The Milli Vanilli fiasco

[David V]

Of course, I'm absolutely no fan of lightweight bubblegum dance-pop. However, even so, those of us who are keen on the history of the music industry, those of us of a certain age, will be well aware of Milli Vanilli. And to everyone, Milli Vanilli is synonymous with fakery- and people still remember seeing records being steamrollered! However, those of us in the know about the music industry will be well aware of the facts behind the entire scandal.

Firstly, this shady practice of having people front a group while uncredited singers actually perform in the studios, not to mention the lip-syncing, was certainly nothing new in the industry- even from more respectable artists.

Secondly, Milli Vanilli weren't the only ones guilty of this- it was pretty well-known that Martha Wash was the real singing force behind Black Box (Katrin Quinol appearing on the cover and lip-syncing in clips), and sang on a couple of C+C Music Factory songs. The latter one, however, is not clear cut- Wash sang on "Gonna Make You Sweat" whilst Zelma Davis lip-synced in the clips. However, Davis did sing on the rest of that album and was regarded as being competent at that- and the two did share vocals in "Do You Wanna Get Funky".

There was also Frank Farian's previous high-profile project Boney M, controversy rang loud for a long time as to who sang what. It's generally acknowledged that members of the group sang in the studios but were left off the final mixes (a not uncommon practice with "producer music" in Europe)- however, the members of the group did actually sing live in concert.

The idea was, of course, that Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan would lip-sync and be the "front men" of Milli Vanilli while the real singers were anonymous studio singers. But what made Milli Vanilli different from all the above?

The fact that they were enormously successful worldwide with a high degree of visibility. They were well aware of what was going on, and the pressure of going along with it got to them- especially to Pilatus, who endured a particularly troubled upbringing. Well, the real factor behind the downfall of Milli Vanilli was their vastly inflated egos, the arrogance they displayed in the public eye. Pilatus compared himself and Milli Vanilli favourably to Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, et al and was roundly ridiculed for these statements. In the year leading up to the exposure, there was intense speculation regarding the source of talent for the group which only intensified after the Grammy win- and the two guys were not happy with all of it, and actually pressured Farian to let them actually sing.

What made it different from the other groups mentioned was the fact that Milli Vanilli was a complex, well-oiled machine with Morvan and Pilatus as the very public face, and Farian pulling all the strings behind this machine. It was a very elaborate deception which worked a treat on the public at the time.

If anything, the shock wasn't only that they didn't actually sing on those records. When they sang at the press conference after the scandal broke out, in front of a baying for blood media, a voice coach made the point they were perfectly able to do the job they didn't do. That's only partially true- Pilatus couldn't sing to save himself, Morvan has proven in the years since that he can. When they brought out their own record on which they did sing, nobody wanted to know.

It wasn't until later in the 90s when VH1's "Behind the Music" did a special on Milli Vanilli, that they were able to tell the full story themselves, arguing they were deceived into the whole thing and were never comfortable with it. After years of rightfully-earned scorn and ridicule, there was actually a certain amount of sympathy for them following this. Pilatus died of an overdose in 1998, being unable to overcome the demons which he had fought against throughout his life.

The years since have been much kinder to Fabrice Morvan, who has even carved out a career as a solo artist in recent years.

It begs the question whether such practices have ended, or at least subsided, in the music industry in the years since. A lot of us would doubt it though.

[stenbeck212]

I find that even performers known for authentic performances sometimes enhance their shows with lip-syncing, as a way of maintaining the stylized sound of a recording or keeping vocals clear during dance routines. I wouldn't know who fakes it all the way through, though. Funny, I liked the voice of the Milli Vanilli singer, and I thought he should have gotten a shot at recording under his real identity, image be damned. He helped to create fun songs that would never popular based on looks alone.