Milli Vanilli are behind one of pop’s most notorious scandals and the first act in history to have their Grammy revoked, but despite their bumpy past, they are making a huge comeback thanks to Netflix.
The European pop group, made up of Paris-born Fabrice Morvan and German-born Rob Pilatus, shot to stardom in the late 80s with hits like Girl You Know It’s True and Keep On Running.
Earning three number-one singles in the US and best new artist at the Grammys, they appeared to be on an unstoppable trajectory to success until they weren’t.
It was soon revealed the pair, while talented in their own rights, weren’t the voices behind their hottest hits and were, in fact, lip-syncing, resulting in their brutal demise.
Now Ryan Murphy’s Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, has provoked a huge popularity resurgence for the group after three of their songs were featured in the series.
Monsters landed on the streaming giant’s platform earlier this month and has received a bout of criticism for the depiction of the brother’s relationship and story.
But while some of the series’ inclusions, which are inspired by true events, are fictional, other moments are historically accurate, like Lyle’s real-life decision to play a Milli Vanilli song at his parents’ funeral.
Jose and Kitty’s funeral occurred on August 25, 1989 with Robert Rand, author of the 2018 book The Menendez Murders: The Shocking Untold Story of the Menéndez Family and the Killings that Stunned the Nation, reporting that Lyle decided to include Girl I’m Gonna Miss You on the soundtrack.
Robert claimed in his book that the song was played as Lyle and Erik felt that it properly expressed their feelings.
Since the series premiered, the song has seen a huge increase in streams, with Billboard reporting a 258% increase in popularity. Streams went from 28,000 between September 13-16 to 103k between September 20-23.
That wasn’t the only time a song from the controversial group was featured in the series, though. Blame It On the Rain and Girl You Know It’s True were also featured in the nine-episode mini-series.
Blame It On the Rain has increased 68% during the same four-day period going from 75k to 125k streams, while Girl You Know It’s True has had a 32.5% increase.
It increased to 135k streams.
Fans also took to X to share their thoughts on the music choice. MichieYeo wrote: ‘The absolute chokehold that Milli Vanilli has had on me for an entire calendar week is not something I envisioned for myself in this, the year of our Lord, 2024’.
Katyanna25 added: ‘#Monsters has me obsessed with the Milli Vanilli Girl I’m Gonna Miss You song it just randomly pops in my head every minute’
Kryzazzy said: ‘I just finished watching “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” on Netflix and all I have to say is, we definitely need more television shows with Milli Vanilli in the soundtrack’.
The increased interest in Milli Vanilli follows the 2023 documentary created by Luke Korem, which tells the story of the two friends and their swift rise and fall from fame.
While Rob tragically died of a drug overdose in April 1998 at age 32, Fabrice, now 58, features in the documentary and tells his side of the story, admitting when he and Rob signed their contract with German producer Frank Farian, they ‘never really tried’ to read the terms and conditions and were ‘crushed’ upon realising it stated they wouldn’t sing.
Instead, the two friends released their debut album, posing for the cover, creating music videos and even lip-syncing the songs live, including at the 1990 Grammy Awards.
But their scandal was revealed later that year when Fabrice and Rob demanded to sing live resulting in Frank outing them during a press conference and stating Brad Howell and John Davis sang the songs on their debut album.
In the days following, the pair were dropped by their record label Arista and were forced to return their Grammy, becoming the first recipients to do so.
Unfortunately, the consequences didn’t end there and they also faced multiple class-action lawsuits made by upset fans who were later reimbursed for the cost of their tickets to Milli Vanilli concerts they attended.
Singer David Clayton-Thomas also filed a lawsuit against the duo for copyright infringement, claiming the melody of his song Spinning Wheel was used in their song Girl You Know It’s True.
Rob spoke to the Los Angeles Times weeks later, apologising for his part in the scandal, ‘I feel very sad about my fans,’ he said.
‘I know it’s going to be hard for the kids to stand behind us. But I hope they understand that we are just two human guys who were so hungry for success that we allowed ourselves to be manipulated. We wanted to get on the top. We apologise and hope they’ll give us a second chance.’
After taking a break, the duo returned in 1993 under the name Rob & Fab, but their album failed to reach chart status. They tried again to make their return in 1998, but tragically, the night before they were set to embark on a promotional tour for the Back and in Attack album, Rob died.
It was never released, and Fabrice went on to release a solo record, Love Revolution, in 2003. He continues to release and produce music today.