The Milli Vanilli Scandal 30 Years Later
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98 ● CONTENDERS ● VARIETY VOTERS’ GUIDE: GRAMMYS FINAL PHASE 12.16.2020 Blame It on the Game: The Milli Vanilli Scandal 30 Years Later In 1990, the pair returned their new artist Grammy; should they get it back now? ● By Roy Trakin he 32nd Grammy Awards feature biopic — directed by Brett Ratner in “Blame It on the Rain,” “Baby Don’t after it broke out in Europe — had any took place Feb. 21, 1990, Rob Pilatus and with a screenplay by “Rush Hour” col- Forget My Number’ and “Girl I’m Gonna clue the album credits, listing Pilatus and at L.A.’s fabled Shrine Fab Morvan at laborator Jef Nathanson — and negoti- Miss You.” Farian pulled the plug and Morvan as vocalists, were false. Each Auditorium, where Milli the 1990 Grammy ations underway for a documentary and blew up his own creation, in turn punish- time they confronted Farian about it, Lott Vanilli’s Rob Pilatus Awards a TV series. ing Pilatus and Morvan for the sheer gall insists the producer denied the charges, and Fab Morvan sat in Nine months after their Grammy win, of wanting to sing on their next album. though he did admit there were backup Tthe front row, nervously waiting for on Nov. 20, 1990, Pilatus and Morvan were “I hope this revocation will make the vocalists on the album. Kris Kristofferson and Young MC to holding a hastily called press conference industry think long and hard before “By the time we learned the truth, it announce the winner of that year’s new at Ocean Way studios in Hollywood to anyone ever tries to pull something like wasn’t actually a shock,” admitted Lott. artist award. The group included folk ofcially turn over their Grammy award, this again,” said Greene, who had happily Ken Levy, former head of creative ser- duo Indigo Girls, alternative fave Neneh a day after then-Recording Academy posed for pictures with the winning duo vices for Arista, says the label had its sus- Cherry, British house music pioneers head Michael Greene had already at the Grammy ceremony. picions the duo hadn’t actually sung on Soul II Soul and MC’s Delicious Vinyl officially revoked them on behalf of Actually, Pilatus and Morvan had the album by the time of their Grammy labelmate Tone Loc. the organization. already decided to return the Grammy nomination, a characterization denied “And the best new artist Grammy goes Just a week earlier, the duo’s German on their own, revealing as much the pre- by Lott, who insisted neither he nor to ... Milli Vanilli!” producer and mastermind Frank Farian vious weekend in an interview with the Davis were aware for sure until Farian’s “Rob and I hugged each other and cel- had disclosed to Reuters what had been L.A. Times’ Chuck Philips, suggesting revelation. ebrated,” recalls Morvan, then 23 years a poorly kept secret within the tight-knit the statue be given to John Davis, Brad A recent Billboard article claimed old. “It may have looked like joy and hap- recording industry. The German-born Howell and Charles Shaw, the album’s Davis was adamantly opposed to submit- piness. But inside it was pure confusion. Pilatus and Paris native Morvan hadn’t actual singers. ting the duo for a new artist nomination We knew this would come back to bite sung a note on the worldwide 14 mil- Former Arista exec Roy Lott insists to for that very reason, but the pair were us in the butt.” lion-selling, chart-topping “Girl You this day no one at the label — including submitted by Gallin-Morey management. Thirty years later, the fascination with Know It’s True” album, which generated Clive Davis, who received the rights to “We all knew by the time of the awards Milli Vanilli continues strong, with a five Top 5 singles and three No. 1 pop hits release the original in the U.S. from BMG they hadn’t sung on the album, so it was Pizac/AP C. Douglas 100 ● CONTENDERSFOCUS ● VARIETY VOTERS’ GUIDE: GRAMMYS FINAL PHASE XX.XX.202012.16.2020 a little awkward and uncomfortable for The role Pilatus and Morvan had in us when they did win,” Levy says. the success of Milli Vanilli from a mar- Pilatus and Morvan arrived in the keting and promotional standpoint has U.S. for the first time just as their debut been both overblown and downplayed album was released in March 1989. By over time. Few people realize how fer- the summer, Milli Vanilli was booked on vently they sold those records in an era the inaugural Club MTV Tour with Paula when MTV ruled the record charts, UnAbdul, t qui Was delit (Not aut Was),ullic to Information odi t aliati embarkingAm dicid shortly moluptat after faccatio.the Grammys Ga. omniSociety nit and at Tone la consequo Loc. 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