Current Events > Are you old enough to remember Milli Vanilli and the concert fail?

(+) Yeah! (+)

It's probably my earliest memories of a pop group or a scandal, and the "girl you know it's girl you know it's" is still hilarious.

https://youtu.be/UvPXmkYMHFg?si=rB_9Ssm7Ob0d8d8j

Oh yes I have their vinyl and Cassette still mint

I remember Milli Vanilli, but I dont recall this particular event.

Yes, I remember people getting refund if they had their stuff...or 'their stuff'
My todays standards they were probably as honest as Auto Tune.

IIRC, after the lip syncing scandal they released an album where they sang for real but by then the damage was done and it flopped.

SiO4 posted...

My todays standards they were probably as honest as Auto Tune.

I mean, at least auto tune is the alterations of the singers' voices. In Milli Vanilli's case, that wasn't even them at all.

Yes it was the summer right before I started High School. I lived and breathed music and this was a pretty big story.

I remember them being in the Super Mario cartoon and will always have a soft spot in my heart for them b/c of it.

Honestly they were just ahead of their time. A lot of "musicians" now autotune the shit out of their vocals and/or blatantly silently lip synch to pre-recorded music that's (allegedly) their own voice during concerts, and no one cares.

I did always wonder though... the scandal was w/ the company and the imposters using other peoples' music, so.... why did the band just die instead of the actual singers getting to continue w/ the popularity and success their music had garnered? People obviously liked their music, why didn't they get to become big name artists after the truth came out?

Eurobeat is a guilty pleasure of mine and the most prominent singer for it, Max Coveri / Niko / like a dozen other aliases, straight up has a "body double" pretend to be him and lip synch the songs for public appearances and concerts, lol

Hayame_Zero posted...

I mean, at least auto tune is the alterations of the singers' voices. In Milli Vanilli's case, that wasn't even them at all.

Hehe, Go Big or Go Home.

archizzy posted...

Yes it was the summer right before I started High School. I lived and breathed music and this was a pretty big story.

Ya, I probably couldn't tell you one of their songs if you put a gun to my head though.

At that point I was coming off of what was an amazing run for rap music.

Hayame_Zero posted...

I mean, at least auto tune is the alterations of the singers' voices. In Milli Vanilli's case, that wasn't even them at all.

And singers today aren't going to trick you into thinking they're not using autotune. Because they all use autotune.

I don't remember this, but I remember an interview where they were asked to prove they could sing. They were pretty much done after that. Sounded completely tone deaf.

Side note, not to derail the topic but the one I found so much more amusing was when it happened to Ashley Simpson on Saturday Night Live in 2004 and she just awkwardly did a little dance move and then walked off stage.

I chuckled and immediately thought of Milli Vanilli but people really didn't seem to care that much about the 2004 incident. it was pretty widely accepted at that point that a number of artists, especially ones with dance heavy routines used backing vocals/lipsyncing.

SiO4 posted...

Hehe, Go Big or Go Home.

Ya, I probably couldn't tell you one of their songs if you put a gun to my head though.

At that point I was coming off of what was an amazing run for rap music.

I wasn't a fan by any means but it was impossible not to run into that "Girl You Know It's True" song or even "Blame it on the Rain" I'll probably always remember those two songs.

The record getting stuck in the middle of a performance seems like something that would happen in a sitcom...but it really happened.

archizzy posted...

Side note, not to derail the topic but the one I found so much more amusing was when it happened to Ashley Simpson on Saturday Night Live in 2004 and she just awkwardly did a little dance move and then walked off stage.

I chuckled and immediately thought of Milli Vanilli but people really didn't seem to care that much about the 2004 incident. it was pretty widely accepted at that point that a number of artists, especially ones with dance heavy routines used backing vocals/lipsyncing.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJXpBKR7d0&pp=ygUZZmFtaWx5IGd1eSBhc2hsZWUgc2ltcHNvbg%3D%3D

streamofthesky posted...

I did always wonder though... the scandal was w/ the company and the imposters using other peoples' music, so.... why did the band just die instead of the actual singers getting to continue w/ the popularity and success their music had garnered? People obviously liked their music, why didn't they get to become big name artists after the truth came out?

The producer (Frank Farian, a first-class asshole) had specifically selected Rob and Fab as the public face of the singers because he didn't think they were photogenic enough to be pop stars. After the whole thing blew up, he washed his hands of it and let the project die. And in that era, it would have been very difficult to find information/photos of some random studio singers.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7a0c55d9.jpg

Mistere_Man posted...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJXpBKR7d0&pp=ygUZZmFtaWx5IGd1eSBhc2hsZWUgc2ltcHNvbg%3D%3D

Yeah when I saw that Family Guy the first time I really busted out laughing at that. Still funny as hell. In the Raine Wilson movie The Rocker they reference it too with a lip syncing incident where Jason Sudeikis says "We have an Ashlee Simpson situation here"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XAhRoknfSo

A pity the SMB3 episode now just uses the generic rock track used for the show, and Captain N.

Turbam posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7a0c55d9.jpg

Ah heck, you beat me to the punch.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/51d83d16.jpg

The stuff of nightmares

Mistere_Man posted...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJXpBKR7d0&pp=ygUZZmFtaWx5IGd1eSBhc2hsZWUgc2ltcHNvbg%3D%3D

I remember after that happened, Justin Timberlake came to her defense and outright said pretty much every pop act lip syncs during their performances, but it was too little too late.

archizzy posted...

I wasn't a fan by any means but it was impossible not to run into that "Girl You Know It's True" song or even "Blame it on the Rain" I'll probably always remember those two songs.

I probably heard them at a Jamesway or Kmart, or on after school MTV, but honestly today, they really don't sound familar.

GeminiDeus posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XAhRoknfSo

That is not accurate as the singing stopped, someone need to edit it where the song keeps going.

DiScOrDtHeLuNaTiC posted...

The producer (Frank Farian, a first-class asshole) had specifically selected Rob and Fab as the public face of the singers because he didn't think they were photogenic enough to be pop stars. After the whole thing blew up, he washed his hands of it and let the project die. And in that era, it would have been very difficult to find information/photos of some random studio singers.

Most of Farian's groups are like that, including Boney M.