"I have to tell everything": the incredible scam of Milli Vanilli, the band that did not sing

History remains one of the biggest scandals in the music world.

In 1989, Milli Vanilli, a Franco-German r'n'b duo, experienced a meteoric rise with his hit “Girl you know it's true”… before collapsing just as quickly.

And for good reason.

Its two members never sang on the song.

International outcry for the XXL dreadlock tandem, the German Rob Pilatus, who died in 1998, and the French Fab Morvan, now 54 years old.

The latter has decided today to reopen this chapter to realize “his dream of musical rebirth”, ie to show that, despite the rumors, he can sing “with a soulful voice”.

"I'm ready, it took a while, but the turtle always finishes its race as La Fontaine told it", assures the dancer, met this Wednesday in Paris, after having lived 26 years in the United States.

“I'm going to participate in a film on this story, a documentary.

And I have an album to come in 2021 with international, American, African artists and a cover of our famous hit.

"

The story of the duo Milli Vanilli begins in Munich at the end of the 80s. “I started to earn some Deutsche Marks by dancing,” says Fab Morvan.

I copied Freddie Mercury, James Brown, Michael Jackson.

He then meets Rob Pilatus, a singer who has just tried his luck at Eurovision.

“He was breakdancing.

At the beginning, there was a competition between us, but we had in common the dream, the talent, the energy, the look and the youth, but also the lack of experience

(Editor's note: they were 23 and 22 years old respectively in 1988)

.

We signed a contract without a manager, written in German, and with a small financial advance.

"

Behind this stroke of genius hides the producer of Boney M, Franck Farian.

It is he who decides never to make them sing and to replace them with other performers.

"We were young and stupid"

It prevents.

The song explodes to the United States.

“I was in a Hollywood movie.

We were two unknown European guys.

We would arrive in New York and we would hear our song on the radio.

We were broadcast on a loop on MTV.

It was rockstar life.

The women were running after us.

We were young and stupid, we didn't think about the consequences.

But the backlash comes quickly.

“We fell into the trap of our producer Franck Farian.

He seduced us, exploited us.

We got into debt with the bills from our palaces.

We were in full swing, planes, limousines, room service… And then, we thought we could sing after this first single, but he refused.

"

How did they manage to fool everyone?

“At the beginning, nobody realized that we weren't singing.

In Europe, the broadcasts were all in playback.

We managed to do a tour of 107 cities in eight months in the same way with shows in front of 30,000 people.

We had to do two or three concerts live, because the playback system no longer worked.

But, for a while, we sold too many records.

When we won a Grammy Award, it went too far.

It was a bomb that was going to explode in our faces.

"

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Once the scandal revealed by its own producer, the duo decides to return their trophy, "not deserved".

“Robert was heartbroken by this story and left his life there

(Editor's note: he died of an overdose at the age of 32)

.

Today, Fab Morvan wants his revenge.

“I paid too much,” he concludes.

I have to tell it all.

"