Frank Farian’s ex-partner explains that Milli Vanilli blackmailed her producer.
Ingrid “Milli” Segieth, a confidante of music manager Frank Farian and namesake of the duo Milli Vanilli, has revealed the reason for the group’s abrupt end: She claims that Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan had confronted Farian before a “Wetten, dass…?” shipment blackmailed in 1990.
“Rob, who was always the mouthpiece for the two of them, asked on the eve of their appearance on ‘Wetten, dass ..?’ On November 3, 1990 in Linz, they demanded an immediate payment of 500,000 marks – otherwise they wouldn’t appear,” she says in a recent interview.
Here is the “Wetten, dass ..?” performance by Milli Vanilli (1990):
Milli Vanillis Blackmail: Frank Farian in trouble
As the conversation continued with the newspaper, Segieth explains that a check for 450,000 marks was then sent to Linz. However, Milli Vanilli’s lawyers rejected this amount as insufficient and sent the driver back without payment. In addition, they are said to have promised to start negotiations with Frank Farian on Monday to demand one million marks for their planned next album.
This blackmail ultimately caused Frank Farian to be so angry that he ended all cooperation with Milli Vanilli. As Ingrid Segieth explains: “It wasn’t the first horrendous demands that Rob and Fab had made of him, to which he often bowed for the sake of peace.”
A sudden end
Almost ten days after her performance on “Wetten,dass..?”, Farian finally organized a press conference. At this the manager announced that neither Rob Pilatus nor Fab Morvan were able to sing. That meant the end for the two dancers. The press conference after the end can be done on Youtube view.
This is what Fab Morvan really sounds like:
That’s what Fab Morvan and Thomas Gottschalk say
Rob Pilatus has died, but Fab Morvan confirmed the incident to “Bild”: “We wanted to free ourselves from the puppet strings at the time and were rebellious. We wanted to catch Frank Farian where it annoys him the most: money! We wanted him to release us from our contracts.”
Thomas Gottschalk also commented: “I didn’t notice anything about it. I can’t remember the two of them performing in Linz either. ,Bet that..?’ For me, in Linz means Heinz Rühmann and a Versace tailcoat.”
The biopic about Milli Vanilli will be in German cinemas from December 21st
The trailer for the movie about the story of the dancers Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, aka Milli Vanilli, has been released. Simon Verhoeven’s (“Männerherzen”, “Unfriend”) “Girl You Know It’s True” stars Tijan Njie and Elan Ben Ali as Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan as well as Matthias Schweighöfer as Milli-Vanilli producer Frank Farian. The work opens in German cinemas on December 21, 2023.