Bhappy birthday, Robbie Williams! February 13th the pop icon, former member of Take That, turns 50. An important milestone for the singer, who with his songs and his voice has made generations of young people dream. And his life, between success and fame, but also addiction and depression, was told in the series Netflix Robbie Williams of 2023.
Who is Robbie Williams
Born on February 13, 1974, Robert Peter Williams (this is his full name) is a British singer-songwriter and one of the most famous voices in music history. He began his musical career when he is only 16 years old and achieves success with the boy band Take That, one of the most successful musical groups of the nineties. Then follows a solo career with unforgettable songs and winning well 18 Brit Awardsa record number higher than any other artist.
Success with Take That
It was the nineties when Take That conquered the music scene. The boy band consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Mark Owen, Jason Orange and Robbie Williams, the youngest member of the group. The band climbs the charts with hits like Babe, Relight My Fire, Pray, Everything Changes. And, in some of these songs, Robbie Williams is the voice of the group.
Take That’s fairytale, however, did not last long. Relations between Robbie Williams and the other members soon deteriorated. For the singer a period of alcohol and drug addiction which brought him to the brink of an overdose right before his performance at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin in 1994. It was the beginning of the end: in 1995 Robbie Williams decided to leave Take That.
Solo career
Robbie Williams performs during the final of the musical talent X Factor at the Assago forum, Milan 12 December 2019. (Credit:
ANSA / MATTEO BAZZI)
Take That officially separated in 1996, and for Robbie Williams one of the darkest periods of his career (and life) begins precisely because of addictions. Only the following year Elton John convinces the singer to enter rehab. Detoxification led him to a real rebirth, with his first solo album and one of the most successful songs of his entire career, Angels.
From that moment on, Robbie Williams’ artistic career takes off. And after the historian duet with Nicole Kidman in Somethin’ Stupid, in 2002 he published Escapologyone of his most successful albums, with the first single, Feel, which becomes an international hit.
The new crisis
Everything seems to be going well when in 2006 darkness returned for the singer. After the criticism for the Rudebox album and the panic attack at the Leeds concert, the singer falls into depression and falls back into the spiral of addiction. And in 2007, after rehabilitation, he left the public scene. She returns to public only after three years, and in 2010 he found great success again. 2010 is also the year of Take That’s returnwho however left again the following year to return to a solo career.
Marriage and children
2010 is also the year of love: after having relationships with various stars (from Lindsay Loan to Cameron Diaz, from Geri Halliwell to Naomi Campbell, from Rachel Hunter to Nicole Appleton)falls in love with the actress Ayda Field. And he marries her in a ceremony celebrated in her villa in Beverly Hills. From marriage they are born four children: Theodora Rose, Charlton Valentine, Colette Josephine and Beau Benedict Enthoven (the latter two by surrogate mother).
The passion for football
The star has always been a great football fan, and also claimed that he had undertaken the wrong career because he would have preferred to be a footballer than a singer. However, in 2018 he was chosen as the lead singer for the opening ceremony of the Football World Cup, and he reveals that he has finally “realized a childhood dream.” A fan of Port Vale FC, in 2005 Williams founded a team in Los Angeles that resembles his name, Los Angeles Vale FC, but the club was dissolved two years later.
Robbie Williams and charitable activities
Unicef Ambassador for Great Britain since 2000Robbie Williams created in the same year a charitable association, Give It Sum, operating in Staffordshire. In 2006 you organized Soccer Aid, a charity football event to raise funds for Unicef.
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