Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams(born 13 February 1974) is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That. Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That and that the group intended to release a new album in November 2010.
Williams has sold more than 57 million albums worldwide.He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. He has also been honoured with seventeen BRIT Awards—more than any other artist—and seven ECHO Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s."
The third single "Strong" from the album debuted at number four in the United Kingdom and number nine in New Zealand, however peaked moderately at only number 68 in Germany, number 99 in France and number 55 in the Netherlands.The fourth single, "She's the One", a cover of a track from World Party's album, Egyptology, became his second number one hit in the United Kingdom.The single was released as a double a-side with "It's Only Us", the official theme for FIFA 2000. The single became a massive success shipping over 400,000 copies in the UK alone being certified Gold by the BPI in early 2000.Williams finished the year with an extensive European Tour late in 1999.
In 1999, Williams was signed to Capitol Records in the United States, which is a part of EMI. Williams embarked on a US promotional tour and when his first U.S. and Canadian single, "Millennium" was released, it hit number 72 on the Billboard Hot 100,the album The Ego Has Landed was released in July 1999 in the United States and Canada, not having the success that he enjoyed in Europe - the album peaked at number 63 in the U.S. Billboard Albums Chart and number 17 on the Canadian SoundScan album chart.Despite this, Williams enjoyed good video airplay and received a nomination for the MTV Video Music Awards for "Best Male Video" – he did not win, but the exposure helped sales of the album.
In February 2009, it was confirmed that Williams had written material with Guy Chambers and Mark Ronson. A spokesman said that Williams was planning to begin the recording sessions in March and that the new album would be released in late 2009. This will probably be the last Williams album released by EMI.On his official website, Williams confirmed that he is working with producer Trevor Horn on his new album; he described himself as "buzzing" and that the new album sounds "big. Very, very big". The new album will be titled Reality Killed the Video Star,a reference to the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" by Horn's former band The Buggles. The album was released on 9 November 2009 in the United Kingdom.The new song "Bodies" saw its first play on 4 September 2009 during the Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1, where Moyles described it as "a grower", with Williams later agreeing that it may take a few listens for people to like it.
In November 2009, Williams announced to Jonathan Ross that he was 'in love' with Field.On 26 November 2009, Williams proposed to Ayda Field live on the Australian radio channel 2dayfm in an interview on the Kyle and Jackie O Show.However, it was later revealed by Williams' manager that it was "done as a joke following suggestions it was a stunt which was set up prior to the radio show." His spokesman confirmed: 'He did say it, but he did it in a jocular manner. They are not engaged.'A few days later Williams himself denied the engagement, using his official blog to say "Hey all. We are not engaged. Rob.".On 7 August 2010, Williams and Field married at his home in Los Angeles.
Williams won a libel case against MGN and Northern & Shell in December 2005 relating to articles which had reported he was a closet homosexual.In the libel action that resulted from this, Williams accepted substantial damages, and the publishers accepted that the stories were untrue. His counsel, Tom Shields QC, told the court, "Mr Williams is not, and has never been, homosexual." Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called for any damages paid out from the libel case to be donated to gay charities, claiming Williams' legal actions had created the impression that it is "bad to be gay."Williams responded that he was not bothered about being labelled as a gay man, and he would have taken the same action had it been regarding a heterosexual relationship. In 2008, Williams's friend, actor Max Beesley, rejected claims that Williams was gay. Beesley said, "Some of the stuff written about him is enough to make me mad, the rumours about him being gay, for example. Not true. I've never met anybody less gay in my life!"