Robert Williams is a singer, songwriter and actor from the UK. Former member of the pop group Take That in 1990–1995 and 2009–2012, as well as a popular solo artist.
Robbie Williams: biography
Born 02/13/74 in Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom. When Robbie was three years old, his parents divorced, and he remained to live with Janet's mother and sister. At school, Williams behaved ugly, as a result of which he never received a certificate of completion. Deprived of a large selection, Robbie went to the sellers, but fate intervened. His mother saw an ad in a local newspaper about recruiting a music group. Knowing that her son has the singer’s talent and acting abilities, she organized his participation in one of the many auditions held in Manchester. As it turned out, Robbie did not interfere with the rebellious nature that appeared at school, since his performance ended with tremendous success, and he began his difficult path to fame.
Five years with Take That
In 1990, Nigel Martin-Smith created the “boy” band Take That. The four members, Mark Owen, Gary Barlow, Jason Orange and Howard Donald, were joined by the youngest - 16-year-old Robbie Williams. The singer’s biography over the next five years has been an undeniable success. The band’s compositions were led by charts from time to time, and she went on tour around the world, giving concerts in crowded stadiums. But in 1995, Williams decided that it was enough, and announced his retirement from the team and the beginning of a solo career.
Intoxication with freedom
Image Take That obliged to lead a usual way of life for a member of the "boy" group, corresponding to the average age of his fans. But as soon as Williams left the team, he hit the front pages of newspapers because of his behavior. Robbie was clearly ecstatic about getting rid of his image and idol status as a teenager, and he was soon photographed at a party in Glastonbury with Oasis, which was far from Take That's musical style and reputation. This was a silent demonstration of Williams' attitude to what he has been doing for the past five years. Soon he changed his image, began to wear dirty clothes, grew a beard and gained weight in order to acquire an impressive beer belly. He seemed to deliberately distance himself from the group that made him a star.
Solo career
Williams always wanted to work alone, and in 1996, his career with Robbie William Band began with a cover of George Michael Freedom's song, which reached number two on the UK chart. The recording of his debut album began in March 1996, and a meeting with songwriter and producer Guy Chambers became a guarantee of success, leading to their long-term cooperation. Old Before I Die was the first single of the debut CD and finished second in the English chart. Life Thru A Lens appeared in September 1997.
Stormy parties in the first years after leaving That Take led the singer into the gloomy and, apparently, inevitable world of alcohol and drugs. Robbie Williams, whose biography is similar to the path of many celebrities, found himself in a rehabilitation center before completing the recording of the album. “Life through the lens” ensured the singer a very mediocre success, having failed to lead the hit parade, and the third single South of the Border plunged into soft nonexistence beyond the top ten. Some critics and fans began to wonder how long Williams would be able to perform alone and whether he was able to achieve at least half of the success that he had with Take That.
First solo hit
The meeting with the record company, during which his future was discussed, was a turning point in the life of Williams. It was decided to release the fourth single, and Angels became the best in the UK, having twice received a platinum certificate. Its worldwide sales exceeded two million copies, instantly boosting the popularity of Life Thru the Lens. The star status of a solo artist in the United Kingdom was finally achieved, but Williams still had to prove himself in the international market.
Millennium
In 1998, Williams and Chambers began writing songs for their second album in Jamaica. Borrowing the music used by Nancy Sinatra in the Live Only Twice bondiad, they released their first single, The Millennium, in 1998. He immediately took the lead, shifting the composition of All Saints Under the Bridge. Ironically, while Robbie was engaged to one of the members of this group, Nicole Appleton. When the album I've Been Expecting You was released in the fall of 1998, it quickly took the first line of the charts and became the UK's best-selling release of that year. Remembering the failure of the debut disc, Williams' record company this time worried that the ads went outside the United Kingdom, and the single No Regrets was well received in Europe and Latin America.
Overseas
The next step for Williams was to conquer the American market - an extremely difficult target for British artists. In the US, Robbie signed a contract with EMI and went on a promotional tour of the United States. However, after the release of the album "Millennium" in 1999, he became only 72nd in the Billboard Hot 100, and the debut overseas album entitled The Ego Has Landed reached only the 63rd step. Despite the failure, Williams still got decent airtime and was nominated for the MTV Video Music Awards for best male video clip. He was not awarded, but the nomination allowed to significantly increase his authority.
Strip prohibited
Despite the concerts that Robbie Williams constantly gave, the singer still found time in 1999 to record his third album. The first single released by Rock DJ caused controversy. Not because of his content, but because of the video - performing a striptease, Robbie tore off his skin and muscles. This led to censorship of the clip in Top Of The Pops, and other music channels followed suit. Nevertheless, the track became a hit worldwide, winning several awards, and was named the best song of the year 2000 at the MTV European Award Ceremony, as well as the best single of the year in the UK.
The album's release in August 2000 brought Williams success around the world, he came out on top in the English charts, and Kylie Minogue turned to Williams to write several songs for her Light Years CD. Instead, the couple performed the duo single Kids and embarked on a two-month joint tour of the United Kingdom.
Change of musical orientation
After the success of his third album, Williams decided to change his musical direction. He took a two-week break on his tour to record his fourth studio disc, the sound of which was significantly different from the previous ones. This is what Robbie Williams has always dreamed of. Music born from the singer’s love for Frank Sinatra, combined with the success of the jazz song from the movie The Bridget Jones Diaries in early 2001, Sing When You're Winning was released in 2001 and instantly became world-famous. The first single, Something Stupid, he performed together with Nicole Kidman. A cover of the hit of Frank and Nancy Sinatra was the fifth hit artist in the UK, and the album was the 49th best-selling in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, Robbie also fulfilled his dream by performing a recital in London's Royal Albert Hall.
In 2002, the singer signed the largest contract in British history with EMI for a record amount of £ 80 million, proving that a non-graduate Stoke native is a real megastar. After a year break, he began working on his fifth album. Escapology ushered in a new era for Williams. He didn’t very well part with his long-time ally Guy Chambers - both sides made opposing statements. This allowed Robbie to be more involved in the creation of the new disc, proving his confidence in the recording studio, and the three tracks were the first to be written without Chambers.
With the release in 2002, the album topped the UK charts, but in the United States took only 43rd place. The giant summer tour of 2003 ended with three concerts in Nebworth with a record number of spectators - 375,000 fans came to listen to Williams. The show was released as a debut concert album by the artist in 2003, which became the best-selling, doubled the Oasis figures. A year later, Williams decided that it was time to take a step out of the shadows and refresh his career by collaborating with new talents. In 2004, he began working with British composer Stephen Duffy, and in the same year a collection of the best hits was released, which came out on top in 18 countries.
"Intensive therapy"
Robbie Williams gave hits without interruption. A year after a tour of Latin America, in October 2005, he recorded the sixth studio album Intensive Care, the circulation of which in six weeks exceeded 2 million. Noting that Williams has managed to dominate the charts for many years of a solo career since leaving That That, former members of the band that broke up in 1996 agreed to reunite in London at the pre-screening of the documentary, which was to be broadcast on ITV1. When he left the team, a lot of rumors circulated about the reasons for this decision, and most of them related to Robbie's hostility to Gary Barlow. However, everyone believed that Williams was likely to leave the past alone and join the show. Nevertheless, he refused to meet, disappointing the fans and once again leaving the rest of the group.
Failure
Rudebox's seventh studio album received mixed reviews. The premiere of the first single of the same name took place on BBC Radio 1 in the DJ Scott Mills show, causing controversy, since the release date set by the record company had not yet arrived. Many criticized the song and, ironically, the officially reunited band Take That sold more copies of their Beautiful World album than Robbie Williams did. The singer’s biography was marked by the release of his lowest-selling offspring in his entire solo career as a musician. It seemed that he was mistaken with the change of style and recorded a disc that was not swept off the shelves. This was not the end, since immediately after the announcement of the world tour in 2006, a world record was set - 1.6 million tickets were sold per day.
Personal life
Williams has managed to quarrel with the British media since his move to the United States. He stated several times in the press that he prefers a lifestyle in Los Angeles, because there he has more freedom and privacy than in the UK. The constant battle with drugs and alcohol abuse negatively affected his personal life. Robbie made a frank public admission that he was suffering from depression by taking part in the BBC documentary directed by Stephen Fry about bipolar disorder. He also gained a reputation for being unable to maintain relationships for a considerable period of time. After breaking up with Nicole Appleton in the late 90s, he only briefly met with several celebrities, including Rachel Hunter, but finally found love with an American actress of Turkish origin Aida Field. The future wife of Robbie Williams participated in the filming of a documentary about UFOs, which the singer made for BBC Radio 4 in April 2006. The couple married during a ceremony held at the singer’s house in Los Angeles on 07/07/2010. The wife of Robbie Williams gave birth to two children: the daughter of Theodora (2012) and the son of Charlton (2014).
But this discussion of his personal life sometimes reached the point of absurdity, when his inability to connect his life with a woman gave rise to speculation about his sexual orientation. It came to the point that in 2005 he won the libel case against MGN and Nothern & Shell, who claimed in his articles that he was a latent homosexual. Gay rights activists invited Williams to donate significant compensation to homosexual charities, claiming that his lawsuit indicates he was offended by what he was called. An example was a similar case of Jason Donovan, which pushed many gay fans away from him. A long-time friend of the singer, actor and musician Max Beasley, spoke in the press that some things written about him make him furious - for example, rumors that he is gay. "It's a lie. I've never met a lesser gay in my life!"
Creative stagnation
On October 4, 2007, Williams returned to the scene after nearly ten months of rest as a guest at a Mark Ronson concert in Los Angeles. He performed the classic composition The Charlatans The Onle One I Know, included in Ronson's Version album. In January 2008, the long silence since the release of Rudebox in 2005 gave rise to rumors that Robbie Williams was not recording albums, as he went on strike to his EMI label. His manager Tim Clark denied these speculations and insisted that the plans simply had to be postponed. The new EMI owner Guy Hands told the Financial Times that: “The company has no problems with Williams. The statements were made by his manager, not Robbie himself. Williams recorded and performed albums for many years for a full day and in 2008 he wanted to relax. there is no need to push him to record a disc. ”Tim Clark, Williams' manager, declined to comment.
Take That Reunion
Two years later, it was announced that Robbie was going to release a second collection of his best compositions from 1990-2010. titled Robbie William: In And Out Of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010 to mark the twentieth anniversary of this business. The album included the song Shame, written in collaboration with old bandmate Gary Barlow. This collaboration reinforced rumors of Take That reunion.
On July 15, there was an official announcement that Robbie Williams was working with his former collective on the release of a new album. A statement released then said: "The rumors are true ... Take That in their original composition wrote and recorded a new album, which will be called Progress and will be released before the end of this year." On September 20, 2010, the singer published his second book, co-authored with Chris Heath, “You Know Me.” It published photos of the star throughout the 20-year career and comments on them. In October of the same year, Media Control announced that Robbie Williams was the singer of the millennium, as his compositions were longer than others in the German charts. Progress was released in November 2010 and became the second fastest-selling album in UK history.
The band announced their intention to tour in 2011. The tour, entitled Progress Live 2011, also became the fastest-selling tour of the English charts ever and ended with eight concerts at Wembley Stadium. On July 15 and 16, 2011, the group was supposed to give sold-out concerts in the Danish capital Copenhagen as part of a world tour, but they were canceled for the first time in Take That history, as Robbie caught an intestinal infection.
Return to Pop
On October 6, 2011, British singer Robbie Williams launched the Radio Rudebox radio show. During the program, he interviewed Barlow and played music. In late 2012, Robbie released a solo album called Take The Crown, which was produced by Barlow. Then in 2013 another swing album called Swings Both Ways appeared. After an interview with Barlow, the Radio Times began to circulate rumors that Robbie Williams Take That had once again left. Already after it became clear that he had in mind that the group took a break, since at present all the singers are implementing their own solo projects.
The singer returned to the bosom of pop music at the end of 2016, releasing his 11th album, The Heavy Entertainment Show. Entertainment became his 12th No. 1 hit in the UK, providing the singer with the title of the most successful solo artist in the history of English charts.
Participation in the cinema
There are also films with Robbie Williams in one form or another. He voiced Dougal in The Magic Roundabout (2005) and starred in Gangsta Granny (2013), Robbie Williams: Take the Crown Live (2012), The Short Cut (2011), De-Lovely (2004), Robbie Williams: Rock DJ ( 2000), Hooves of Fire (1999) and others. His songs are featured on tapes: X-Men: First Class (2011), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), Knight's Story "(2001)," Cards, money, two trunks "(1998) and many others. Also saw the light of documentaries with Robbie Williams about the singer's participation in Take That and the tape about his solo performances.