50 facts about Robbie Williams

50 things about Robbie Williams, singer and songwriter.

1. Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams is an English singer, songwriter, and actor.

2. Robbie Williams was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and again from 2009 to 2012.

3. Robbie Williams has also had commercial success as a solo artist.

4. Robbie Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early-to-mid-1990s.

5. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a hugely successful solo career, which saw his first seven albums each reach number one in the UK.

6. Robbie Williams also released seven number-one singles and found similar success across Europe.

7. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century so far.

8. Robbie Williams has sold more than 77 million albums and singles worldwide, making him one of the best-selling artists of all time.

9. Robbie Williams is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America.

10. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom, and in 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day.

11. Robbie Williams has received a record seventeen Brit Awards-winning Best British Male four times and the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, eight German ECHO Awards, three MTV European Music Awards and two Grammy Award nominations.

12. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s".

13. Robbie Williams has a net worth of £130 million (2014).

14. Williams has currently (based on BPI certifications) sold a minimum of 18.9 million albums and 5.4 million singles in the UK alone as a solo artist.

15. Williams also topped the 2000-2010 UK airplay chart, racking up almost 50% more plays than the Sugababes at number 2.

16. In 2014 he was awarded the freedom of Stoke-on-Trent, as well as having a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour.

17. Robbie Williams was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

18. His parents, Janet (née Farrell) and Peter Williams (also known as Pete Conway), ran a pub called the Red Lion in Burslem, before his father became the licensee at the Port Vale FC Social Club; this led to Williams' lifelong affinity for the team.

19. His maternal grandfather was Irish and hailed from Kilkenny.

20. Robbie Williams attended Mill Hill Primary School in Stoke-on-Trent and then St Margaret Ward Roman Catholic School in Tunstall, before attending dance school UKDDF in Tunstall.

21. Robbie Williams participated in several school plays, and his biggest role was that of the Artful Dodger in a production of Oliver!.

22. In 1990, the sixteen-year-old Williams was the youngest member to join Take That.

23. According to the documentary Take That: For the Record, his mother read an advertisement seeking members for a new boy band and suggested that he try out for the group.

24. Robbie Williams met fellow member Mark Owen on the day of his audition/interview with Nigel Martin-Smith.

25. During the heights of the band's popularity, Williams was known as the extrovert and cheeky practical joker of the band.

26. Although the majority of the band's material was written and performed by Gary Barlow, Williams did perform lead vocals on their first Top Ten hit "Could It Be Magic", "I Found Heaven", and "Everything Changes".

27. In July 1995, Williams's drug abuse had escalated to the point of his having a near drug overdose the night before the group was scheduled to perform at the MTV Europe Music Awards. According to the documentary For the Record, he stated that he was unhappy with his musical ideas not being taken seriously by lead singer Barlow and Nigel Martin-Smith, because his desire to explore hip hop and rap conflicted with the band's usual ballads.

28. In August 2012, Take That performed at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Williams was due to perform with the band but dropped out due to his wife giving birth at around the same time and thus the group performed as a four-piece.

29. After leaving Take That, Williams launched his solo career starting off in 1996 by covering George Michael's "Freedom", the single reached number two in the UK Singles Chart.

30. His debut album, Life thru a Lens, was released in September 1997. The album launched with his first live solo gig at the élysée Montmartre theatre in Paris, France. The album debuted at number eleven of the UK Album Charts.

31. Robbie Williams released what would be the fourth single taken from his album. "Angels" became Williams' best-seller in the United Kingdom.

32. The song, apart from becoming a hit around Europe and Latin America, caused sales of his album to skyrocket. The album remained inside the British top ten for forty weeks and spent 218 weeks there altogether, making it the 58th best selling album in UK history with sales of over 2.4 million.

33. Williams and Chambers started writing the second album in Jamaica in early 1998. The first single, "Millennium", became Williams' first solo number one single in the United Kingdom.

34. When the album I've Been Expecting You was released in late October 1998, it debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart. The album received more attention outside the United Kingdom, leaving its mark in the European and Latin American markets with hits such as "No Regrets", a collaboration with The Pet Shop Boys' singer Neil Tennant and The Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon.

35. In 1999, Williams was signed to Capitol Records in the United States, a part of EMI. He embarked on a US promotional tour and released his first US and Canadian single, "Millennium".

36. After the success of his third album, Williams wanted to take another musical direction. He took two weeks off from his tour to record what would be his fourth studio album, a big band album.

37. Born from his lifelong love for Frank Sinatra - combined with the success of the track "Have You Met Miss Jones?" that he recorded for the film Bridget Jones' Diary in early 2001 - the album was recorded at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles.

38. Williams took the chance to duet with his long-time friend Jonathan Wilkes, Little Voice star Jane Horrocks, Saturday Night Live star Jon Lovitz, Rupert Everett and actress Nicole Kidman.

39. A DVD called Robbie Williams Live at the Albert Hall was released in December of that year. So far, it has become one of the best selling music DVDs in Europe, being certified 6x Platinum in the United Kingdom and 2x Platinum in Germany.

40. Robbie WilliamsIn 2002, Williams signed a record-breaking £80 million contract with EMI.

41. In October 2004, Williams released, Greatest Hits, a retrospective of his career, and also, to reveal the new tracks he had been working on with the then-new collaborator, Stephen Duffy.

42. Eight years after the release of "Angels", in February 2005 the British public voted it as the "Best Single of the Past Twenty-Five Years" at the 2005 BRIT Awards.

43. In November 2005, Williams took home the MTV Europe Music Award for 'Best Male', but also, entered in The Guinness Book of World Records when he announced his World Tour for 2006, selling 1.6 million tickets in one single day.

44. Williams' 11th studio album Under the Radar Volume 1 was released in 1 December 2014 through his website, featuring b-sides, demos and other previously unreleased songs.

45. One of his most famous collaborations was on the song "Kids", a duet with Australian pop star Kylie Minogue. The single peaked at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart in 2000.

46. In 2001, Williams recorded "We Are the Champions" with Queen for the 2001 medieval adventure film A Knight's Tale.

47. In 2010 he announced that he was to release "Shame", a duet with Take That lead singer songwriter Gary Barlow as the first single from his greatest hits collection In and Out of Consciousness: The Greatest Hits 1990-2010 which was certified silver in the UK and charted in 19 countries worldwide.

48. In 2012, Williams recorded a duet with Mexican recording artist Thalía for the Spanish song "Te quiero dijiste (Muñequita linda)", included on her album Habítame siempre.

49. In 2005 Williams provided the voice of Dougal in the film adaption of The Magic Roundabout.

50. On 20 September 2010, Williams released his second book called You Know Me in collaboration with Chris Heath. The book features a collection of photographs of Williams from the past 20 years of his career and discussion of them by Williams as transcribed by Heath.

Source: Wikipedia.org