Frank Farian, the mastermind producer responsible for the groups Milli Vanilli, Boney M., La Bouche, and more, has died. He was 82 years old.
Over the course of his six-decade career, Farian saw considerable success as a songwriter and producer, but his time as the mastermind behind Milli Vanilli — and their infamous lip-syncing controversy — is likely what most remember him for. Farian first met the group’s frontmen, Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, in Frankfurt, and signed a contract with them in January 1988, locking them into a deal.
Then, dissatisfied with the quality of the group’s vocal performances, Farian employed session vocalists — including Charles Shaw, John Davis, Brad Howell, and others — to provide the lead vocal parts for the duo’s recordings, leading to an arrangement where Pilatus and Morvan, against their desires, lip-synced the parts that they claimed to be singing themselves.
Upon the release of Milli Vanilli’s biggest hit, “Girl You Know It’s True,” in June 1988, Farian got busy writing and producing a full album for the group, All or Nothing, which debuted the following November. By March 1989, a repackaged version of the album, titled Girl You Know It’s True, arrived, becoming Milli Vanilli’s North American debut and spawning three No. 1 singles.
Of course, as music history fans will recall, Farian flew a bit too close to the sun with Milli Vanilli, and their wax wings began melting over the course of 1989. As lip-syncing rumors began to spread — in part expedited by technical malfunctions on-stage — the band’s frontmen requested more creative liberty from Farian, which ultimately led him to confirm to the press in November 1990 that the lip-sync rumors were true.
After that, Milli Vanilli experienced a historic fall from grace — their 1990 Grammy Award for Best New Artist was revoked, at least 26 lawsuits were filed under US consumer fraud protection laws, and Pilatus and Morva ended up as the butt of many a joke. Eventually, the duo attempted several come-backs, but none gained any traction. In 1998, Pilatus died from an alcohol and prescription drug overdose.
This past fall, a new documentary on the Milli Vanilli story, titled Milli Vanilli, premiered on Paramount+. In interviews around the film’s release, Morvan explained that he’s come to peace with the way things happened, and that making the documentary was a cathartic experience. “Forgiving myself, forgiving the big bad wolf Frank Farian, had to be done in order for me to move forward and get ahold of my self-esteem,” he told The Messenger. Farian himself did not appear in the documentary.
For his part, Farian didn’t seem to find the Milli Vanilli controversy all that controversial. In an interview with The Washington Post, he once described the group as “one part was visual, one part recorded. Such projects are an art form in themselves, and the fans were happy with the music.”
This outlook isn’t very surprising considering Farian’s career prior to working with Milli Vanilli. In the ‘70s, he entered the canon of popular song with the disco group Boney M., which featured his vocals in the studio, with frontman Bobby Farrell lip-syncing the parts on stage. Sans any “give us back your Grammy” controversies, the group recorded a slew of hits, such as “Rasputin,” “Daddy Cool,” “Rivers of Babylon,” and more.
Additionally, Farian worked with other artists, like Meat Loaf (he produced the 1986 album, Blind Before I Stop), No Mercy, and La Bouche, producing the latter group’s 1995 hit song, “Be My Lover.”
In the final years of his life, Farian kept a relatively low profile. He passed on January 23rd at his home in Miami, Florida, of undisclosed causes, as confirmed by BBC News. Check out a few of his biggest hits below.