Remember one of the biggest scandals in the history of the Grammy Awards, when Milli Vanilli won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1990, despite never singing a note on their breakout album Girl You Know It’s True.
Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, the two men who fronted the group
while lip synching to the vocals of studio musicians, had their Grammy
revoked after the scandal broke, several months following their win.
But now, more than 30 years after being unfairly embarrassed and blacklisted
by the industry, Fab Morvan has earned a legit Grammy nomination for the
2026 ceremony. Morvan's Grammy nomination is not for singing — it's for reading the audiobook version of his memoir, You Know It’s True: The Real Story Of Milli Vanilli. He’s a nominee in the category Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording.
Making this story even wilder is that Morvan is competing against the
Dalai Lama.The spiritual leader earned a
nomination for reading Meditations: The Reflections Of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. Another high-profile nominee in the category is Supreme Court justice Kentanji Brown Jackson, nominated for reading Lovely One: A Memoir. The other nominees are comedian and long-time Grammy host Trevor Noah and Kathy Garver, an actress who read the Carol Connors autobiography Elvis, Rocky & Me.
On Facebook, Morvan celebrated his achievement, writing, "Yes ladies and gentlemen it’s official, we made it to the nomination,
which means the book is nominated for best audio book, story telling,
and narration …To be continued. Peace one love.
Probably Fav won't win but deep inside of us we want him to win as a redemption, indeed a lot of people now have sympathetic feelings toward Milli Vanilli. The VH1 Behind the Music
episode on the duo showed how they were essentially tricked into
fronting the act, and how they were not allowed to sing, even though
they wanted to. So it’s entirely possible that some modern Grammy voters will see Fab’s name and decide to give him a vote.Fab's memoir You Know It’s True: The Real Story Of Milli Vanilli
gave detailed insight into his plight as he and Rob were signed to a
record deal, but then told by producer Frank Farian that they wouldn’t
be singing. In the book (and the nominated audiobook), Fab described his
confusion when he and Rob learned that they wouldn't be allowed to sing
on "Girl You Know It's True": That didn't make any sense to me. Frank
wanted someone else to sing the song? It took me a few tries to even
grasp what he was saying, and what that meant for us… It became clear
that we signed a contract, but it wasn't for us to sing. It was for
someone else to sing.
He went on to explain, "What no one bothered to explain was, the
contract locked us in for three albums. The contract was written in
German, and I certainly couldn’t read it."
Now the irony is that nowadays, there's been a growing "Give Milli Vanilli their Grammy back" movement, as lip synching has become more commonplace and accepted in
today's pop music world. There are even fictitious bands such as KPop Demon
Hunters, getting nominated at the Grammys. Accomplished R&B producer Jermain Dupri recently called out the
seeming hypocrisy of the Grammys stripping the duo of their award, while
AI artists are now charting on Billboard.
The ultimate irony is that Fab can really sing. Over the years, he's
found his voice, and he still performs for welcoming crowds in Europe. I've long wondered why no superstar rap artists have approached Fab
to offer him a feature on a song. That sort of outside-the-box thinking
would be a cool way to honor Milli Vanilli's legacy — not to mention a
great way to get a lot of attention in today's social media world.
