JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Earlier this month, the Grammys announced their latest batch of nominations. One nominee has a fraught history with the Awards. NPR Music's Stephen Thompson has the story.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: The Grammy Awards have perpetrated many embarrassments, weird snubs and moments in which classics were passed over in favor of flashes in the pan. But if you had to pick one low point to single out, it'd have to be the time the Grammys gave Milli Vanilli the prize for best new artist. That year was 1990, when Milli Vanilli had scored a string of top 10 singles, songs like "Blame It On The Rain" and "Girl You Know It's True."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIRL YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE")
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) Girl, you know it's true.
UNIDENTIFIED BACKING SINGERS: (Singing) Ooh, ooh, ooh, I love you.
THOMPSON: The songs were huge hits, but they weren't performed by the guys on the record cover and in the videos, who were supposed to be the singers. Those guys, Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, were lip-synching. News broke in the fall of 1990, several months after Pilatus and Morvan took home the best new artist Grammy. It was an instant scandal for the nonsinging singers and for the Recording Academy. Milli Vanilli's Grammy was revoked, and that was that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLAME IT ON THE RAIN")
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) Blame it on the rain that was falling, falling.
THOMPSON: Until now. Rob Pilatus died in 1998, while Fab Morvan has kept working. Earlier this year, he released his memoir, "You Know It's True: The Real Story Of Milli Vanilli," and he recorded an audiobook to accompany it. On November 7, 35 years after the Grammys forgot his number, Fab Morvan was nominated for a Grammy in the category of best audiobook, narration and storytelling recording. His competition includes Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Dalai Lama, who, had they thought ahead, really should have lip-synched each other's books just to be rascals.
It's a surprising nomination, given the Milli Vanilli incident didn't just make the Grammys look bad. It also compelled the Recording Academy to be more cautious about honoring genres and subgenres widely viewed as lightweight. Since Milli Vanilli, the Grammys have been slow to embrace K-pop, boy bands and other acts who face a credibility gap among voters. The Grammys commonly veer more toward legacy acts and modern rock stars or flamboyant showmen like Bruno Mars and jazzy pop sophisticates like Norah Jones.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COME AWAY WITH ME")
NORAH JONES: (Singing) Come away with me in the night.
THOMPSON: It took years for the Grammys to fully embrace stars like Justin Bieber and Harry Styles, both of whom had to demonstrate staying power first. The Grammys have even tweaked the eligibility requirements for the category of best new artist, in part to allow acts more time to prove themselves. Fab Morvan's Grammy nomination presents a twist few saw coming, a redemption story for a guy who helped bend the arc of Grammy history.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY DON'T FORGET MY NUMBER")
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) Ba-ba-ba-ba-baby,
THOMPSON: Stephen Thompson, NPR Music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY DON'T FORGET MY NUMBER")
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) Don't forget my number, number, number.
UNIDENTIFIED BACKING SINGERS: (Singing) Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba...
MILLI VANILLI AND UNIDENTIFIED BACKING SINGERS: (Singing) ...Baby...
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) ...Baby.
MILLI VANILLI AND UNIDENTIFIED BACKING SINGERS: (Singing) Love is stronger than thunder. Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-baby...
MILLI VANILLI: (Singing) ...Baby. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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