In a scene not exactly short on scandal, the rise and fall of ’80s pop duo Milli Vanilli stands as one of the most famous ever to rock (pun intended) the music industry. Now a new documentary aims to shed some light on exactly what happened.
When is Milli Vanilli being released in Australia?
Milli Vanilli debuts in Australia on October 25 exclusively on Paramount+
Milli Vanilli
What is Milli Vanilli about?
At the tail end of the excessive ’80s, Belgian-French act Milli Vanilli—aka Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan—were riding high on a wave of unparalleled success off the back of their debut album Girl You Know It’s True, which racked up over eight million sales, three number one hit singles, a slew of American Music Association Awards, and a Best New Artist Grammy. For the first and only time in history, however, that Grammy was forcibly rescinded after news broke that the striking pair never actually sang on their album. Shame and ignominy followed, ultimately leading to Morvan largely retiring from public life, while Pilatus tragically died of a drug overdose at the age of 32 a mere eight years later.
The name Milli Vanilli has become industry shorthand for artistic deception, but a new feature documentary aims to correct that perception. Directed by Luke Korem, Milli Vanilli the film pulls back the curtains to reveal the (obvious in retrospect, tbh) truth that while the pair were the public face of the band, they were not the masterminds of the scam, pointing the finger at producer and svengali Frank Farian, who had pulled a similar (and much less talked about) trick with ’70s sensations Boney M.
Featuring new interviews with Morvan and an archival interview with Pilatus recorded just 45 days before his passing, Milli Vanilla promises to be a fascinating look at one of the biggest brouhahas in music history.
The cast of Milli Vanilli
In addition to Pilatus and Morvan, a number of industry luminaries show up to offer commentary or appear in archival footage, including actual MV singers Brad Howell, Charles Shaw and John Davis. There’s also former Arista Records executives Richard Sweret, Mitchell Cohen and Ken Levy, and MTV VJ “Downtown” Julie Brown.
Milli Vanilli trailer
Why we’re excited about Milli Vanilli
Boy, that’s a sentence nobody’s typed in a while. But it’s clear that Morvan and Pilatus were as much victims as villains in the whole sorry saga, and copped the lion’s share of the blame to boot, so any attempt to set the record straight is welcome.
