syncing and using pre-recorded tracks for their live shows like it ain’t no big deal. (I won’t mention names but the first band that comes to mind rhymes with “priss.”)

Now believe me, I do see the difference. Milli Vanilli (Rob & Fab) were not lip syncing to their own voices. But when the cat was first let out of the bag in 1990 at a concert in Bristol, CT, it shouldn’t have been that big of a deal.

It wasn’t until Rob and Fab started to push for more money that Farian blew the whistle on his own conspiracy. At that point the group was already under scrutiny and the public was suspicious, so once their producer came out publicly and admitted that Rob and Fav did not sing a note on the album, it was all over.

If you’re interested in more details because you can’t wait for the movie, you can watch this fabulous interview with Fab Morvan on VladTV:

The entire scandal just doesn’t seem to be a big deal when you look back on it. Especially when you consider that they can/could sing.

The worst part is that Rob and Fab took the heat for all of it. Not Farian, not Clive Davis who surely knew. Nope. It was the guys who made the least amount of money from Milli Vanilli who paid the price for not being allowed to sing. One of them paid the ultimate price.