Milli Vanilli (/ˈmɪli vəˈnɪli/) was a contemporary R&B duo group from Munich, Germany, created in 1988 by the producer Frank Farian.[2] The duo consisted of Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus.[3]

Milli Vanilli's debut album was All or Nothing in Europe and Girl You Know It's Truein the United States. They achieved international success and earned a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990.[4] They became one of the most popular acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with seven million records sold in the United States alone and approximately 30 million singles internationally.[5]

Milli Vanilli attracted controversy when Farian announced that Morvan and Pilatus did not sing their vocals and lip-synced for performances. Their vocals were instead provided by Brad Howell, John Davis[6], Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco,[7] and Linda Rocco.[7][8] Their Grammy award was revoked.[9][10][11] In 1998, they recorded the comeback album Back and in Attack, but its release was canceled when Pilatus died that year.[12]

The first public sign that the group was lip-syncing came on July 21, 1989, during a live performance on MTV at the Lake Compounce theme park in Bristol, Connecticut. As they performed, a malfunctioning hard drive caused the recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" to jam and skip, repeatedly playing the partial line "Girl, you know it's..." through the speakers.[33] "I knew right then and there, it was the beginning of the end for Milli Vanilli", recalled Pilatus of the incident. "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."[16]