Portal:Staffordshire/Selected biography/3

Robbie Williams is an English singer-songwriter, and occasional actor born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. He is a member of the pop group Take That, but has found greater commercial success as a solo artist.

Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a hugely successful solo career, which saw his first seven albums each reach number one in the UK. Williams also released seven number-one singles and found similar success across Europe. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century so far. He continues to perform both as a member of Take That and as a solo artist.

Williams has sold more than 77 million albums and singles worldwide. He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom, and in 2006 he entered the Guinness Book of World Records for selling 1.6 million tickets of his Close Encounters Tour in a single day. He has also been honoured with seventeen BRIT Awards—more than any other artist—and eight ECHO Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s." Williams is married to actress Ayda Field. He has a net worth of £130 million (2014).