BICEPS, braids and pelvis-thrusting on Top Of The Pops all contributed to the popularity of Eighties pop duo Milli Vanilli.
Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus notched up UK Top Ten hits with Girl You Know It’s True and Girl I’m Gonna Miss You, as well as multiple chart-toppers in Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the US.
In 1990 the duo won a Grammy for Best New Artist and pocketed £8million from tours — but their success came crashing down news broke that neither of them had sung a note live or on any of their records.
Even at the Grammys on the night they accepted their award, Milli Vanilli lip-synced to a recording of Girl You Know It’s True, laid down by other singers.
When the scandal became public Milli Vanilli’s Grammy was revoked, and in America lawsuits were brought against them on behalf of fans who wanted refunds for Milli Vanilli records and concert tickets.
Overnight their pop career came crashing down and the pair were vilified and laughed at in equal measure.
But did they deserve the scorn? Or was there more to the story?
Today, more than 30 years on, Fab wants to set the record straight.
With a new documentary out next week, he wants the world to know what really happened behind the scenes of the scandal.
“I signed a recording contract without an attorney, without a manager, and it was in German,” says the French singer, who moved to Munich aged 18, having studied German for just a year at school.
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‘Seduced by his power’
“I only saw a couple of pages out of a stack of pages that we never read,” he explains, recalling the contract that locked him into working with the Svengali super-producer who dictated that Fab and Rob would be the face — and bodies — of Milli Vanilli but not the voice.
“We wanted to sing!” insists Fab, who met German-born Rob within a few months of arriving in Munich.
The two became friends and performed together as dancers at clubs, fashion shows and festivals, while recording demos and telling everyone they wanted to make music.
When they were offered a recording contract with Frank Farian, they thought they had made it.
Farian was the producer behind Boney M, who had huge hits with Seventies disco-fillers Daddy Cool, Rasputin and Rivers Of Babylon.
Rob, who initially saw Farian as a father figure, recalls walking into the record producer’s office and seeing “those gold records on the wall”.
“We were seduced right away by his power,” he said
The duo also enjoyed all the perks of their newfound fame — and the women it brought.
“Being loved, feeling loved, became part of my DNA,” Rob recalls. “And of course, as a young man you definitely enjoy those perks. You’re larger than life. You are this rock star. We definitely basked in this life. And then you are seduced by it.”
It was only after signing the record contract that Fab and Rob saw another side to Farian, when he warned: “Don’t ever f*** with me.”
Months went by before the duo were invited back to hear what would be their first single.
In that time they had spent their advance of 1,500 Deutsche marks (£667), along with additional payouts from the record company.
“We had to ask for more to pay our rent, and they gave it to us willingly,” says Fab, not realising the debt would later be used to manipulate them.
Excited to hear the first single — which they assumed they’d be singing — their hopes were crushed when they were told they would only be lip-syncing. “We said, ‘We don’t want to do it,’ ” Fab insists. “Frank said, ‘OK, well pay me back.’
“We couldn’t so we thought, ‘OK, we’ll do one song.’
“We didn’t realise that the contract was for three albums.”
The fear of being found out was isolating: “It affected our social behaviour. Some people took it as, ‘They’re arrogant! They don’t talk — they’re very stand-offish.’
“But it was just because we had strong accents, and if you heard us open our mouths, in England or in America, it would be like, ‘Oh! You sound different!’ ”
The burden of carrying that secret eventually led to drug abuse.
“I was medicating myself to forget,” Fab admits. “It was a sort of coping mechanism.”
He says “drugs, alcohol, women” became a “triangle relationship” that they clung on to because it was “a way of not thinking”. Fab, now 57 and living a clean, healthy lifestyle, had two stints in rehab but insists he was never an addict.
Unfortunately, singing partner Rob’s cocaine habit led to a crack addiction and in 1998 he was found dead in a Frankfurt hotel room, aged just 33.
‘The jokes were brutal’
“He died of a broken heart,” says Fab, referring to the effects of the drugs as well as Rob’s emotional fragility. “Rob had lived the first four years of his life in an orphanage. I think that the void in his heart was much bigger than mine.”
Fab feels he was better equipped to deal with their career crash due to four years of weekly therapy sessions from the age of 14, following his parents’ divorce. He adds: “When I lost Rob, it was like losing a limb from my own body because he was the one person who had walked in my shoes.”
Fab believes Rob bore the brunt of carrying the secret. “Rob was the one that spoke much more than I did. I was very shy, so Rob had to carry a bigger part of the lie by being the front guy, and talking it — convincing people.
“I embraced the lie, but he really started to believe the lie.”
Rob attempted suicide in November 1991. The Los Angeles Times reported that he “slashed his wrist, gulped prescription pills and then dangled from a ninth-floor hotel balcony”.
Yet the suicide attempt only heightened the public mockery of Milli Vanilli.
“The jokes were brutal. We were a punchline,” says Rob. “They didn’t care that we were human beings. It was bullying.”
When Rob was found dead in 1998, Fab says he was “ready for that call”. He says: “He lost his life as a result of everything. It’s cause and effect.”
So did Milli Vanilli deserve the worldwide condemnation?
“We’re not the villains that people thought we were. The villain is somebody else,” says Fab, referring to Farian, who had carried out a similar lip-syncing experiment with Boney M.
“They just made the money and threw us away like trash. They use you until you’re no good, then it’s time for you to go. The word exploitation comes to mind.”
Nowadays Fab tries to focus on happiness, resilience and growth.
He says: “Time heals all wounds. In order to get to this point, I had to forgive myself for letting myself fall into this trap. I’m an artist, and it was hurting for years.
“I kept replaying that in my head. That’s why I said, ‘OK, I gotta forgive myself. I gotta forgive Frank Farian as well’.”
Fab lives with his partner of 14 years, Tessa van der Steen, a health coach, and their four children, all aged under ten.
‘Had to forgive myself’
The couple have launched fabmilly.com to host health talks videos, and answer fans’ questions about how Fab stays in shape.
Fab also performs at Eighties and Nineties pop festivals across Europe during the summer months.
He explains: “It’s a big scene and I celebrate Rob every time I’m on stage. Sometimes I mention his name and sometimes not. But sometimes when he comes to mind when I’m on stage, I say: ‘Hey! You know, Rob is watching! Let’s go hard. Join me in this celebration!’
“Because music, to me, is a way for us to celebrate life.”
He has also teamed up with Ray Slijngaard from 2 Unlimited, who had hits in the Nineties with Get Ready For This and No Limit and the pair have been making music.
Fab says: “In the past two years we’ve been in the studio. We have an EP together and are about to release a single.”
But it is his family that puts a spring in Fab’s step.
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“When people see my family together, everybody says: ‘Wow! I feel the love!’ I’m very proud of that,” he says.
- Milli Vanilli the documentary is on Paramount+ UK from Wednesday.
