Robert Peter Williams
(born 13 February 1974) is a Grammy Award-nominated, 15-time BRIT Award-winning English singer. His career started as a member of the pop band Take That in 1990. He left Take That in 1995 to begin his solo career, after selling 25 million records with the group.[1]Since his solo debut, Robbie Williams has sold more albums in the United Kingdom than any other British solo artist in history.[2] His sales stand at 55 million worldwide.[3][4] He has also sold 17.5 million singles.[5]This brings his total to 72.5 million records.[6] He has been the recipient of many awards — including more BRIT and ECHO Awards than any other artist in history.[7][8]
Greatest Hits (2004)
Williams’ first hits compilation Greatest Hits, released in 2004, became his best selling album with eight million copies worldwide
A Year after the release of his live album, in October 2004, Williams’ decided that it was time to make a retrospective of his career, and also, to reveal the new tracks he had been working on with the then, new collaborator, Stephen Duffy.[65]
„Radio„, the compilation’s first single, was released in October 2004, which debuted at number-one of the UK Singles Chart (becoming Williams’ sixth number-one hit) selling 41,732 copies,[66] the song was also a number-one hit in Denmark and Portugal, and it hit the top ten around the world.
When the compilation was released two weeks later, Greatest Hits went on to sell 320,000 copies in its first week in the United Kingdom debuting at number-one becoming the fastest selling ‘Greatest Hits’ album in the country,[67] the album hit the top spot in no less than 18 countries, Arabia, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the aforementioned United Kingdom, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Lebanon among others.[68]
The album’s second single, the ballad, „Misunderstood„, being the soundtrack of the film, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason hit the top ten around the world in December of that year, making the album the best selling album of the year in the United Kingdom, becoming the 61st Best Selling Album in UK Music History, with sales over the 2 million copies being certified 6x Platinum by the BPI.[69] The album, also became the best selling album of the year in Europe being certified 5x Platinum for over 5 million copies sold,[70] worldwide, the album ended up selling a little under 8 million copies becoming his best selling album ever.
Eight years after the release of „Angels“, in February 2005 British public voted it as the ‘Best Single of the past Twenty Five Years’ at the 2005 BRIT Awards.[71]
