Robbie Williams
 

Why isnt this guy more popular here in the states? Is it his douche ego? I think he has some really great music tho. Millenium, Feel, Angels, etc. are some great songs. Thoughts?

I wish to god he was more popular here so I could actually see him on tour instead of just settling for watching his shows on DVD.

Not sure why he is so unpopular here. I mean, a quick look through the top 100 singles at any time clearly shows that being a douche does not keep you off the charts in the USA.

rofl, if anything, his ego should almost make him a US star on that alone. Just look at Kanye West, he wouldn't be half as famous if not for being such a pompous douche. Justin Timberlake's ego is pretty massive too, and it seems not to hurt him.

Timberlake is actually really down to earth. Unfortunately the paparazzi can make anyone annoyed


Robbie Williams is so underrated in the states its not even funny... to hear Jessica Simpson butcher Angels almost made me puke.

Feel is by far his best song.

I've always felt his ego thing is tongue in cheek with an English wink wink nod nod. Otherwise I'd hate the guy.

He came into his own fame after already being known in Take That. Kylie Minogue launched her singing career off her success as an actress in Neighbors. I think Americans basically just have no reason to be interested or care. Our/their loss.

That's hilarious! And so true. I wouldn't have known any of RW's music had it not been my frequent trips to London. Back in 1999 or 2000, a friend of mine got tickets for Robbie's show in D.C. at the 9:30 Club. Tickets were only $20.00 (!) I went just because he knew he sold out stadiums in Europe. And to see what the hype was about. The place was sold out and full of British people. I stopped one couple and asked if I was the only Yank in the place (laughing). And they said "Probably", laughing too. Then said there were many people there who bought tickets for his shows in America and flew over because his shows sold out so quickly in Europe and tickets were impossible to get. Now that's a true fan. I have to say, the man puts on an amazing show. Not really my type of music. But he's show man. And even though it's typically not the music I listen to, it's easy on the ears and catchy.

I only remember Millennium. I thought he was a one-hit wonder.

It didn't help that they took his first two solo albums (which, I thought were thematically different), and mishmashed parts of them to form his first US release.

I personally think the guy is a great talent and lives up to all the hype.

So weird. On Wednesday, I just pulled out "The Ego Has Landed" after not listening to it for years. He was a bit more successful in Canada than the US. My take on it was always that his sense of humour was (culturally) really British, so it didn't translate to the US. He was neither angst ridden nor seemingly thankful for his fame. It all seemed like a lark, and to me, that just doesn't work in North America. I don't know. I think he's hilarious.

Very good in his day, but the time's long passed.

I checked his wikipedia entry. Does anyone have first hand knowledge, that is, was somewhere in Europe or Asia when he was popular? Was he really like superstar huge? And if he was, has he fallen really far now? I can't tell too much from his wiki entry, other than he seemed like pretty big stuff about 8 to 10 years ago.....

I'm from the USA and have followed his career for a while now. Nobody gave 2 shits about his music before he came out with Angels. If it wasn't for that song he would have been dropped because his latest single (South Of The Border) charted at #14 after the first two charted at #2 and #8 and more importantly the album was going down in the charts. After that he became massive.

To get to your question however, I believe he's still massive everywhere but here and to some extent the UK.

His success to those in the UK consisted in that he had up to Escapology only written with Guy Chambers and after that was over he didn't have as much success as before in the UK. His first album away from Chambers however was his biggest selling. After that he came out with an electronic and "pop" sounding album whereas before his material was really ballads and guitar driven pop. It went platinum in the UK but I believe was his lowest selling album there.

So in short - he's still massive but the UK don't seem to think so, given the fact that a reunited Take That were pretty successful in the same year Robbie's last album I guess you can say "flopped' there.