Robbie Williams was born, Robert Peter Williams, in Stoke On Trent, England on February 13th 1974. Having played in school productions of 'Oliver' and obviously showing a flair for entertaining, Williams' mother saw an advertisement for auditions to be in a new boy band which he applied for and aged 16 was a member of Take That. After the incredible success of Take That and countless number one hits, Robbie Williams departed from the band in July 1995. He started his solo career slowly with modest sales for his debut album "Life Thru A Lens" on Chrysalis Records. Record sales exploded after the single "Angels" was released for Christmas 1997 - a beautiful ballad, written within 20 minutes, which recently got voted the second best song of all times by British voters. Since then, Robbie has released 4 more original albums: "I've Been Expecting You", containing the hit singles "Millennium", "Strong", "No Regrets" and "She's the One", the follow up "Sing When Your Winning", where he dueted with Kylie Minogue, the million seller "Escapology" and the live album "What We Did Last Summer", which was recorded in front of 375.000 people at his legendary Knebworth performances. Additionally to his original albums, Williams also released an extremely successful cover album of classic swing songs ("Swing When Your Winning"), on which he dueted with actress Nicole Kidman on the Frank Sinatra cover "Something Stupid", which charted in at Number 1 in the UK, and with Frank Sinatra himself. Impressed by Williams performance, Sinatra's family gave their permission for a digital mastered duet with Sinatra for the song "It Was A Very Good Year". In 2002, Robbie Williams signed a new contract with EMI worth £80 Million. 

He has been the recipient of many awards, including fifteen Brit and six ECHO awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame, after being voted as the Greatest artist of the 1990s