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:
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.”
“Wetten, dass…?” also comes to an end
The Saturday evening program “Wetten,dass..?” is scheduled to end on November 25th. In his podcast “Die Supernasen” Thomas Gottschalk discusses with Mike Krüger the new phenomenon that artists like Otto Waalkes work with newcomers like Ski Aggu and are thus celebrated by the young generation.
Krüger then asks: “And that’s what Helene is doing with you now with Shirin David?” The comedian, who became known for the show “7 Days – 7 Heads,” among other things, is alluding to the upcoming “Wetten, dass..?” -Shipment to. Gottschalk then blurts out the appearance of Helene Fischer and Shirin David: “I don’t know whether she’s rapping, but I know they’re performing.”