Robbie Williams (born Robert Peter Williams on February 13, 1974 in Stoke-on-Trent) is a Grammy Award-nominated, 15 time BRIT Award-winning English singer-songwriter. His career started as a member of the pop band Take That in 1990, which he left in 1995 after selling 25 million records, to begin his solo career.[1]
Since then, Robbie Williams has sold more albums in the United Kingdom than any other British solo artist in history .[2] His sales stand at over 50 million worldwide.[3][4] He has also sold an estimated 15 million singles.[5]This brings his total to almost 70 million records.[6]
Williams entered in the The Guinness Book of World Records when he announced his World Tour for 2006, selling 1.6 million tickets in one single day.[7]
In the United Kingdom alone he has sold nearly 6 million singles and about 18 million albums. He appears in the list of the all-time Top 100 biggest selling albums in the United Kingdom six times, more than any other person or group, and has been the recipient of many awards — including more BRIT and ECHO Awards than any other artist in history. It is also estimated he is currently the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America at the moment with over 3 million sold[8], as well as the best selling international artist outside North America this century.[9]
He is currently the best selling male artist in the world, for the period 1998-2007, according to the United World Chart, and the third artist overall behind Madonna and Britney Spears.[10]
Throughout his 17 year career as a solo artist and as a member of Take That, his total album, singles & DVD sales stand in excess of 100 million.