Bobby, found dead in his room in St Petersburg, ended his days doing what he loved – performing.
He was born on Aruba in the Caribbean and was a DJ in Holland in 1975 when he was recruited by Farian, now 71, for Boney M – with Liz Mitchell, Marcia Barrett and Maizie Williams.
The group sold more than 150million records and peaked in 1978 when Rivers of Babylon, Brown Girl in the Ring and Rasputin became huge global hits.
Boney M also had that year’s UK Christmas No1, selling more than two million copies of Mary’s Boy Child – Oh My Lord. Bobby became a rich man.
But the band allegedly had a share of only nine per cent of the royalties. And when the hits dried up the cash flow dwindled. Zanillya’s mother Yasmina married Bobby in 1981.
Their daughter said: “Mum learned how the business worked and asked about contracts. Eventually my father asked Farian what their contract was but he said he became ‘very weird’ so my father left the band.”
When Zanillya was born in 1983 her parents lived in a 13-bedroom mansion in Germany.
But they were on borrowed time financially and the contract with Farian had to be renewed.
Zanillya claimed:
“When Dad asked Farian for 100,000 marks he was told to sign some papers. He signed away everything – image rights, royalties, the lot. My father lost everything. We had to move in with my grandmother in the Netherlands and live on welfare. After that, Dad started getting angry a lot.
“But Mum was very smart and realised if you own the name you can use it.
“Farian had not registered Boney M all over the world. So that’s why Dad could perform in certain countries.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bobby-farrells-daughter-tells-of-the-fame-1502821
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