1989

1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Gregorian calendar, the 1989th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 989th year of the 2nd millennium, the 89th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1980s decade. It was a historical turning point for the wave of revolutions that swept the Eastern Bloc, starting in Poland that summer with the beginning of a move towards private enterprise, coming to a head with opening of the Berlin Wall in November, embracing the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Romania in December and ending in December 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Collectively known as the Revolutions of 1989, they heralded the beginning of the post–Cold War period.

It was the year of the first Brazilian presidential elections in 29 years, since the end of the military government in 1985 which commanded the country for more than twenty years, and marked the redemocratization process's final point. F. W. de Klerk was elected in South Africa, and his regime gradually dismantled the apartheid system over the next five years, culminating with the 1994 election that brought jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela to power. The Echo Boom in the United States reached its peak in 1989–1990.

Milli Vanilli

Milli Vanilli was a West German-based R&B, pop and dance music project created by Frank Farian in Munich in 1988. The group was formed with Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus. The group's debut album Girl You Know It's True achieved international success and earned them a Grammy Award for Best New Artist on 21 February 1990. Milli Vanilli became one of the most popular pop acts in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their success turned to infamy when the Grammy award was withdrawn after Morvan, Pilatus and their agent Sergio Vendero confessed that Morvan and Pilatus did not actually sing any of the vocals heard on the record. The group recorded a comeback album in 1998, but Rob Pilatus died before the album was released.

Beginnings

According to VH1's Behind the Music, the single "Girl You Know It's True" was first produced by Jesse Powell and had already been completed before Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were recruited. Frank Farian felt that no efforts should be focused on refining Pilatus and Morvan's voices. Farian added his own studio-augmented voice to recordings, using back-up singers to hide the other two members' voices live.