BREAKING NEWS: 'Monsters' is making Milli Vanilli hot again, the latest act supercharged by a Netflix show. - Business Insider
"Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story" topped the streamer's most-watched charts for two weeks after it was released last month, and featured three of Milli Vanilli's biggest songs in the first episode: "Blame It on the Rain," "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You," and "Girl You Know It's True."
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The band, featuring singers Brad Howell, John Davis, Charles Shaw, Jodie Rocco, and Linda Rocco, and featured visual performances by Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, was huge in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but became a laughing stock after their creator revealed the pair lipsynced to songs recorded by other vocalists.
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But they've made a comeback thanks to "Monsters": The three songs featured on the show got a boost in streaming numbers, Billboard reported, with "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" seeing the biggest spike from 28,000 streams between September 13-16 to 103,000 between September 20-23. On September 25, 2024, the song was at number 40 in the UK's official singles chart. Listen here.
BREAKING NEWS: ‘The film "Girl You Know It's True" was named best film at the Bayerischer Filmpreis! Best New Artists awards also went to the actors of the pop duo Milli Vanilli.' - BR24
In the film "Girl You Know It's True" Tijan Njie and Elan Ben Ali play the pop duo Milli Vanilli. Watch the trailer here.
‘Milli Vanilli’ Documentary on Paramount+ Tells Untold Story of Music’s Most Infamous Con'. - James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter.
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The Paramount+ documentary features new interviews going behind the scenes of the 1990s pop duo's scandal and new insight on the deception that led to their undoing. Streaming starts October 24th in the US. Watch the exclusive trailer here.
Buy MILLI VANILLI Music!
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Sony Music Germany is commemorating the 35th anniversary of Milli Vanilli's first album by releasing:
'The Best of Milli Vanilli 35th Anniversary'
Available from November 17, 2023, on Cassette, Coloured Vinyl, Black Vinyl, CDs, and all streaming platforms. You can order here:
BREAKING NEWS: ‘Milli Vanilli’ Documentary Coming to Paramount+ -Katie Atkinson, billboard.
A new feature-length documentary detailing the story behind the ill-fated, chart-topping pop duo Milli Vanilli is coming to Paramount+. The project, simply titled Milli Vanilli, will make its world premiere at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival on June 10 before arriving on the streaming service in the fall.
‘People thought they knew the story’: the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli' -Adrian Horton, The Guardian.
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You could argue that, at least in the realm of pop music, the year 1989 belonged to Milli Vanilli. The German-French pop duo, formed barely a year earlier by the German producer Frank Farian, had already barnstormed through European charts with their first single Girl You Know It’s True......
More Deception, More Lies and Milli Vanilli..... again
My sister Linda and I have received many PM's from fans asking if we will be a part of the "TRUE" Milli Vanilli Experience. Sadly, the stigma of deception continues. After recording and creating the sound that was #MilliVanilli, not to mention being the most mimed singers in the history of music, ; ), we expected to be a part of any production that referred to "true" or "real" in conjunction with the name Milli Vanilli, especially in today's technological world where everything is validated with the click of a button. But alas, and again, that is not so. The deceit goes back to 1988-1989 when we recorded more than 48 tracks, some that ONLY feature Linda and I and some which were duets like Girl, I'm Gonna Miss You. Those tracks became Milli Vanilli, The Real Milli Vanilli, Try N B, the inspiration for two major motion pictures, a play, thousands of posts on social media, etc and so on and I think you get my drift, and now the "TRUE" Milli Vanilli Experience that yet again, is a farce. It took a global superstar like Oprah Winfrey who felt it was important enough to give Linda and I the platform to tell our story. We insisted that John, Brad, and Charles be included although they initially were not. We felt it was imperative that the truth be told. It took Linda and I a year working with OWNTV to give us the chance we had been waiting for for 25 years. Although John and Brad had already been allowed to take part in the "Real" Milli Vanilli for which they were highly compensated, we were not, thereby making Linda and I the main focal point of our story on "Where Are They Now" on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. We wish John all the best in his musical endeavors, however, it's time to stop lying to our fans around the world. They have been lied to long enough.So, to answer your questions, unbelievably, no. We were not included. I guess you can say "Girl, You Know It's NOT True"...... again.
What do you think? Written by Jodie Rocco
SiriusXM's Rachel Brodsky Talks Milli Vanilli w/ former MTV VJ Martha Quinn-Girl, You know It's Not Completely True
I was just reading the interview by Rachel Brodsky of former MTV VJ Martha Quinn on SiriusXM titled "Original VJ Martha Quinn talks ’80s nostalgia, Milli Vanilli + the real reason MTV doesn’t play music videos anymore". Let me first say that I am a SiriusXM subscriber and I listen to 80son8 all the time!
This week Milli Vanilli was included twice in the "Big 40 Countdown". My twin sister Linda and I were part of the original group and we manage @MilliVanilli, our twitter page and www.facebook.com/therealmillivanilli, our Facebook page. Milli Vanilli was recently featured on the OWNTV Network hit show "Where Are They Now". In depth interviews were done with me, my sister Linda, Brad Howell, John Davis and Charles Shaw.
It amazes me how people seem to come out of the woodwork to describe what Milli Vanilli was all about, yet, neither my sister nor I have ever had a conversation with most of them. If you haven't talked to us I can assure you, you don't know the story. Milli Vanilli isn't just about Rob and Fab.
I met Rob Pilatus in the early 80's in Munich at the same club where Frank Farian "discovered" him and Fabrice Morvan. The club, P1, is owned by my friend Michael Kafer and I was there often. Rob danced in my shows occasionally. He wasn't homeless and from what I remember neither was Fabrice and in fact they shared a small apartment. Was it The Ritz? No. Were they struggling? Probably, just like the rest of us trying to make it in the music industry in a very competitive market, Germany being the 2nd largest record market in the world then and the 4th largest today. Frank Farian found two talented but vulnerable young wannabe's searching for fame and fortune. He promised them the moon and they believed him. Rob once said of his relationship with Frank, that he had "sold his soul to the devil". Both he and Fab knew exactly what was expected of them from the beginning. I would imagine it felt good driving a Ferrari, living in the Hollywood Hills, shopping for $30,000 Rolex's and Versace suits and traveling the world. Until Frank cut them off financially.
So, I do agree it was a tragedy of sorts, but mostly because the truth was never promoted even after I went to the press during the first week of November in 1990 and forced Frank’s hand. In an article for People Magazine from December 3, 1990 they wrote, "The pair's German record producer, Frank Farian, fessed up after Pilatus and Morvan insisted they be allowed to use their actual voices for a change on an upcoming record. Instead, he showed them the door, then revealed at a Nov. 14 press conference that he had originally hired the two unemployed male models in 1987 to appear in promotional videos lip-syncing songs he'd already recorded with vocals by three studio musicians." Well, actually 5 studio musicians. So, Frank may not have been at the table at the press conference but he definitely took the hit.
I, on the other hand, was at the table at the press conference when we gave back the Grammy. I gave interviews to Rolling Stone, Stern, CBS News, and many other news sources letting them know that this was a farce from the beginning. Even after we begrudgingly gave back our well-deserved Grammy, Frank was still making promises to the boys and they still believed him. We did too….. for a short time. Especially when he said he had Grammy's for us and had platinum records shipped from Arista Records in New York to our homes.
Yes, it is a fascinating story and it should be told in all its' glory. But Milli Vanilli isn't just about Rob and Fab. It's also about me, my twin sister Linda, Brad Howell, John Davis and Charles Shaw. It's our story too. Written by Jodie Rocco