Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer.

Williams performed his first songs in 1990, with the group Take That. In 1995, he left Take That to start playing and writing music on his own. In the United Kingdom, he has sold more albums than any other British singer, more than 55 million in total.

Career

After he left Take That, Williams' first record was the song "Freedom", which was written by George Michael. His first album was called "Life Thru a Lens". It was first sold in September 1997. At this time, Williams had many problems with alcohol and depression. "Angels", a song from his first album, became his most famous song. Because "Angels" was so successful, the album "Life Thru a Lens" became much more popular, and he sold more than three million copies of it in Europe.

Williams wrote "Millennium", which was a song based on the music from the James Bond films, for his second album, "I've Been Expecting You". "Millennium" became his first Number One in the charts. Two more songs from the same album, "No Regrets" (which Williams wrote with Neil Tennant and Neil Hannon) and "Strong", were both successful in the United Kingdom. Another song from this album, "She's The One", also became aumber One song.

Williams was not very successful outside Europe until he made the album "Sing When You're Winning", which was first sold in August 2000. The song "Rock DJ" won many awards: for example, it was called "Best Single (song) Of The Year" at the Brit Awards, and MTV gave Robbie Williams an award for the special effects in the video. At this time, Robbie Williams recorded a duet, "Kids", with Kylie Minogue. Many of his songs, for example, "Supreme" and "Better Man", became popular in many different countries.

In 2001, Williams recorded covers (copies) of several songs that had been performed earlier by Frank Sinatra. One of these songs was a duet with Nicole Kidman, called "Somethin' Stupid". Later in 2001, he began to sell the album "Swing When You're Winning". The album became successful very quickly. Altogether he sold 7 million copies. A song from the album, "Beyond the Sea", was used at the end of the film "Finding Nemo". At this time, he also recorded a song he had written, "Eternity", which was not on any albums. It was very successful and became a Number One song.

In 2002, Williams signed a contract to say he would work for the company EMI. He worked on his next album, "Escapology", for a year. Many people think that "Escapology" was different from Williams' earlier music. The album was very successful in Europe, but it was not so successful in America. For the video for the song "Something Beautiful", Robbie ran a competition. The winner of the competition pretended to be Williams in the video. In the end, he chose three winners, so he made three different videos for the song.

In 2004, Williams put his most popular songs together. He called this collection "Greatest Hits". There were also some new songs on this album, for example, "Radio".

In February 2005, the Brit Awards TV show asked people to vote to answer the question "What was the best song between 1980 and 2005?" The winner was "Angels" by Williams.

In October 2005, Williams' sixth album, "Intensive Care", was first sold. Williams and Steven Duffy wrote the songs for this album. At this time, four of the singers from Take That went to London for a TV show. They asked Williams to come, but he said he did not want to come to London with them. The newspaper The Sunday Mirror said that the other singers were "gutted" (very unhappy and disappointed) because Williams would not come.

In 2006, Williams started to perform at concerts all over the world. He recorded his new song, "Rudebox", which was very different from his other songs. Many people did not like it, and the newspaper The Sun said that "Rudebox" was "the worst song ever". The song was quite successful, but the album, which was also called "Rudebox", sold fewer copies than any of Williams' other albums.

Williams is writing songs for a new album. Guy Chambers is also writing music for this album. It will probably be finished in autumn 2009.

Personal life

Williams lives in Los Angeles, in California. He has often said that he likes Los Angeles because he can feel free and private. However, there are rumours (stories that may not be true) that he wants to come back to the United Kingdom.

He often has problems with alcohol, drugs and mental illness. He has often visited special hospitals to cure his addiction to alcohol and drugs.

Some people have suggested that Williams might be gay, but he says he has "never slept with (had sexual intercourse with) a man". In 2005, when MGN wrote an article that said Williams was gay, his lawyer made the writers give him compensation (money) because they had written libel (lies). He has had relationships with many women, including TV presenter Rachel Hunter and singer Nicole Appleton. He is married to actress Ayda Field.

Biggest hits

• 1996: Freedom
• 1997: Old Before I Die, Angels
• 1998: Let Me Entertain You, Millennium, No Regrets
• 1999: Strong, She's the One
• 2000: Rock DJ, Kids, Supreme
• 2001: Eternity/Road to Mandalay, Something Stupid
• 2002: Feel
• 2003: Come Undone, Something Beautiful, Sexed Up
• 2004: Radio, Misunderstood
• 2005: Tripping, Advertising Space
• 2006: Rudebox
• 2009: Bodies
• 2010: Shame

Other websites

• Official website