And here’s another first–it was Vanilli’s producer, Frank Farian, who announced that the duo had only been paying lip service to the music (it had long been rumored that they were just good-looking mouthpieces because they lip-synced in concert). It seems that MV made a gaffe; they asked Farian if they could actually sing on their next album. Farian was aghast. “I said, ‘No. I don’t go for that.’ Sure they have a voice, but that’s not really what I want to use on my records.” Farian won’t say who was used, and Pilatus says he and Morvan will put out their own album with their own voices. The record company (which said it wasn’t aware it was being hip-faked) has a different spin on the situation. “Embarrassing?” says Roy Lott of Arista. “l don’t mean the end justifies the means. But we sold 7 million albums.”
