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Winter Is Crappening

Listen Now: Blame it on the Fame: Milli Vanilli

Winter Is Crappening

Ben Mandelker & Ronnie Karam | Wondery

Comedy, Improv, Funny Recap, Ronnie Karam, Ben Mandelker, Tv & Film, House Of The Dragon, Best Recap, Watch What Crappens, Hilarious, Hbo, Game Of Thrones, Comedy Recap

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2024

⏱️ 4 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Frank Farian first laid eyes on Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, he saw everything he wasn’t. They were handsome, young, and Black. But Frank had something they didn’t. He had power.

So, Frank offered them a devil’s bargain. Almost overnight, Milli Vanilli’s debut album went five times platinum and scored a Grammy nomination. But when the lie at the center of their success started to unravel, Rob and Fab would discover the hard way the difference between star power and real power.

From Wondery, Blame It on the Fame is a story about the lie that shot to #1 and what it cost to tell the truth. Hosted by Amanda Seales.

 Binge ad-free exclusively on Wondery+: https://Wondery.fm/BIOTF_WiC

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

It was the biggest scandal in pop music. The stars of Milli Vanilli, the Grammy-winning

0:05.2

multi-platinum R&B phenomenon, were exposed as frauds. They'd never sung a note of their own songs.

0:11.1

In a flash, they went from famous to infamous, but none of this was their idea. So

0:14.7

whose was it? Enter German music producer Frank Farion. He saw the success of acts like Michael Jackson

0:20.5

and Prince and he wanted in no matter the cost.

0:23.9

So he devised the perfect Pop Pice, two once in a lifetime talents who were charismatic, full

0:28.6

of sex appeal and phenomenal dancers.

0:31.3

The only problem, they couldn't sing, but Frank knew just how to fix that.

0:35.7

Wundry's new podcast, Blame it on the fame, dives into one of pop music's greatest

0:39.4

controversies and takes a never before heard look at the exploitation of two young black artists.

0:44.4

Millie Vanilli set the world on fire, but when the truth came out, Rob and Fab were the only ones who got burned.

0:49.4

Looking back now, it's hard not to wonder, why did everyone blame them and not the man

0:53.4

pulling the strings. We're about to play a clip from Blame It on the Fame. Follow

0:57.3

blame it on the fame on the Wundry app or wherever you get your podcasts. Two young men with silk scarves tied over their long black braids sat behind a long table.

1:22.4

They leaned into the microphones in front of them and

1:24.8

introduced themselves as... My name is the very small man. My name is

1:29.3

relative to later. In front of them was a room full of reporters, but Rob looked cocky, like a debate club student who's never lost a tournament.

1:39.0

And Fab, Child Fab, looked like he was about to shit his pants.

1:44.0

Why do you eat on doing it for so long?

1:47.0

What was going through your mind?

1:49.0

For almost two years, Robin Fab had been two of the biggest pop stars on the whole planet.

1:55.0

But just a few days ago, the entire world learned that they didn't sing a note on their own album.

...

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