Its 2024, and America is madly in love withMilli Vanilli.
How did this happen?
The Eighties Euro-glitz pop duo are enjoying the years weirdest revival, thanks to Ryan Murphy.
Milli Vanilli, portraits, London, 27 September 1988, L-R Rob Pilatus, Fab Morvan.Michael Putland/Getty Images
They bond over the music of Milli Vanilli, who ruled the radio that summer.
SinceMonsters, the duos streaming numbers are booming.
It might sound too bizarre to be realbut girl, you know its true.
Its sweet vindication for Milli Vanilli, the most controversial pop stars of their day.
They had it all: the flashiest hair, the tightest pants.
They scored three Number One hits and won the Grammy for Best New Artist.
What could go wrong?
The crash came when their producer revealed Rob and Fab didnt sing any of the vocals on their records.
They got stripped of their Grammy, the only time thats ever happened.
Their hits got banished from the radio, never to return until now.
Both were crushed by the lip-synching disgrace; Rob Pilatus became a tragic drug casualty, dying in 1998.
Imagine walking in my shoes, MorvantoldRolling Stonelast year.
Having to carry that ball and chain for years.
Morvan told his story inMilli Vanilli, the 2023 documentary by director Luke Korem.
But the post-Monstersboom is something new.
According toBillboard, the Vanilli catalog had a 114 per cent streaming increase after the Netflix series premiered.
Monstersis the true-crime anthology drama from Murphy and Ian Brennan.
Season One chronicled serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer; Season Two tells the tale of the Menendez brothers.
They claimed it was self-defense, after years of abuse from their father.
Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez play the brothers, Javier Bardem and Chloe Sevigny the parents.
You might suspect Ryan Murphy is overdoing it but it turns out this really happened.
Within days of the murders, theyre spending fortunes on Rolex watches, cars, and stereo equipment.
The Vanillis are all over the soundtrack, serving as a Greek chorus narrating the family tragedy.
But Murphy uses the music brilliantly.
In thefinal scene,the brothers get sentenced to life without parole, in separate prisons.
Since then, Vanillimania is off the charts.
(NomaD is in the house, Fab is in the house!
We about to make history, bro!)
Theyre still the only act thats ever had to return their Grammy.
Did you hear what happened to the award?
Morvan asked me last year.
Its broken and sitting in the Grammy Museum.
They broke it, and put it on a shelf.
I thought, Oh my God, they wentthatfar?
First things first: absolutely nobody in 1989 thought Rob and Fab were doing the singing.
Look, it was the Eighties nobody thought Bruce Willis could really climb skyscrapers.
But the industry got really outraged over Milli Vanilli, because they were a radical new pop aesthetic.
They mixed up disco, rap, and house fads into rootless cosmopolitan mega-pop for a hip-hop world.
Rob and Fab were pretty boys who played up their homoerotic allure.
Paris-born Fab and the German Rob were outsiders from the start.
They met at a Munich party, shocked to see each other.
There was not many Black people in Munich, Fab says in theMilli Vanillidoc.
We were the only two dark-skinned people.
Both came from abusive childhoods, and they instantly bonded as family.
He was my older brother, Morvan told me last year.
He brought me into the fold.
I didnt speak German very well.
He was my protector, in many senses.
They started a group called Empire Bizarre, and devised their look, starting with the hair.
But they were very different.
Fab was the strong silent throw in; Rob was the trouble-maker.
People really didnt like my dude, Morvan said.
Rob was hurt as a young boy for being a mixed race.
It was rare in the environment that he grew up in.
They took the money and partied hard, especially Pilatus.
He was a bad boy.
Music was the glue for us.
Theirvideoswere a scream, especially their aerial chest-bumps.
So you see, its quite complicated.
But they didnt make friends at the top.
Pilatus went off the rails with drugs and diva ego.
The fan was Paul McCartney.
Everybody ask me if I sing on this record, Pilatus toldRolling Stone.Even mymotherask me.
The backlash was an ugly eruption of racism, nativism, and homophobia.
(They werent gay, but many Americans assumed they were a couple.)
They were a punch line onIn Living Color, where Rob was mocked for having green eyes.
It was like a pinata, like little kids in a birthday party, Morvan said.
Everybodys hitting and hitting, then waiting and waiting.
Okay,todaythe candys falling?
Its a comedy gem where they lip-synch to opera.
Both duos devise a plot to fool the world, but fail.
Rob and Fab had real personality, you know?
They had star power, humor, moves, flesh-and-blood magnetism.
You could tell these guys started out friends.
You could also tell they had a desperately needy lust for strangers attention, peacocking way too hard.
Their flaws, like everything else about them, were human.
Thats why now is the right time for Milli Vanilli to finally make sense to us.
Blame it on the rain.
