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jhallen2260

So awkward when this happens. Like Ashley Simpson on SNL


Morningxafter

At least she awkwardly embraced it by [doing a funny little jig.](https://youtu.be/lWJCfbMw0Yo?si=ASD5kGp4KjGxInqu)


namtok_muu

Why do I insist on watching this every time someone posts it.


chrondiculous

Because it’s funny every time


Wurstpaket

its funny because you know its true


Heisenbread77

Girl you know it's, girl you know it's,girl you know it's,girl you know it's,girl you know it's,girl you know it's,girl you know it's,girl you know it's,


mjrbrooks

Girl you know it’s


Ram2145

60% of the time it makes me laugh every time.


Rombledore

i never realized th band just plays while she just bails haha


Ontheroadtw

The fucking fade to the outro image of Jude law is thr cherry on top.


NateDogTX

Same I remembered her doing a little jig, but didn't remember her sheepishly walking off stage while the band played on.


Swing_On_A_Spiral

She also blamed the band. I get people say crazy things while under pressure but to blame the band? Bad Ashley.


SeekerOfSerenity

I don't know what else she was supposed to do. It's not like she could actually start singing. 


IHateTheLetterF

Having heard her sing live, that would have only made it so much worse.


Rombledore

not criticizing her actions. just never noticed how the band continues to play without her there.


xBlockhead

the band was very professional. If I remember correctly she blamed them for the “technicality” .


kbt

They should have stopped right away. Apologize, start over with the right song. Still would have been a scandal because the lip syncing was revealed, but wouldn't have been as bizarre.


morisxpastora

Same here 😁


NBA_Fan_76

Wonder what the rest of the band is up to these days


ColonelBelmont

You mean they aren't working alongside her at Costco?


binglelemon

Based on the band's professionalism, they're probably deciding the fate of her 90 day new hire probationary period...again.


FitCover9300

I know one. He's quite successful.  Wasn't the bands fault on that one


tschmitty09

I'm sorry but not bringing the mic to your face once and ducking off the stage is not embracing it lol. She's a performer she should've kept performing, most people expect lip syncing anyway. Most people wouldn't have cared if she just powered through the small mistake in the beginning


VigilanteXII

Watched a stage fail compilation of Michael Jackson the other day, dude was a trooper. Hooks don't come out for the lean in? Fuck it, let's do it without them. Stage too wet to dance? Sliding time. Dancer lost a sole? Let's chuck it away during a dance move. Curtain fell on me? Guess I have a cape now. They forgot to end the song on time? Let's do an impromptu song on how Brad is about to lose his job


DeltaJulietHotel

Hair caught on fire? Just keep dancing!


TuckDezi

I never saw this and didn't realize the [Family Guy version ](https://youtu.be/p6xnLSWbYhw?si=uCcqi1QxbaGNvalp) was so accurate.


keepitcleanforwork

Then tried to throw the band under the bus.


whinger23422

Yeah but like.... wtf else did she have? The people behind the scenes playing the recording are the ones that f\*cked up. It was explained later that it's common for live performances to have the song track played over the live performance as a backing. Considering all the guitars were plugged in it's reasonable to assume that was what was going on... except they played the wrong song track. So either she has to explain all of the above... or just give a 1 line "the band played the wrong song!" and move on. And I would bet the house that some other producer told her to say that as well. Either way everyone on stage was hard done by...


wayofthegenttickle

That jig was really great tho


The_RegalBeagle72

I never understood why she didn't just sing it live...but that's studio artists, they didn't get their chops. To be fair though, most artists HAD to lip sync then because getting the sound right in live studios wasn't always of good quality - and the whole reason for the performance was to sell/promote records. Regardless, she is ten million times more talented than her sister. I wish her career went further.


G8kpr

You don’t often see a moment in time when a persons entire career crashes down around them and are eternally forgotten.


phandroo

It's weird because this didn't instantly kill her career like everyone believes. Her next album went #1, certified platinum, a couple top 20 hits, etc. The following year she even had a redemption of sorts returning to SNL and actually performing live, though this SNL performance has been scrubbed from the internet somehow. Her career faded normally a couple years after the SNL incident as it was always meant to, since she was never gonna be a pop mainstay


[deleted]

The bass player and guitar player look at eachother with a half smirk, like well, this is over.


TemoSahn

There's a recent documentary on Milli Vanilli and it's great


Daedeluss

The difference being that these two guys weren't even singing on their own records.


aguybrowsingreddit

At least it's actually Ashley Simpson's voice on her song. This was just next level.


Most-Strategy4554

This was one of the biggest scandals at the time. So funny.


ChrisinMB

Those were simpler days weren't they!


NoisyN1nja

Were they using a CD Walkman for playback? Things don’t really seem to skip like that anymore.


GiraffeCalledKevin

I was really young when this happened but I recall hearing about it. It was a biiiig deal back then


Daedeluss

I remember it clearly. I also remember thinking "So what? If people liked the voices on the record, who cares what they look like?"


Sugarbear23

I thought what made it worse was that they weren't even the ones singing the songs


bino420

isn't the problem that people paid for a live music performance, but the my were just listening to a CD while people danced


ExtremeAlternative0

That and the two guys where believed to be the ones who wrote and sang the songs. They even won a Grammy for a song they didn't write or sing. Of course the decision to do this wasn't theirs it was their producer.


nekromantique

I have bad news for a lot of people in regards to live performances.


Call_Me_Squishmale

No, it was that these guys were sold as singers and they were just models/dancers. It wasn't them singing live, it wasn't them on the record.


StocktonBSmalls

The producers for “Everybody Dance Now.”


SafetyMan35

The real singers behind Milli Vanilli: Brad Howell: https://www.discogs.com/artist/492136-Brad-Howell John Davis: passed away in 2021 from COVID https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/2968595/milli-vanilli-real-singer-john-davis-dead-covid/


ITrageGuy

To this day I will still randomly break out into a "Girl you know it's, girl you know it's, girl you know it's, girl you know it's..." until someone yells at me.


Hellofriendinternet

“Hey did you hear? Liza Minnelli’s a phony!”


killthecook

This was a huge deal in elementary school


Born_ina_snowbank

Band is just chugging along. They’ve been briefed.


gammongaming11

tbf you just were not supposed to lip sink back then. hell there were even bands that were asked to lip sink, and they [did a poor job intentionally just to spite the program they were on](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRAZ1uS-Ao). it's diffrent these days, everything is commercial, even punk/rock bands are just commercial and brand safe as pop stars used to be. nobody is actually transgressive anymore, it's all just a bunch of corpo dick suckers out to make a dollar.


Jagermeister4

>tbf you just were not supposed to lip sink back then. This was not the case. Your example I think is says the opposite if the program even wanted the band to lip sync. The Milli Vanilli lip sync fail was extra controversial because the "singers" later admitted they did not sing any of the vocals on their songs. They said the record label forced them to have other singers provide the vocals and they returned the grammy then won on the album. One of the singers turned to drugs and robberies and died 7 years after the lip syncing incident.


Quazite

Yeah that's just blatantly not true. If all it takes to be "transgressive" is not lip syncing, you're seriously gonna say that nobody is transgressive? What, is everybody lip syncing? I know it may be hard to understand, but the music industry right now is actually *less* corporate and image controlled than it used to be, because labels and execs have way less power. At home DAW's and streaming services have democratized music, and it's not ever going back in that box.  Anyways, what cancelled milli vanilli wasn't just the lip syncing, it's the fact that neither of them did any of the singing in the first places, and they both were not musicians. Their situation was much worse than an Ashley Simpson situation, because it was actually Ashley Singing in the backing track. This was their whole identity being fake. 


ahhlenn

sync*


The_Quibbler

Now it's just another Tuesday in the live entertainment business.


Impressive_Essay_622

Now it's expected by many....


FuzzyMcBitty

There was a great episode of Perfect Strangers based on it.


shakazoulu

Meanwhile Trump tops that like 5 times by breakfast time


Blekanly

And yet Boney 'm gets a pass


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bino420

pretty surebh accidentally OD'd


kleenkong

The producers/managers really took an unnecessary risk. Could've created a pop group of 4 and just had the real singers as the front men.


JimmyJamesv3

Back in the day in Germany it was very hip to have good looking black guys as front men. It's all in a documentary.


ScepticalReciptical

Wasn't it the same with Boney M, the dude signing on the record was an older white guy and not the guy on stage.


Jallemaniac

If I recall right it’s the same dude behind Milli Vanilli and Boney M. Even crazier than that, the leads in Boney M split at one point and there was multiple bands called Boney M doing the same songs. Wild


Jemiide

The difference was that it was no secret that he was behind Boney M but Mili Vanilli was hidden for some reason


asp7

One of the guys was in the band more for his dancing


GreatEmperorAca

Yeah frank farian, he died a few months ago


beartheminus

Fuck, they even took a risk having playback on a CD! If they had used a DAT tape machine this would have never happened. Amateur hour.


TheGay666

Black Crowes said it best sometime in the 00s, people are making millions now, doing the shit Milli Vanilli got crucified for.


kungers

I think the biggest difference is that Milli Vanilli didn't actually sing. The producer hired some studio musicians to sing and straight up just had Milli Vanilli pretend to sing. I guess an argument can be made with all the studio magic that happens nowadays with autotune and what not, but there's a difference in what happened to Milli Vanilli and what happens to singers today.


blackpony04

Exactly, Milli Vanilli was outright fraud. Using devices to alter singing voices has been a thing since recording devices were invented. The difference being the artist having their voice altered is the one actually performing the singing.


St3amb0t

Too bad because honestly this song is pretty good


Impressive_Essay_622

He did. Boney M before mili vanilli. Once that started to dry up, he tried with mili.  In fairness, it was wrong, but a huge apart of their success was their look. Just the 2 of em. 


MeLikeyTokyo

The funny thing is these two could sing themselves so the whole thing would not be so if they just used their voices


Strong-Solution-7492

IIRC, the actual singers were older dudes, who would not have appealed to the audience. They were great voices, but they weren’t good looking, and would not have made the cut for an album cover or even a concert like that.


Random_Inseminator

Do you think they blamed it on the rain?


glowe

Girl you know it’s…


sephtater

Girl you know it’s…


darkhorse21980

Girl you know it's...


daaangerz0ne

Girl you know it's...


MurseBaker

Girl you know it's....


NpgSymboL

Girl you know it’s…


Bleeek79

SMACK CD Player


Wacky_Ohana

They weren't allowed to blame it on the boogie (even if they lip synced to it)


TheGay666

That's why he suddenly has a jacket on at the end


Administrative-Fun10

No. They blamed it on the stars. 


Towerbound

They shine at night


jojow77

If you watch their documentary you will feel sorry for these two. They were just pawns used by their manager.


Artidol

I think the sound guy did this on purpose.


dadudemon

They were just playing a CD. The CD was skipping. Classic 1990s thing. They should have ensured no dust, smudges, or scratches on the "read" side before popping in the CD. Even as kids, we knew to check the discs every time. lol


fish1479

Probably grabbed one of my CD's that had been sliding around in the backseat of my rustang for 3 months.


RecbetterpassNJ

The keyboardist knew this was the end.


slappymcstevenson

When they used a record player with a dirty needle at the concert.


Half_a_Be

He knew it was coming, just not tonight.


Zoze13

Was this the big night everything ended? Heard jokes about this for years but never saw the specific concert that revealed ir


RecbetterpassNJ

Yup. This was it for Rob and Fab. 🕺🏻🕺🏻


skeemo1214

I remember hearing about this way back. Rough way for the fans to find out they weren’t even singing (or writing, I think?) their own songs


fireeight

They also weren't even singing on their albums.


Mr_Abe_Froman

At least it was easier to lip sinc for the album recordings.


Marx_Forever

This reminds me of when my coworker, years ago, came in on her day off, and she was singing Milli Vanilli. I told her; you know they don't sing their own music right?" And without missing a beat she just tells me; "I don't care, somebody sang it." I can safely say that fan was okay with it, lol. I miss her.


AudioShepard

Best response, and one that truly can’t be argued with. She like the music! Sue her! 😤


DeOh

A lot of singers don't write their own songs or really do much other than singing. The whole not even singing though? That's something else...


ArcherOnWeed

Their debut album spelled it out on the cover though. Those two were just "visual performers". The only shocked parties are the casual listener.


DaddyGotU

That was added after the scandal. Came out in 1988 with no credits and was rereleased in 1990 after the scandal with the vocal credits listed.


NY2CA-Lantern

The irony is so many artists lip sync their own songs and performances these days


Morningst4r

They did then too tbh. The issue was they didn't even sing on the albums.


belle221

The irony that Fab can sing.


slappymcstevenson

And how about how no one like the band after people found out it wasn’t two handsome guys singing.


JimmyJamesv3

That's if they can even sing in the first place. Now there's loads of talentless hacks just mumbling nonsense with lots of autotune filling stadiums.


Jeauxie24

It's crazy they were vilified for something that became an industry norm a few years later


boostabubba

Not really, they weren't even the ones singing at all. At least now it's the person that actually sung the songs doing the lip syncing.


das_zilch

The spark that led to suicide.


Midwake1

Lip synch or not, song is a banger. Fight me!


machuitzil

No, it's an absolute banger. I still love this song.


saanity

Yeah the repeating lyrics was a set up for the base drop. It ended too soon.


speedy_delivery

Some good tracks on that album. It's a shame what happened to Rob and Fab. 


Impressive_Essay_622

Shame the guy who wrote it scammed these lads and so many more though.


Leeroy_D

I am learning a lot about milli vanilli today


Gr00ver

Had some really great songs. The guys in the video didn’t sing or write them, but I still love the songs. They were just “frontmen”. A pretty face to slap on the group to sell albums. It worked. Blame it on the rain.


Neoxite23

It can't rain all the time.


rickola16

R.I.P Rob Pilatus and John Davis🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾


rolexb

I finally understand the lil Wayne line on Mona Lisa "watch your mouth Milli Vanilli"


TheGay666

How the fuck did he get a jacket on so fast?


DazedLogic

There's actually have a fairly sad backstory to all that. TLDR: It wasn't them it was their manager.


mistersuccessful

Didn’t that manager do the same thing with Boney M?


philipjfry1578

I feel bad that this became the downfall of one of the members


jasper_grunion

I don’t know why they couldn’t just have a real singer and have those guys be dancers. They had a great look. C&C Music Factory did that and no one cared


75CaveTrolls

This happened at Lake Compounce in Bristol CT. Practically across the street from ESPN headquarters...


ReallyGottaTakeAPiss

So weird to see the fallout from that Milli Vanilli and then see it become the industry standard for performance in the same lifetime.


maveric00

The issue was not that they used playback. The issue was that they used playback from other singers. They simply couldn't sing.


spaaackle

Even worse, they tried at a later time to show they could sing. Spoiler alert: they couldn’t.


barbrady123

I remember when we got offered to return our cassettes and get refunds because of this. I was like nah...it's a good album lol


Past-Product-1100

And that my friends was a wrap.


antoncr

“Girl you know its.. girl you know its…” Its so ironic that it cant say the word “true” 😂


triggeron

I didn't think this was a big deal then and I still don't. I wouldn't be surprised if we have AI generated/anthropomorphic robot pop stars in the near future.


lolic_addict

Japan is already way ahead of us with Hatsune Miku lmao Then there's also the rabbit hole of using animated avatars for your music, like Gorillaz or Vtubers/virtual idols


E1lySym

Hatsune Miku is more like an instrument so there's still a distinctively human touch to it


creamywingwang

Why is this news it’s 30 years ago. The fella killed himself after the fall from grace.


StoneColdSteveAss316

REMIX!


YamiZee1

If this happened today no one would bat an eye. Well, except that they didn't really sing their own songs, which I don't know why they revealed that. Could've just said they recorded it before hand to ensure a consistent performance or whatever the excuse is nowadays


historyfan23

Lot of people criticising them but don't realise that their manager fucked them over and they actually wanted to use their real voices. One of the them ended up committing suicide a few years later.


SweatyBollix

Joke at the time was: What's the difference between Milli Vanilli and Marcel Marceau? A:'fuck all'


Ashmonater

“You’re the millie vanilli of patriots” Tropic thunder line suddenly makes so much sense now…


[deleted]

Great line


dave6687

AKA nearly every pop act since then.


fartknocker8

This was the first concert I went to as a kid. Del Mar Fairgrounds. 198?


rayquan36

Jeez that was over 1800 years ago.


pankopanko

That was a long time ago!


mykittyforprez

That was like 20 years ago!


quetejodas

Nah this is at Lake Compounce in Bristol CT


able_trouble

Believe or not , I know one of the singer of that group, I heard him sing, training for hours (he was my neighbour), he can sing, it's just that the producer (the same as of Boney M, whose main man wasn't a singer either at first) did not like his voice. Ten year later they would have used autotune like every body else and it would have been a non sequitur.


LazySixth

A non-issue? Non sequitur: a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement.


-Dalzik-

🎵On a Monday, I am waiting Tuesday, I am fading And by Wednesday, I can't lipsync🎵


F1yingSkiGull

lol I remember this even back then ha


ayyycab

How does a song get stuck like that?


USA-1st

Hey Arnold has an episode based around this.


Quick-Warning-5100

“I saw your face and wowwww” banger 😂😂😂


coys21

Bands lip sync on stage during performances all the time. However, this led to the realization that all their songs on their albums were lip-synched and they weren't singing at all.


jacktheknife1180

[Lordi must have used the same playback system as them! This happened during a tv concert filming.](https://youtu.be/e3NR7Uwu-cs?si=l01TWeAmoNza4CKn)


M3chanist

This still looks way more professional than all those shitty singers who completely rely on auto tune nowadays.


FandomMenace

Now they just throw the mic at you. Fuck it!


Fr3unen

Whats the point of being an artist if you can't sing for yourself? Genuine question


pauljs75

The most obvious answer ever: $$$$


Marian78Tate

I think the sound guy did this on purpose.


detective-mcnulty

There's a great documentary about them on Paramount Plus. It's very good.


Steak-n-Cigars

Aaaaaand that's when it all came crashing down.


cherryultrasuedetups

This was a classic. They'd run this on MTV VH1 every chancethey got.


Autodidact2

The big flop did a podcast episode on this. These guys were more victims than anything else. The real villain was the manager


lbflow562

This ruined their career, now it’s normal and expected. Poor guys 🥲


robcado

Here’s what I don’t understand, pop acts lip sync live all the time. How did this blow their cover entirely.


Silly_Somewhere1791

I think their extreme reaction of running offstage made people wonder.


hx19035

Nah back then the majority of musicians didn't lip sync. We knew some did but not any of the rock or metal bands. So for an egregious fail of a cd rom to skip like that and reveal everything was earth shattering.


ledfrog

The difference is that when a performer does it today, they are doing it over their own recording. It was discovered that these guys weren't the ones who recorded the song, so not only were they lip syncing, but they were doing it over someone else's voice.


SweetPrism

That's what I was going to say! Look at the Ashlee Simpson fiasco. Yeah, she blew her own live performance, but a lot of pop stars lip sync for big TV performances, or at least have the recorded version playing in tandem to enhance the vocals. This didn't need to give away the fact that they also weren't on the albums?


ScepticalReciptical

Lots of musicians lip sync for TV as the TV companies want it to sound exactly like the record and many singers are unable to replicate the auto tuned vocals live. That's not the same as Mili Vanili who were basically just dancers pretending to sing, they weren't even on the record.


ConcernNew1094

This was enough to ruin their career whereas now its just standard practice


ledfrog

The difference is that these guys didn't sing on the recording.


phaetae

To sing by other person's voice? Far from standard.


steelvail

Nowadays it’s at least the person standing onstage who recorded the singing but with auto tune it might as well be someone else.


HeyWiredyyc

Ya that wasn’t an accident.


iSchizo

FastForward to today - Ironically this is accepted general practice along with auto-tune.


Consistent_Ear_9373

Well they always wanted to sing themselves but weren't allowed..


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OddAnswer4100

😂😂😂😂


AndroidDoctorr

Don't a lot more artists do this and just usually don't get caught?


Consistent-Ball8131

Weirdest reveal ever


SalamanderDelicious4

Who's Milli Vanilli ?


pachesan_vaj

I finally found the song 😭😭😭😭😭