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Fabrice (Fab) Morvan of Milli Vanilli fame has become the latest artist to back out of the 250th-anniversary concerts in Washington, D.C.
Morvan seemed to be all in for the summer concerts as recently as Friday. He reversed his stance on CNN on Monday night, referring to the past week as a “circus.”
“This is not what I signed up for,” Morvan told the network.
Vanilla Ice and Flo Rida remain the only acts of the nine originally scheduled to perform at the Freedom 250 anniversary events organized by the Trump administration.
Poison frontman Bret Michaels, American country singer Martina McBride, rapper Young MC, Morris Day and the time, and the Commodores also bailed, over concerns of the partisan tone of the event.
C+C Music Factory’s appearance remains uncertain after lead rapper Freedom Williams said in a video, which he admitted he recorded while sitting on the toilet, that he was blindsided by texts from people calling him out for doing the “Trump Freedom show.”
Morvan’s reasoning for pulling out
Morvan told CNN that after learning Young MC had pulled out, “I was like, ‘Well, that’s weird … what does he know that I don’t know?’ I was a little worried there. And then, one after the next, people started to leave, but I was told by my team who was told by another team, ‘There’s nothing, there’s no political entanglement, there’s no political alignment.’
“I was there to unite the people, to bring people together, to have them walk down memory lane, celebrate life … But throughout the week, it turned into a circus … this is not what I stand for.
“I’m not into politics, so you hear it first here: I’m not attending the June 26th celebration.”
Morvan, who’s originally from France, and Rob Pilatus, a German performer who died in 1998, were a late 1980s phenomenon founded by German producer Frank Farian. The pair topped the charts with songs including Girl You Know It’s True, Blame It on the Rain and I’m Gonna Miss You, and sold out concerts that featured their elaborate dance routines.
However, they were later embroiled in a scandal when it was learned they didn’t sing their own songs, and their 1990 Grammy Award as best new artist was revoked. Morvan and Pilatus later spoke out about the controversy, saying Farian refused to let them perform using their own voices. The 2023 biopic Girl You Know It’s True, which involved Morvan and Pilatus’s sister Carmen Pilatus, chronicles their rise to fame and fall.
Today, Morvan is lead singer in a new iteration of Milli Vanilli. Last Thursday, other members told The Associated Press that they wouldn’t be performing as was previously announced.
“My sister and I were shocked to see our name, Milli Vanilli, as one of the performers,” band member Jodie Rocco wrote in an email.
At the time, Morvan released a statement saying he would be performing at the Great American State Fair.
“I’m here to entertain and unite the people, not divide them,” he said Thursday. “Let’s celebrate life and music, and take a trip down memory lane.”
On its website, Freedom 250 says the event is about “celebrating the triumph of the American spirit.” But other events and commemorations surrounding the U.S.’s birthday have attracted criticism for glorifying U.S. President Donald Trump. They include efforts to put Trump’s face on commemorative coins, his signature on bills and his face on a special passport.
From cash to passports to a UFC fight on U.S. President Donald Trump’s birthday, plans for the 250th anniversary of America’s independence are raising one question: who is the celebration really for? (Photo credits: The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock, Getty Images)
Trump wants concerts cancelled
On Saturday, Trump said he was considering cancelling the series of concerts altogether and making himself the headline act instead.
He said on the social media platform Truth Social that he’s considering giving a speech and a rally instead of seeing “these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists’” perform. He also called himself “The Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime and he does so without a guitar.”
During his CNN interview, Morvan responded to Trump’s comments, saying, “I don’t even try to enter into this arena. I deal with everyday people. When I perform for people, it’s with love.”
