State Champ Radio Pop
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Frank Farian, the Wizard of Oz-like Svengali behind the rise and fall of disgraced late 1980s musical duo Milli Vanilli has died at age 82. BBC News reported that Farian’s family released a statement on Tuesday (Jan. 23) that the elusive German producer/songwriter had passed away at his home in Miami of undisclosed causes; at press time Billboard had not independently confirmed Farian’s death.
The studio maestro born in Kirn, Germany on July 18, 1941 began his career in the mid-1960s as a vocalist for the rock band Frankie Boys Schatten. After struggling to break through, Farian hit upon the formula that would twice take him to the highest heights of global success via his first musical sleight of hand vehicle, pop group Boney M.
A talented vocalist and arranger with a golden ear for hooks, Farian assembled the 1970s disco funk group featuring three female vocalist — Marcia Barrett, Liz Mitchell and Maizie Williams — and fronted by Aruban go-go dancer Bobby Farrell after breaking through in a number of European markets in 1975 with the bouncy “Do You Wanna Bump.” The song was credited to “Boney M,” despite Farian singing all the high and low vocal parts. In a genius marketing move, Farian decided to put a face to his creation in time to release Boney M’s 1976 debut album, Take the Heat Off Me.
Unbeknownst to the group’s fans, Farian sang all the male lead vocals for the group that would go on to sell more than 100 million records thanks to such quirky, but undeniable dance floor jams as “Rasputin,” “Daddy Cool,” the Bobby Hebb cover “Sunny” and the swaying, reggae-lite “Rivers of Babylon.” The group released two more albums in quick succession and achieved global success, with seemingly little concern for the open secret that Farrell — who died in 2010 at 61 — was not its actual lead singer, but rather a gifted performer who fronted the band with the assist of more polished backing vocalists.
Farian also later revealed that in addition to Farrell, Williams had not sung on the group’s albums either. By 1981 fractures had formed in Boney M and Farrell split following a fall-out with Farian, cueing up another soon-to-be-familiar trope in the producer’s modus operandi: replacing the non-singing lead singer with a fresh face, in this case singer Reggie Tsiboe. Boney M released eight studio albums in total to diminishing returns, reuniting and splitting up a number of times throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Credited with helping to popularize the Eurodisco sound and establishing one of Germany’s most technologically advanced 1980s recording studios with his Frankfurt-based FAR Studios, Farian had another, even bigger, trick up his sleeve. FAR was where Farian cooked up his second, and even more globally successful second act: Milli Vanilli. After hearing the hip-hop/R&B track “Girl You Know It’s True” by Baltimore-based hip-hop group Numarx in a German nightclub, Farian hatched his another studio creation, again recording the basic tracks on his own and hiring a group of mostly ex-pat American session singers, rappers and musicians to lay down the vocals for the group that would score three No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
Needing a face for the band whose version of “Girl You Know It’s True” was blowing up all over Europe, Farian spotted aspiring singers dancers Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan in a club and hired them to perform as the frontmen of his latest phantom act. The photogenic, high-energy pair perfectly fit the part, with their signature flowing braids, skintight bicycle shorts and peppy dance moves. The songs on the European debut album, All or Nothing, were so catchy, in fact, that legendary American record label boss Clive Davis of Arista Records licensed the collection and released a revamped version in March 1989 called Girl You Know It’s True.
With the addition of the soon-to-be No. 1 Diane Warren-penned balled “Blame It on the Rain” — alongside No. 1 hits “Girl I’m Gonna Miss You” and “Baby Don’t Forget My Number” — Milli mania took over the world. The American version spent 78 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart — peaking at No. 1 for 8 weeks, making Milli Vanilli one of the year’s most dominant pop acts.
But if anyone had been listening to the press interviews the duo were doing in Europe they would have quickly surmised that something was rotten in Frankfurt, given the thick accents and thin command of the English language by Munich-bred Pilatus and Paris-born Morvan. Once the group joined the Club MTV tour in 1989, where repeated equipment failures with the pre-recorded vocals made it crystal clear that Rob and Fab were lip synching, the charade began to fall apart.
With both men pushing hard to sing on the follow-up album — a request that Farian vehemently shut down — their growing intransigence created a tension that would result in one of the biggest scandals in Grammy Awards history. After winning the Grammy for best new artist at the 1990 awards, where they also bucked history by lip synching during their performance, Farian admitted to the ruse in a Nov. 15, 1990 press conference. That admission resulted in Milli Vanilli getting dumped from Arista and having the ignoble asterisk as the only act in Grammy history to have their award taken back.
Farian shrugged off the pearl clutching by some in the American media — as well as a handful of fans who sued Arista and parent Company BMG in a class action that resulted in refunds for concert tickets and albums purchased — by blithely telling the Washington Post at the time that the group was, “one part was visual, one part recorded. Such projects are an art form in themselves, and the fans were happy with the music.”
In addition to his work with MV and Boney M, Farian produced and mixed Meat Loaf’s 1986 album Blind Before I Stop and his high-tech FAR studio was where Stevie Wonder recorded his best-selling single ever, 1984’s “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” Farian kept a low profile throughout much of the 2000s and revealed in 2022 that he’d undergone heart surgery that reportedly included the implanting of a pig heart valve. His former assistant/girlfriend Ingrid “Milli” Segieth, who provided the inspiration for MV’s name, told German paper Bild that she’d seen Farian over the new year in Miami and that he was “physically very weak, but was still full of energy” and working the studio all day on new music.
The producer was markedly absent in this year’s Milli Vanilli biopic — which featured commentary from this writer — after the film’s director was unable to get the reclusive music maker to agree to an interview.
After a promotional frenzy filled with plenty of controversy, Lil Nas X is officially back like “J Christ” on the Hot 100. Lil Nas X’s latest single “J Christ” debuted at No. 69 on the chart dated Jan. 27, and the rapper is taking that particular ranking as a milestone achievement in his career. “we […]
Amy Winehouse takes a casual stroll through a chic hotel in the new official lyric video for the late singer’s 2004 song “In My Bed.” The visual is comprised of previously unseen footage from the original video that was released on April 5, 2004. The jazzy R&B track was featured on Winehouse’s debut full-length album, […]
Netflix announced on Monday (Jan. 22) that Britney Spears‘ 2002 coming-of-age roadtrip dramedy Crossroads will make its streaming debut next month. “The first movie to ever star the one and only Britney Spears has never been available on streaming… but that’s about to change!” the streamer said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to announce that […]
Ariana Grande said that s— with her chest, and it paid off. The pop superstar’s “Yes, And?” debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart dated Jan. 27, 2024, and she took to Instagram on Monday (Jan. 22) to celebrate the achievement and thank her fans for all their support. “i am so so so……. […]
Boy George isn’t holding back in his memoir, Karma: My Autobiography.
The Culture Club star reflected on his many not-so-positive run-ins with Madonna over the years, noting that “every gay man loves Madonna and there’s no one gayer than me.”
He recalled the first time he met the Queen of Pop. “This is where Madonna alleges she met me, and I was bitchy,” he wrote in an excerpt shared with People. “She describes me as head to toe in Westwood.” George added that, at the time, he was wearing Sue Clowes exclusively, so the person she met couldn’t have been him.
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Madge allegedly later snubbed him at the opening of an NYC club called Palladium. “Madonna arrived with Sean Penn and pretended she didn’t see me,” he wrote. “Madonna is everything it says on the tin but she adds new ingredients every day. I know for a fact she’s too full of herself to even mention me. She once said, ‘Boy George was mean to me in the eighties and he’s still mean.’ To be fair, I haven’t really been given the opportunity.”
However, George says he still loves some of her songs. “Not knowing anything about her I would assume she’d have issue with the word ‘some.’ … I have a sense of humour, I don’t think Madonna does, despite some of the clothes she wears (LOL),” he added.
“I love all the drama of, you know, the pop star behavior. I love to watch Madonna. I mean, the Madonna brand is genius,” George continued. “But outside of that, you know, it’s how you act. You know, because you want, as I say in the book, you want your artists to be weirdly beautiful and strange and all that, but you also want them to be kind of ordinary.”
However, he still has faith in their future. “Like Bette and Joan, we should have been friends,” he says. “There’s still time.”
Pssssssssst. Megan Thee Stallion just announced her new single “Hiss” — and it’s arriving sooner than you think.
A fittingly titled follow-up to her most recent solo single “Cobra,” “Hiss” will arrive Friday (Jan. 26), as announced by Meg on Instagram Monday (Jan. 22). “HISS JANUARY 26 🥚🐍PRE-SAVE NOW,” she wrote.
The “WAP” rapper also shared artwork for the single — a graphic design with a retro feel that features Meg posing with a dangerous-looking white snake around her neck, its fangs and forked tongue on display. The song’s title is displayed in red gothic lettering at the top.
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The three-time Grammy winner also shared alternative artwork for the single on Twitter, this time sans snake. In the second version, Meg stares down the camera in a red bodysuit patterned with cutouts.
“Hiss” will mark Meg’s first solo release since her Nov. 3 single “Cobra,” which debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard Hot 100. In between the two projects, she teamed up with Mean Girls star Reneé Rapp for “Not My Fault,” which the two women performed together over the weekend on Saturday Night Live.
The new track will also mark Meg’s second proper release under her own independent record label and entertainment company, Hot Girl Productions. She recently settled a yearslong legal battle with her former label, 1501 Certified Entertainment, with the two parties reaching a mutual settlement in October that allowed them to “amicably part ways.”
All of this comes in the lead-up to Meg’s upcoming third album, which will follow 2020’s Good News and 2022’s Traumazine — both of which charted in the top five of the Billboard 200. “This part of my album is very much so funded by Megan Thee Stallion because we’re trying to get off … Y’all know what’s the tea,” she teased in an October Instagram Live. “I have no label right now… The next s—t y’all about to see is all straight from Megan Thee Stallion’s brain and Megan Thee Stallion’s wallet. We are in my pockets, hotties, so let’s do our big one.”
See Meg’s announcement below:
Just months after turning 10 years old, One Direction‘s iconic “Story of My Life” music video has surpassed one billion views on YouTube.
Uploaded to the platform Nov. 3, 2013, the four-minute visual stars then bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne along with real members of their families as they recreate childhood photos. In one scene, for instance, a picture of a young Styles sitting on the couch next to his mom Anne morphs into a present-day version, the pair sitting in the same position — the “As It Was” singer now several inches taller, but still in the same blue bathrobe.
In another childhood photo, a young Tomlinson sits with his parents and grandparents. When the scene shifts to present day, he and his mom and dad visibly age — however, his grandmother and grandfather fade away altogether.
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“Written in these walls are the stories that I can’t explain/ I leave my heart open but it stays right here empty for days,” Styles sings at the beginning, the rest of the boys joining him later for the chorus. “The story of my life, I take her home/ I drive all night to keep her warm/ And time is frozen.”
The track was released in 2013 ahead of the boy band’s third album, Midnight Memories, which debuted atop the Billboard 200 and was the group’s third of four straight No. 1 albums. It peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, one of six tracks to reach the top 10 in the band’s career before its 2016 hiatus.
“Story of My Life” isn’t the first 1D video to join YouTube’s billion views club. The beachy visual for the band’s 2011 debut single “What Makes You Beautiful” also reached the milestone, as did 2015’s NASA-themed “Drag Me Down.”
Watch “Story of My Life” below.
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Justin Timberlake is back in the ring. After a five-year drought of any solo material from the pop star, he’s finally announced that his new single, “Selfish,” is coming in a matter of days. The former boy bander broke the news by simply posting what appears to be the song’s cover art on social media […]
More than 30 years since Billy Joel released his last pop album, 1993’s River of Dreams, he’s putting out a new pop single, “Turn the Lights Back On.”
Columbia Records, Joel’s longtime label home, will release the song on Feb. 1 to all digital service providers and on limited edition 7” vinyl. It will be accompanied by a lyric video on Joel’s YouTube channel.
Joel, who has scored 33 Top 40 hits, hinted about the new song at his Dec. 19 show as part of his Madison Square Garden residency, telling the audience, “I have good news. I have bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first. We don’t have anything new to play for you. The good news is you don’t have to sit through something you have no idea what it is. Although we’ve got a little something we’ve been working on you might hear sometime.”
The pop song — which Joel wrote with Freddy Wexler, Arthur Bacon and Wayne Hector and was produced by Wexler — includes the lyrics, “Did I wait too long … to turn the lights back on?” It’s Joel’s first song released with words since 2007’s “All My Life,” a lush, Sinatra-like ballad Joel wrote for his then wife, Katie Lee, that reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Singles Sales chart.
No word on if “Turn the Lights Back On” is a one-off or a precursor to more material, but Joel has been open about his hesitation to return to his pop heyday, making the new song all the more welcome. “I’m not ruling out the possibility of writing songs again,” Joel told Billboard in 2007, a few months after “All My Life’s” release. “I suppose if I had the motivation to write a song, I’m not gonna stop myself from doing it. I just haven’t felt the compulsion to write songs in pop form. I guess these days I just think of myself as a composer.”
More recently, Joel told the New Yorker of his decision to stop recording, “Some people think it’s because I’m lazy or I’m just being contrary … But, no, I think it’s just — I’ve had my say … I’m not crazy about going into a recording studio and doing that kind of life again, or taking on another project where there’s other people involved, arrangers and orchestrators and conductors and producers. I don’t want to deal with it.”
The six-time Grammy winner’s last studio album was a collection of his classical anthems, Fantasies & Delusions, released on Sony Classical, in 2001.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee is on the tail end of his record-breaking 10-year residency at Madison Square Garden. Joel has played the historic New York City arena once a month since January 2014, and will wrap with his 150th show in July. He continues to tour outside of the residency, including a sold-out stadium show in Tokyo on Thursday (Jan. 25).
