The TRAGIC World of Milli Vanilli | Deep Dive

hello everyone and welcome to a very special edition of chaotic web as today I'm kicking off my new series about a huge hoax that took the music industry by storms from the late 70s and had a tragic end right at the turn of the century now the story I'm getting into today is that a famed French and German Duo from Munich Germany Millie Vanilli now you probably either know them for two things their hit songs girl you know it's true and Blame It On The Rain or unfortunately their Demise live on MTV [Music] yeah Robin Fab of Millie Vanilli were promised millions in Fame all while they had to keep up a secret they didn't even know they were signing on to keep that would one day unfortunately be the Achilles heel of their career now before we get into today's video here at Deep dive we are constantly crawling the internet for our next story but the reality is the Internet isn't always the safest place anyone can find anything on the internet including your full name address phone number and even relatives my passwords and other sensitive information have been linked before in various data breaches and y'all it is scary this information is available because of data brokers who sell your information to telemarketers spammers and really anyone who wants to buy it for whatever nefarious reason that's why I'm so excited for today's sponsor Aura Ora will identify those data brokers who are selling your information and sends the opt out request for you they'll even opt you out of junk mail and telemarketing lists which is amazing but Aura does even more they monitor your emails and passwords to detect if you are a part of a data breach or if your information has been exposed to the dark web or as app also features a VPN password manager real-time credit and identity theft monitoring parental controls and protect your device from malware in times where our whole lives have been virtually moved online Aura really has almost every Internet safety tool you'll ever need all in one app so that where I do the hard work of keeping you safe online and if you sign up right now Aura will give you a free two-week trial with my link you'll be shocked at how much of your private information or a fines exposed over those two weeks so click the link in the description box or go to aura.com Deep dive to start your free trial and scan our QR code thank you so much to Aura for sponsoring today's video now let's get back to the phenomenal rise and tragic fall of Millie Vanilli foreign now let's get this clear Millie Vanilli were industry plans from the ground up it all started when the DJ crew numarks were working on their follow-up to their 1987 hit Rhymes so deaf working with local musician Bill Pettaway they would work on a track that would end up being titled girl you know it's true the song majorly resembled the DNA of Rhymes so deaf but didn't get the same amount of AirPlay in the United States it really only hit off in Germany now Bill Pettaway was a starving artist who worked at the local gas station to make ends meet but the same couldn't be said for Millie Vanilli founder Frank faryon he had the most Cutting Edge Equipment for the era and nothing but time to make a souped-up version of the song he had heard in his home country of Germany Girl You Know It's True by the time he finished copying the song it was a huge booming Masterpiece and it just needed vocals he would start with the Rocco twins vocals a set of American twin sisters who were already accomplished in the music scene Frank had the twins listened to the song by numer Forex first so they would know exactly what to sing so how did we get to the end version of girl you know it's true that we know today well Frank would bring in Charles Shaw to perform the rap verse and Brad Harrell to sing the main chorus that's right so Millie Vanilli are not even singing on this song as Frank faryon was producing the rest of the song he knew he had a worldwide Smash Hit but as he looked at Hussein on the song he didn't feel as though the people who actually sang the song had the right image or look thus Frank faryon would make a choice that would explode the song but also ruin the people's lives attached to it he would enlist the help of a modeling and talent agency to search for actors to front the project now what about the original singers the Rocco twins Charles Shaw and Brad Harrell Frank Therian the masterminds behind Millie Vanilli kept them completely in the dark while he was on his search Brad Harrow was in his mid-40s when he recorded girl you know it's true and he had already had his Big Break as a session singer and touring musician Brad had no objections to a different person fronting his project so girl he's literally Maya Marie he doesn't care however the same couldn't be said for Charles Shaw he was only 28 and was attempting to break into the music industry in any way he could now remember this because I'm gonna be coming back to it it's very important now in 1988 a faded meeting would occur between a French musician and model named Fab Morgan and a German singer and model named Rob politis according to an article from the 1989 Los Angeles Times politis was anxious to do something in show business but had no real Focus experimenting he did some work as a DJ dabbled in modeling but worked hard enough at break dancing to become a champion he earned an invitation to an international break dancing competition in New York in 1984. during a side trip to Los Angeles he met morvin who is here for a dance seminar at a disco politis said something clicked between us his men are now enthusiastic as he began tracing the offense that led to his current success he explains that they not only connected on a friend's level but on an identity level as well saying they both grew up in foreign cities Fab who was born in the Caribbean islands of Guadalupe and raised in Paris is The Quiet One of the pair apparently though it's not because he's shy reportedly Fab shies away from interviews because his English is limited now remember that's noted in this article at the time so even at their success people knew that he didn't speak full English but he was also singing in full English so I don't really know how that worked now this would prove to be one of the main giveaways of Frank varian's Millie Vanilli scheme see the song girl you know it's true was saying by American singers and Fab Morven wasn't fluent in English the duo would start by recording an album with a small label in Germany under the name Empire Bazaar in 1987 but would only sell a few thousand copies while they were waiting on their big pop star breakthrough they began working as catalog models to make ends meet their pop ambition was still going strong as Rob would secure a spot as a guitarist for Eurovision that same year Robin Fab would make friends with musicians in the area who were always doing Studio sessions with Frank faryon and it wouldn't take long for all the musicians to get in the studio and start playing together they had so much fun together that they got a band together just to perform at the Bavarian Carnival it's believed that this is where Frank faryon first saw Robin Fab perform and he was mesmerized by their high energy Frank knew they had Star Quality and he hatched a plan for Robin Fab to front his new project Frank called Robin Fab over to his Studio where he would make them the proposition of a lifetime with state-of-the-art equipment staring them dead in the face in Platinum Records lining the walls Rob and Fab finally felt like they were where they belonged Frank Varian played them the final version of girl you know it's true with all those Studios session singers and Robin Fab assumes that that was the demo for the final version they would be recording however with no legal counsel and photos of Stevie Wonder recording I just called to say I love you one year prior in the very Studio they were sitting in hanging up on the walls Robin Fab quickly accepted Frank faryon's three album deal and four thousand dollar advance with little to no questions Frank faryon had officially sealed Robin Fab's fate with the production deal on the spot which was a less than desirable deal see Frank wrote A lot of the songs and also produced and owned the Masters in publishing Robin Fab would be given a percentage of the earnings once the music was released this was a small price to pay for what Robin Fab truly wanted more than anything Fame expecting to be recording their new album soon Robin Fab immediately took all of the four thousand dollars and brought hair extensions and new wardrobes when Frank called them back to the studio Robin Fab were under the impression it was to record their new single they had heard the demo of Prior however when they got to the studio Frank informs them that they would not be recording anything and that the vocals were already recorded all that Rob and Fab would need to do would be the promotional work for the song that the studio session singers had already sang it wasn't even their song Robin Fab would immediately Decline and said they wanted no part of this charade as they were real musicians but Frank would quip back saying they had already committed to doing this and they were contracted for three albums but if they wanted to get out of their contract all they would need to do is pay back their 4 000 advance but unfortunately for Robin Fab they had already spent it with no one advising them they were all alone and scared of Frank faryon they didn't have enough money to pay Frank back thus they agreed to promote the project until they paid back their Advance now this contract doesn't seem team up front at all sadly if they had actually had proper legal counsel they probably would have never had to deal with this farce but nonetheless on November 24th 1988 Hamza a German subsidy of BMG would release girl you know it's true by Robin Fab now going by the group name Millie Vanilli the song soared to the top of the German charts and was an absolute Smash Hit in Germany now up until this point the original singers of the song Charles Brad and the Rocco twins had been completely left in the dark about Robin Fab being the faces of the project and with Robin Fab being worldwide celebrities Frank counting his coins and Brad already being an established musician the only person upset and taken by complete surprise was Charles Shaw the last thing he expected from that six thousand dollar recording session was a smash hit record all of the singers didn't even know that this song was going to be used as is and just started hearing it booming from their radios with no real warning Charles being the upset one of the group immediately threatened to go public with the story but Frank wrote him off and hired a new artist to record Millie vanilli's raps for the rest of the album named John Davis so if you got that that means girl you know it's true has actually a different rapper than all the other songs on that album which I guess like y'all Brittany Jean we still don't even know who's singing on each of those tracks so I guess I'm not one to talk I guess people just don't know but that just seems like something people would catch Charles would quietly back off for the time being Aunt Frank would attempt to patent down the hatches making certain the original singers never met Robin Fab and reminded them all of their contracts included non-disclosure agreements now where were Robin Fab during all of this well with the success of girl you know it's true their careers were skyrocketing but Frank was fronting them their living expenses to be paid back so they weren't getting any closer to paying off their ever evolving advances this was the cycle that would keep Frank profiting in Robin Fab working their asses off they needed basic living expenses but that forced them to promote a farce they never wanted to Pardon in the first place so why did they go along with this they were selling out Arenas every night and they could have paid back their Advance at this point maybe but this was also their dream it hadn't even been a year yet since that fateful meeting with Frank Varian and they were on a rocket ship going higher and higher getting out of the deal was becoming less of a priority they were now touring the world lip-syncing to other people's voices and putting on a show now Robin Fab begged that Frank let them use some of their own vocals on their next album but Frank refused they would continually go along with the charade and caught the attention of another birdleman's group subsidiary this time a label who wanted to sign Millie Vanilli directly and rework their first European project titled All or Nothing it's the American Smash Hit album girl you know it's drill now nearly 10 vocalists are credited on the album All or Nothing none of which are Rob or Fab only their photos appear on the cover but this new label rework would go as far as to credit Robin Fab as the vocalists of the album and then just go on and release the record this is when girl you know it's true would reach number two in the United States and baby don't forget my number would hit number one on Billboard this was Major for Millie Vanilli as they were now worldwide Sensations one day while touring at a theme park in Connecticut MTV was doing a live series special with Millie Vanilli however when they opened up with girl you know it's true the hard drive would get stuck and repeat the lines girl you know it's girl you know it's girl you know it's I wanted to die stop girl you know it's girl you know it's good 80 000 people go you know it's girl you know I couldn't repeat it 15 times girl you you got obvious so I stopped a panic a ran off stage truly Brown who used to work with MTV ran after me I didn't want to go back to Stage I had enough 80 000 people waiting I said I have in the I quit [Music] robber called I knew right then and there it was the beginning of the end for Millie Vanilli when my voice got stuck in the computer and it just kept repeating and repeating I panicked I didn't know what to do I just ran off the stage now the audience didn't seem to particularly notice at home or in person but journalists most certainly did see Robin Fab had already had suspicions swirling around about them backstage in the industry as they had thick European accents but sang in a perfect American accent not to mention the LA Times reported that Fab declined to interview due to his lack of English Downtown Julie Brown a host on MTV actually ran after Rob and convinced him to finish the rest of the show in Connecticut she had to yell and curse them out but they got back up there and things went off without a hitch weeks and weeks would go by with no coverage of the incident they would set out on tour and even released their fourth single Blame It On The Rain and that would go number one as well so they're on a rocket ship of success all while their empire is crumbling locally and no one's really seeing Because the Internet doesn't exist yet now Charles Shaw the rapper on Millie Finley's hit single would run to New York Newsweek and openly expose Millie Vanilli but Frank faryon would reportedly pay Charles over a hundred fifty thousand dollars for a retraction and his continued silence which I don't really know I guess our attraction is like I guess they said they lied or whatever they like are taking it back but does that really do anything comment below if you think your attraction really does anything at all now like I said because the internet was still obviously not around the news did not spread and Frank Therian had successfully damaged controlled his way out of the Millie Vanilli lie being exposed but the lie was only getting more convoluted and complex as time went on see the situation would completely escalate when Millie Vanilli would win a Grammy award from the recording Academy for Best New Artist A Duo Frank farian put as a front for the actual Millie Vanilli won a Grammy just to put that into perspective I think they had as many Grammys as Britney Spears has so that's like a pretty big deal this put Millie Vanilli and specifically Rob on a complete Life High when being interviewed by Time Magazine Rob would say musically we are more talented than Paul McCartney Mick Jagger his lines are not clear he don't know how he should produce a sound I'm the new modern rock and roll I'm the new Elvis Fab would later say that this was a misquote but still like yikes it seems as though the entire image and sound had gotten to Rob now this caused for a string of bad press about the group and Millie Vanilli was quickly Fading Into the background but not without various late night shows getting their digs in about the two vocalists things were really really bad and all of their friends seemingly jumped ship here we go the category tonight top 10 top 10 new jobs for Millie Vanilli ant fires Millie Vanilli uh number nine Camp counselors in Father Flanagan's Pretty Boys Town number eight Jamaican pickpockets an American Express commercial number seven I'd like to sell Ben and Jerry's on idea for Millie vanilla number five professional objects of scorn and ridicule for years to come number fact Checkers at 2020 in the buckwheat division number three uh even newer Kids on the Block number two extremely groovy fry cooks and the number one new job for Milli Vanilli who cares just as long as we don't hear from them ever but this backlash was nothing compared to what Frank Therian was about to do and the trigger that he was about to pull with increasing questions as to who actually sings their songs and with the growing public pressure along with the facts that Robin Fab were insisting on singing the next album themselves Frank faryon decided to throw them to the wolves and fire them according to a press release from The Washington Post farian said he was forced to go public when the two men who do an energetic but sloppy lip sync performance in concert informed him earlier this month they wanted to sing on their sequel album I said no I don't go for that sure they have a voice but that's not really what I want to use on my records though he refused to say who had actually done the singing Therian said the album's title song was already recorded when the dynamic duo first showed up at his Studio Varian said the album's title song was already recorded when the dynamic Duo first showed up at his Studio Frank sang it suddenly clicked in my mind and it was kind of evident I had the music they were the people who wanted to perform outside and I said hey let's put that together and make a great record out of it Millie Vanilli was being exposed as a farce this news hit fast this time Millie vanilli's American label wanted nothing to do with them and according to BMG employees they immediately took down their Platinum plaques the day the news broke they were dead to the group of people that had built them up for nearly two years at that point and the American public would have a field day Robin Fab scrambled to put together a press conference that was high-spirited at best and sloppy at worst the main point of contention that Robin Fab seemed to perceive was that they were unable to sing when it seems that the American public were actually just more upset about being so publicly deceived which is nothing today I mean everyone lip syncs but I will say like this was a big like this is not someone singing with their own voice their lip-syncing to their own voice this is an entirely different artist backing a different image now Robin Fab would sing their hearts out in a studio as soon as the news broke trying to convince everyone at the press conference with a video of them singing [Music] later on when they were to receive the Grammy again we had been working on their voices and they were improving steadily and they already started off quite well they wanted to sing that Night Live Again they were told no you're not to sing tonight the reason I know is that I was standing there but I do know that these men are able to do what was required of them to make that record they were told not to and that's it they would even sing at the press conference itself but to know a veil their voices were good but not the same as what they had been portraying for an entire album cycle at this point at this press conference they offered up their Grammys in a tongue-in-cheek way [Applause] [Music] [Applause] back now to the record Academy and we recommend our buddies who did the real voices who got seduced Like Us in Germany group uh Brad Howell and some names are the real singers and I think they should get they should grab the script but the academy took this very seriously and Millie Vanilli became the first artist in history to have their Grammy rescinded this press run would be one of the biggest scandals in modern music history newspapers printed with the faces of Robin Fab saying we sold our souls to the devil would be distributed throughout the United States Robin Fab would claim that Frank faryon refused to allow them to sing on their own songs but Frank faryon holds that he did nothing wrong by The Duo and that the studio singers and Millie Vanilli all made Millions according to Frank the only person wanting more was Rob now remember we are in the 90s and numerous lawsuits would develop over the situation and not the kind that I was expecting see previous fans of mintly Vanilli were suing their American label and distributor for a multitude of reasons all all stemming from the deception of Millie Vanilli however instead of addressing the nearly 30 lawsuits that resulted because of this the record label offered a public settlement ranging anywhere from one dollar to Three Dollar total special announcement did you produce a received by gift before November 27 1990 I'm Millie Vanilli recording a ticket to a concert at which malignantly performed or Millie vanilla merchandise if so listen carefully to this important message about offending Milli Vanilli lawsuit that may affect your rights if you fall into any of these three categories you are a member of a proposed class in an action in the Circuit Court of Cook County Chicago Illinois a tentative settlement has been reaching this action which is subject to court approval which may entitle you to a cash rebate and 10 million people were eligible but only 100 000 applied Robin Fab's bank accounts were being drained by legal fees and any fortune that they had was quickly leaving them with all the new swirling around Millie Vanilli Frank faryon's interests were peaked once again however this time not for Robin Fab but for the original singers of Milli Vanilli he would release a project under the title the real Millie Vanilli Moment of Truth which prominently featured a picture of the new group which had two of the original faces from the first album Brad Howell and John Davis but also featured a bunch of new people including the new lead singer Ray Horton who also apparently didn't provide any vocals to the new album either so Frank farian basically thought the public would just accept this new group again and it really reminds me of Jenny and submit from 90 Day Fiance like how he catfished her and then actually continued being with her after he revealed himself well the same couldn't be said for Milli Vanilli this was not the real Millie Vanilli in the slightest the real Millie Vanilli was made up of the cast of the recording of girl you know it's true now what about Robin Fab in the wake of the lip syncing scandal in 1992 they moved to LA got new management and got signed by a record label called Taj records they would work on an album called Robin Fab and would even promote their lead single we can get it on on The Arsenio Hall Show even though the single wasn't received as well as the work they put out as Millie vanelli they did satisfy their fanbase and would most likely have sold more than just 2 000 copies had their record label not been going bankrupt and the album was only being distributed in the United States where in 1993 they were still considered a laughing stock over the next few years Robin Fab would slowly stop speaking to each other as after all the hype died down and the touring stopped Fab was still able to put down the substances they had gotten into over the course of their rise but Rob wasn't so lucky after two years of drifting Taj records would eventually shut its doors for good and Robin Fab would grow estranged ever since it was revealed that pop singers Millie Vanilli did not really sing on some of their recordings things have been going south fast for the duo first they lost their Grammy and now something much worse has happened Nancy Glass is here with her story Nancy Bill Millie Vanilli didn't just give up their Grammy and slink off into the sunset for the past year they have told people they were working with Voice coach and planning a comeback they said they would prove that they really can sing well maybe that was all for show because over the weekend one member attempted suicide recently it seemed that Millie Vanilli weren't losing sleep over their lip-syncing Scandal they even parodied themselves in this commercial for carefree gum how long until these days but over the weekend one half of the duo 27 year old Rob palata seemed to be in anything but a light-hearted mood it was at this hotel in Los Angeles early Saturday morning the police found him ready to take his life he was hanging on by his hands on this Railway here I yelled up to him when I told him no he didn't want to do this at 4 55 A.M words receptionist Jerry Wing answered the phone I could tell by his voice he this man was in there was no shape at all and I went to question him and he said oh please he said just put me through this is an emergency so an editor from the paper contacted local deputies who quickly arrived on the scene and found him on the balcony of room 910 of the lamondrian hotel on Sunset Boulevard drugged bleeding and threatening to jump 120 feet to his death we then formulated a plan where we could gain entry into room 909 next door and once we were set in position in room 909 our station desk telephone Ms Plato's room and as was Pilates left the balcony to answer the telephone we then walked across the balcony into the room and detained him Pilates was taken to Cedar Sinai Medical Center and placed under 24-hour observation the most problems after he was labeled as a fraud and stripped of his Grammy Award a month after the Scandal was revealed he was arrested and investigated for sexual battery what what you were charged with sexual battery really but he was never charged and he and his Milli Vanilli partner Fab Moore Van were trying to start over but perhaps the pressures of being deserted by the music industry and his fans were just too much to bear [Music] Rob Pilatus told the LA Times that he was constantly approached by former fans who were angry that they had been duped and even tougher for him was that his family back in Germany was getting harassed as well however just four years later in 1997 VH1 would rip the group out of obscurity for the premier episode of VH1's Behind the Music this caused a major Resurgence for the group and Frank faryon did The Impossible he offered to produce one last album for the duo to hopefully help them recover some of the fame they'd left back in 1991 however this time it would be their own voices this was all Robin Fab ever wanted and this was the first time Robin Fab would hit the studio with Frank to record their new single back and in attack however during the album's recording Rob had still not recovered from 1991 while Fab was figuring his life out for the past four years Rob's excuse had been spiraling out of control and he committed multiple crimes while they were trying to record the album he was sentenced to six months in Rehabilitation and three months in jail this however didn't stop the duo from finishing the album with Frank though it's largely thought that Fab did a majority of the vocals on the project since Rob just wasn't even around finally the dream they'd had nearly a decade earlier a Frank Therian producing their voices was coming true the only thing left to do was to promote the new project the album was entirely done and ready for the world to hear however on the night before the album's promotional tour in a hotel room in Frankfurt Germany Rob palatis was found dead having suspectedly overdosed The Comeback album would never be released and remains unheard to this day though was never able to get past the insults and humiliation he retreated into another world of Narcotics and violence and in 1996 was arrested for assault it looked like he was going to jail when help arrived from the most unlikely places Frank farion fighting Germany to send somebody to bail me out after three hours that took a lot of fun and uh I want the people to know that you know that was a great thing that Frank Ferry did for me I don't think that I would have survived another month with no money no help no therapy no treatment I could have died right there somebody could have shot me I would have shot me with the help of Frank farian Rob completed his 11th trip through drug rehab and he was optimistic when he left for Germany in November of 1997 to make music with Frank again but one month later Rob sounded beat and tired of living under the Dark Cloud of Milli Vanilli then I have no choice and I have to leave this life if I cannot use this last chance then there's no reason to realize on April 3rd 1998 Rob's body was found in his hotel room near Frankfurt Germany by Frank farian and his partner Ingrid sagith but those who knew Rob best say that he really died on that day back in 1990 when the truth came out and he took a fatal fall from the heights of super stardom I have not felt sad that Rob died I felt almost happy that he's not suffering yes Rob messed up he was a mess up sometimes you know he didn't always do the right thing but I didn't think anyone told him you messed up there but it's okay I think they just told him what it what a screwed up he was Robin Fabrice never had the chance to heal their friendship but Febreze says he knows that Rob will never really be that far away we came from the same place we grew up together you know who survived together so we were like like brothers I will always have that bond with him because he's a big part of my life he was very confident [Music] Fab would go on to start a solo career in music releasing an album and even teased A Milli Vanilli reunion with one of the original singers from the group in 2015 but that would never come to fruition the story of Millie Vanilli is a heartbreaking one two men promised Fame riches and a career were turned into farces in front of the entire world and I guess it just goes to show in the wise words of Nicole Schwarzinger be careful what you wish for because you just might get it [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Deep Dive

Views: 222,000

Keywords: Milli Vanilli Documentary, Deep Dive Milli Vanilli, Deep Dive, The real voice behind milli vanilli, Why the voices behind Milli Vanilli kept quiet, Milli Vanilli worlds largest hoax, Milli Vanilli Musics Largest Hoax, The real story behind Milli Vanilli, What happened to Rob Pilatus, The tragic story of Rob Pilatus, untold story of Milli Vanilli, Milli Vanilli rare footage, Milli Vanilli lip sync, Largest lip syncing scandal, music industry largest scam, Milli Vanilli music

Id: 6lFAPWNa2VY

Length: 32min 19sec (1939 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023