He’s a megastar across the pond having sold 15 million albums worldwide. Why can’t this little frog make the jump to the US? He’s the one who put the “Brit” in celebrity for goodness sake!"
Fair question. I mean, even Cliff Richard had big hits in the U.S. every now and then!
I don’t think there’s any one reason why ANY artist becomes very popular on one side of the Atlantic and not the other. Sometimes, it’s sheer dumb luck!
In this case… Robbie is just unlucky.
I can’t figure it out either. Robbie Williams is hot. That video he made with Nicole Kidman had me swooning over him.
Obviously you aren’t gay, because then you’d be wondering when is he going to break out in the mainstream. He is already big in the gay community.
I think the answer is “He will, soon.”
Ditto Kylie Minogue. I think she’s super hot but when I make my friends watch her Fever DVD, I have to explain it to them.
“You know, la-la-la…” 
He did a song with Kylie a while back. More sexy heat than you could shake a stick at.
I’ve gone full circle with regard to RW. I thought he was a prick, then kinda cool, then really good and now I’m back to prick.
I like a lot of Euro performers and they just don’t catch on in the US. Hip Hop is so popular here, I think it’s difficult to get any attention you are in a different genre’.
I blame “Millenium”, his first single here. That got a huge push, and a lot of video exposure, but I just don’t think it’s one of his better songs. If they had led with “Angels”, I think he would have done much better.
Trivia: NBC does use his version of “Let Me Entertain You” in its promos.
You mean you can explain Kylie Minogue?
I think mipiace had it right. The teeny boppers of tody want hip-hop. Robbie Williams is not likely to appeal to more sophisticated music fans who buy Wilco-type stuff. Easy listening Celine Dionne types are not likely to go for him either. That leaves him with a limited audience for the time being. Teeny boppers can be fickle, though.
I keep hearing about him, but never hear his songs. Can anyone recommend some songs to look for? I’ve seen some of his CDs in a store that has those machines where you scan the barcode on the CD and you can listen to a sampling of songs off it, but haven’t stopped to check any out. If I had an idea of what his better songs are, that’d give me a starting point.
Man, I hope he doesn’t break America, I couldn’t stand the egoness.
I can’t stand him when he self-pitying either, but I’d prefer that to his usual cockiness.
Not a big fan, can you tell!
I’m sick of him whining about the horrors of being rich and famous
I don’t know, but that’s just one more thing to be thankful for next Turkey-Day.
I tend to agree with rogzilla. He just doesn’t have an audience at the moment. Plus, he’s too eager. American teens don’t like that.
It’s not just him, almost all British acts are having a hard time getting any airplay or sales in the US right now.
The highest position that a Williams solo song has reached on the Billboard Hot 100 was #41 back in 2000 with Angels. That song did reach #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
As far as his albums go, The Ego Has Landed reached #63 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart back in 1999. But his next album Sing When You’re Winning only reached #110 in 2000.
I think that the “English/British sound” just isn’t hitting the right chord with American listeners right now.
I’m doing my part- I own 4 Robbie Williams albums. From this thread, it sounds like that may be more than any other straight person in America owns.
Melandry I only own two. And I get shit from some people about it. What can I say? I like good pop music.
My sister and her former roommate love him.
My exposure to him is their gushing and the video where he flung pieces of his flesh at the models dancing around him… which I found creepy.
And icky.
And a whole lot of other unpleasant adjectives.
(Yes, I understood the point of the video, but it was still gross)
He may be the hottest thing out there - but that’s a disturbing first impression and he hasn’t managed to overcome that in my mind.
maybe the reason why he hasnt really recieved the attention in states is because he doesnt already have thousands of girls screaming his name and ready to support his every move like he did here when Take That broke up? just a thought, maybe im being cynical… or maybe its because hes not actually the brilliant singer hes made out to be? in my opinion and i know it doesnt acccount for much , his new stuff just gets weaker and weaker… to the person looking for some of his stuff, i would say look for the older stuff, off his first solo album, thats kinda ok…
have fun!
Entertainment Weekly had a short article about this, actually. The writer hypothesized that part of the reason why he’s not as big a star in the US is that some of his lyrics may be too autobiographical for new (US) listeners to understand. People in the US haven’t had the “benefits” of UK rags publicizing his every breath and move. I don’t know how valid this is, but I can see that. Also, Take That (from what I remember, even though I’m out of the demographic for boy bands) was not as big a deal in the US as they were in the UK, so as Delly said, Robbie Williams didn’t have the built-in fanbase. From what I understand, crisis lines were set up in UK when Take That broke up. Oy!
Second thing is that the US radio playlist is notoriously difficult to break into. The fact that a large percentage of stations are owned by the same juggernaut doesn’t help. Plus, the pop phenom seems to be (IMO- fortunately) dying down. It seems to be all hip hop and R&B these days.
That said, I thought that his album title “The Ego Has Landed” is funny. Of course, I take him saying that very tongue-in-cheekily.
I haven’t heard much of his pop stuff and know very little about his personal life/image, but I just want to say his swing album, Swing When You’re Winning, is awesome!