Did the Menendez brothers play Milli Vanilli at their parents’ funeral, what was the band's lip sync scandal?

For those of you who have not started watching Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix, don’t worry as there are no major spoiler alerts in my article. I am focusing however on the eighties group Milli Vanilli, and more specifically on their track, ‘Girl I’m Gonna Miss You.’

In Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, the brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez are listening to Girl You Know It's True by Milli Vanilli as they are in the car on the way to the funeral of their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez. 

Lyle and Erik Menendez have currently served more than three decades for fatally shooting their parents Jose and Kitty Menendez at their home in Beverly Hills. Relatives of the brothers have recently gathered in Los Angeles to ask for their release and claim the brothers are not a threat to society and endured appalling sexual abuse at the hands of their father, Jose Menendez. 

In the scene where Erik and Lyle Menendez are on the way to their parents’ funeral, Nicholas Alexander Chavez who plays Lyle Menendez makes a reference to Millie Vanilli and says: “I f***ing love these guys" In the funeral scene, Lyle is then seen dedicating the song to his mother, Kitty.

Although there has been speculation that the funeral scene with the Milli Vanilli song was fictionalised, this is apparently not the case and the song ‘Girl I’m Gonna Miss You’ was played at the funeral. 

 However, according to Rob Rand, who has written a novel on the Menendez brothers and extensively covered the case, tweeted that it was also also played at the memorial, but it was not Lyle who asked for the song to be played. 

Rob Rand tweeted: “One major clarification: Lyle NEVER signalled a DJ to play ‘Miss You’ by Mili Vanilli. The memorial was staged by Rogers and Cowan, a major PR firm that was hired by LIVE Entertainment. They handed every detail of the DGA memorial- including the music, NOT the brothers.”

What happened to the band Milli Vanilli?

 Milli Vanilli have been described as the ‘Eighties most scandalous pop duo,’ but unless you were around in the decade, chances are you may not have heard of the band, let alone know what happened to them! 

In 2023, a documentary aired about the pair on Paramount Plus which explored both their rise and devastating fall from grace. The band Milli Vanilli, which was founded by Frank Farian in 1988, comprised Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus.

The duo achieved enormous success, Milli Vanilli won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990 and they sold millions of records. However, their success soon came crashing down when a hard drive caused their song ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ to skip during a live MTV performance. 

Rob Pilatus said: "When my voice got stuck in the computer, and it just kept repeating and repeating, I panicked. I didn't know what to do. I just ran off the stage."

It later transpired that the voices behind Milli Vanilli were Brad Howell and John Davis, which led to their Grammy award being revoked. Rob and Fab did attempt a comeback using their own voices in 1998 with the album Back and in Attack, but tragedy beckoned for Rob Pilatus.

Their album was never released as the night before the promotional tour for it, Rob Pilatus died of an accidental drug and alcohol overdose.