30 years ago, MilliVanilli won Best New Artist at the GRAMMYs. They later found themselves in the middle of the biggest lip syncing scandal in pop history. We spoke to the responsible execs, managers & more for an oral history of the duo's rise & fall
, credited to The Real Milli Vanilli, was released in 1991 outside the U.S. to critical and commercial shrugs -- with vocals from Davis, Howell, the sister duo who sang back-up on the original album , Ray Horton and Gina Mohammed.
” I looked at my sister and I said, “I’m going to kill you!” I hated that kind of traditional oom-pah. We did it, and I thought it sounded different. We did it in three- or four-part harmonies, and Frank sang as well on the “girl you know it’s true” part. It was maybe 20 minutes... and I never heard from Frank again. : He had everybody sing “girl you know it’s true,” then he mixed it up the way he wanted to.
We really stood out and were crazy and talented, but we didn’t think it made a lot of sense to have our songs on the album, since they had nothing to do with “Girl You Know It’s True” and that rap style. We were good musicians and it all had to be fast and funky, and Milli Vanilli was more in the pop-rap [vein].: When we got in the studio it was just me and my sister. The only other singer I brought in — Frank wanted me to choose a black singer — I chose.
I remember there were some words Fab couldn’t pronounce. He had a pretty thick French/Guadalupan accent, so on “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” he couldn’t say “miss,” and he said “.” It was kind of a disaster because they didn’t have the backing tracks to sing to. But at that point their egos were so big, because they were such big stars, that they were like, “We can sing, no problem.” They became believers in their own false story.
In Bristol it happened on the key chorus vocal. It crescendos, and they bump chests, and the show was getting going… and the crowd was singing along and you’re sitting there and going, “That doesn’t sound right… there’s no techno break here.” It was stuck, “” And I didn’t know what was going to happen, if it was going to skip to the end of the song or what. I told the crowd we had technical difficulties, and then the show continued and everything went well.
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