Milli Vanilli – Girl you know it’s true
“Girl you know it’s true” tells probably the saddest page in the history of the 80s. The story begins with a producer, Frank Farian, who knew what success looked like. In fact he was the producer, in 1976, of the great Boney M! And he often sang the male tracks in Boney M’s records, but the frontman was, as we know, the unforgettable Bobby Farrell.
After ten years, he tries again and put together a group with some singer, not everybody knowing each other. They do not fully convince him, voices are good, but he needs a different look. Ine night, in a disco club in Germany, he meets two dancers, a french and a german guy. And he persuades them to be the image of the group. Actually, he convinces them to “be” the group Milli Vanilli. Everything goes great at the beginning. They release the album “All or nothing” in November 1988 and they also win Grammies and prizes!
But you can’t cheat with fate. In July 1989, they are performing at an MTV Concert, and something goes wrong. I mean, many people already raised doubts. In fact, Fab morvan and Rob Pilatus did not speak a good English and had some problems during the interviews, but they had a good accent while singing. That night, the musci starts skipping over and over… and so do the words. On the stage they pretend nothing has happened for some time, and keep on dancing. Actually, many people did not realize anything, it was dance music and some effects were tolerated. And by the way, it could look like an effect, it was really keeping the beat of the song!
After a while, the music kept repeating the same line, and the two guys in panic run off the stage. Their tragedy begins in that very moment.
Since that moment, they had to faces years of legal and class actions. Lawyers targeted the two guys more than the label and the producers. The guys commented that actually when they signed the contract they were in good faith and received an advance payment. When they knew about the lip-sync, they wanted to sign off the contract, but had no money to give the advance back to Farian, and they felt like trapped. They gave back all the prizes, even if it seems that many are still in Farian’s possession.
So, after a shy attempt to launch “The Real Milli Vanilli” with the guys and also real singers, Rob&Fab decided to try their fate alone, with this name. But they were no real good singers, and they had the original spot on them, so they did not find success. Rob fell into the nightmare of addiction. Policemen arrested him few times for robberies and vandalism. At least this time farian bailed him out of jail and paid his rehab and his return to Germany.
But in 1988 he died from apparent overdose in an hotel in Frankfurt.
Definitely an ugly sad story, a kind of black spot on the 80s. Or maybe, an evidence that the 80s were terminating.
#quotefromthe80s
Together we're one, separated we're two
To make you all mine, all mine is my desire
Cause you contain a quality that I admire
You're pretty and simple, you rule my world
#MilliVanilli #GirlYouKnowItsTrue
Milli Vanilli on Wikipedia
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