On Wednesday, February 21, 1990, the American music industry, along with a fair number of people from overseas, gathered at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. It was the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards.
Sting, Stevie Wonder, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Seger, Lou Reed, and Meryl Streep were just some of the people handing out awards. When it came time to present the award for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals,” there were some very nervous people in the audience.
It was a very international affair. American Tone Lōc had become the first rap artist to be nominated in the category. Indigo Girls, the folky American duo, were hoping to cap off a good year with a Grammy win. So was Swedish singer Neneh Cherry. People in the U.K. were pulling for Soul II Soul, the dance collective led by Jazzie B.
Also fidgeting in the audience were two breakdancers from Germany: Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. Perhaps they had more reason to be nervous than everyone else.
The presenters were Kris Kristofferson and Young MC, and when the envelope was opened…
@millivanilliverse Milli Vanilli performing “Girl You Know It’s True” at the 32nd Grammy Awards Feb 1990 #millivanilli #grammy #award #bestnewartist #winners #performance #fabmorvan #robpilatus #iconic #80s #90s #popstar #duo #trending #tiktok #fyp ♬ original sound – MilliVanilliVerse
https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js
Many watching that night thought this was well deserved. They’d come out of nowhere with a series of infectious pop songs. Their debut sold over seven million records in the U.S., another million in Canada (one of the few artists to reach that sales milestone at that point), and 30 million worldwide. Number-one album. Number-one singles.
Fantastic. A couple of Black kids from the streets of Paris and Munich had beaten the odds to become an award-winning global success. But there was a slight problem: neither Rob nor Fab sang on those records. The whole thing was a fraud. And when the truth finally came out, the backlash was an extinction-level asteroid strike. How could something like this happen?
I’m AC, and this is episode 57 of Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry. Here is the real story of the fraud, the hoax, the weird, and ultimately tragic tale of one of the biggest deceptions the music world has ever seen.
n addition to the podcasts, you can hear Uncharted on these Corus radio stations (all times local):
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