Did Frank Farian cheat millions with Girl You Know It’s True? This is the true story behind one of the biggest scandals of the ’80s

A stolen Grammy, millions of angry fans, drug addiction and malicious ridicule: Girl You Know It’s True tells of one of the biggest music scandals of all time: Rob (Tijan Njie) and Fab (Elan Ben Ali). Milli Vanilli doesn’t really sing, instead, professional musicians record their songs beforehand. The music duo and their producer Frank Farian (Matthias Schweighöfer) are said to have defrauded millions. What is the true story behind the drama?

Milli Vanilli and Frank Farian: The True Story of a Global Pop Sensation

Milli Vanilli were one of the biggest music sensations in the world in 1989. Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan had it all with their unique look, their energetic performances and extremely catchy songs like Girl You Know It’s True or Baby Don’t Forget My Number Reached number 1 in many charts and sold millions of records (via The Guardian). They had fought hard for this success for years.

Check out the trailer for Girl You Know It’s True here:

Morvan grew up in Paris as the child of immigrants from Guadeloupe and as a young man in Munich met Pilatus, who had been adopted by a Bavarian family as the son of a black American soldier and a German dancer. Both were united by their love of music, which they subsequently shared As a breakdance duo and singer, it was more difficult than ever to stay afloat. Enter Frank Farian.

producer After the mega success of his group Boney M., Farian was considered a German musical genius and was looking for a duo who could perform his songs and give them a face in public. Farian signed Pilatus and Morvan as Milli Vanilli, who enjoyed a meteoric rise in a very short time.

What happened in the big Milli Vanilli scandal?

Milli Vanilli got an American record company, The duo even won a Grammy in 1990 as best new artist. Since a performance in the summer of 1989, when the audio playback repeated a part of Girl You Know It’s True in an endless loop, there have been rumors: Do Pilatus and Morvan not really sing? Do their voices and music even come from them?

The American version of the album All or Nothing attributed all the vocal parts to Pilatus and Morvan, thus starting the first stone of an avalanche. One of the three real singers, Charles Shaw, came forward angrily and revealed that the duo had no involvement in the singing or any other parts of the music.

The public ridiculed Milli Vanilli, Millions of fans went to court and their Grammy was taken away. Frank Farian fired the group and confirmed that Morvan and Pilatus had never written or sung their songs themselves.

The true story of Milli Vanilli came to a tragic end for Rob Pilatus

Several comeback attempts in the following years failed. Pilate descended into drug addiction and crime, for which he was ultimately sentenced to prison (via The Independent). Shortly before the release of the comeback album Back and In Attack, he died in a Frankfurt hotel room in 1997. The cause of death was suspected to be an overdose of alcohol and prescription medication.

Morvan worked as a studio musician and DJ until he finally released his first album as a solo artist in 2003. In the 2010s he performed as the duo Face Meets Video together with John Davis, who had worked as one of the real singers behind Milli Vanilli. Morvan continues to work as a musician and lives with his family in Amsterdam.

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