How a Lip-Syncing Controversy Tore a Chart-Topping Group Apart

In 2022, he’s the producer and label owner behind ARIA Award-winning artist Genesis Owusu, but exactly 30 years ago, Andrew Klippel had the number 1 song in Australia, “Love You Right”, with dance-pop band Euphoria – a project that was fraught with friction.

In new podcast A Journey Through Aussie Pop, Klippel talks candidly about what he calls “the cancer of the project” when the choice was made to have model Holly Garnett mime in the “Love You Right” video when it was actually Keren Minshull who performed on the track.

“I didn’t come up with the idea of her lip syncing it,” Klippel explains. “I had never actually made a video before and wasn’t really in charge of making it. We show up and perform, and then you get given the video. I was kind of like, ‘It’s weird that Holly’s singing and she’s not actually singing in the track.’”

Klippel’s concerns were dismissed at the time, and although the situation was corrected for Euphoria’s second chart-topping single, “One In A Million”, with Klippel, Garnett and Minshull all performing on the track and appearing in the accompanying music video, the damage was done.

“Keren, who is the real singer of the project, never really got over that happening,” Klippel says, “And as a result, we all never really got along well and it became untenable to work within the band.”

After being a member of the incredibly successful but short-lived group and releasing more music through solo project AK Soul, Klippel became an in-demand writer and producer. He was responsible for Human Nature’s breakthrough hit, “Wishes”, and a significant amount of the boy band’s early material, and then went on to form Engine Room, the home of The Vines, The Veronicas, Lash and Holly Valance.

In the first episode of A Journey Through Aussie Pop, Klippel openly discusses how, despite major worldwide success with Engine Room, he took a step back from the music industry.

“[Engine Room] was just going off… and after that I took some personal time out and was dealing with some personal struggles with addiction and different other things.” 

He also explains how he got through that dark period of his life to emerge on the other side, launch his next label, Ourness, and sign Owusu, with the pair working collaboratively on the ARIA Album of the Year.

Listen to A Journey Through Aussie Pop on Apple, Spotify, Amazon and all major podcast platforms or at chartbeats.com.au/aussie