Photo: Getty Images
One half of R&B duo Milli Vanilli, Fabrice Morvan, is speaking out three decades after their infamous lip-sync scandal. In Paramount+'s newly released documentary Milli Vanilli, Morvan is opening up the world finding out that he and fellow member, the late Rob Pilatus, were not singing on their hit records.
"People always thought they knew the story but my story has never been told," the 57-year-old told People this week. After Morvan and Pilatus signed a record deal with label executive Frank Farian in 1987, Milli Vanilli was born. However, the two signed without reading the deal and later found out that Farian didn't want them to sing and instead had them lip-sync to songs recorded by American vocalists Charles Shaw, John Davis, and Brad Howell.
“Every time we came to the studio we tried to look for people. There was nobody there,” Morvan said. “They made sure that we never came in contact.” The duo often worried about what ended up happening. "It was always just like this weight," he said. "That was nerve-wracking.”
Despite the unfortunate situation, Milli Vanilli managed to score three No. 1 hits on their 1989 debut album All or Nothing. They even won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, which was later revoked when Farian exposed the duo in 1990. "I knew it would change everything," Morvan recalled. "We went from being these loved characters to being laughed at and ridiculed. We were the butt of all the jokes and easy targets. Rob took it really personally.”
You can hear more about Morvan and Pilatus' story in Milli Vanilli streaming now on Paramount+.