Features
Scheduled To Appear – 02/23
On Feb. 22, 1990, Milli Vanilli, a braid-wearing, killer-cheekboned pair of “former world champion breakdancers,” walked away with the Grammy Award for best new artist.
The photogenic duo of Fabrice “Fab” Morvan and Rob Pilatus had taken the music world by storm following the 1989 release of their six-times platinum debut album, Girl You Know It’s True, and the singles “Baby Don’t Forget My Number,” “I’m Gonna Miss You” and “Blame It On the Rain.”
But it didn’t take long for cracks to appear in the façade of their fame. Shortly after winning their Grammy, the pair were accused of lip-synching, with fans and the press quickly gathering evidence to support the claim.
On Nov. 12, 1990, less than nine months after their Grammy win, German producer Frank Farian – a chef-turned-record-mogul and the mastermind behind Milli Vanilli – admitted that Morvan and Pilatus weren’t responsible for the vocals on Girl.
A few days later, the Recording Academy took the unprecedented step of revoking the band’s award.
Despite attempts at reviving their career and redeeming their names, the industry – and more importantly, the public – never really forgave Morvan and Pilatus, who took his own life in 1998, shortly before the release of a Milli Vanilli comeback album.
Morvan, who these days works as a DJ, producer and singer/songwriter, recently told USA Today that he feels like he and Pilatus were “scapegoats – imagine a horde of wolves who want to eat you alive” and points out that not only has lip-synching become an accepted practice throughout the industry, many artists wouldn’t even have careers today without the use of Auto Tune.
The singer explained that he’s consulting on a movie about the experience that he believes will set the record straight once and for all, but in the meantime he wants to correct one fact he says everyone has wrong.
“We wanted to give the Grammy back,” Morvan said. “We felt in our hearts that it would be a good gesture to do that. But they made it look as though [the Academy] wanted it back. They could have come to my house and gotten it.”
Tuesday, February 23
Jo Koy, Josh Wolf, Whitney Cummings – “Chelsea Lately” – rerun
Ray Romano, Mariah Carey – “Lopez Tonight” – rerun
Jamie Foxx, Robin Thicke – “Late Show with David Letterman” – rerun
Miss Willie Brown – “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Stephen Fry – “Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”
Wednesday, February 24
Joan Rivers – “Live with Regis and Kelly”
John Caparulo, Bill Bellamy, Arden Myrin – “Chelsea Lately”
Ludacris – “Lopez Tonight” – rerun
Ne-Yo – “Late Show with David Letterman” – rerun
Tracy Morgan – “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”
Thursday, February 25
Katharine McPhee – “The Bonnie Hunt Show”
Ben Gleib, Brad Wollack, Natasha Leggero – “Chelsea Lately”
VV Brown – “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Friday, February 26
Josh Wolf, Heather McDonald, Ryan Stout – “Chelsea Lately” – rerun
Lou Reed & The Blind Boys of Alabama – “Late Show with David Letterman” – rerun
Kara DioGuardi, Daniel Merriweather – “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Saturday, February 27
Kenny Chesney – “Austin City Limits” – rerun
Jennifer Lopez – “Saturday Night Live”