Boney M Creator Frank Farian Dies at 82

German music producer Frank Farian, the man behind the disco band Boney M, has died at the age of 82, his family has announced.

They said he passed away at his home in Miami on Tuesday, in a statement released by his agency.

Boney M, which Farian founded in 1976, had a string of disco hits such as Daddy Cool, Rasputin and Rivers of Babylon.

Farian also created the duo Milli Vanilli, who were exposed as lip-synchers in a notorious scandal.

He was born Franz Reuther in 1941 in Kirn, south-western Germany, and worked as a chef while also pursuing a musical career – first as a singer and then as a producer.

He collaborated with artists such as Meat Loaf and Stevie Wonder and sold an estimated 800 million records worldwide.

In 1990, Farian admitted that Milli Vanilli had not sung on their records.

The duo – who had a series of hits in the late 1980s – had their Grammy Award for best new artist taken away.

In 2022, Farian revealed he had a heart surgery and a pig heart valve implanted, which he said saved his life.