Robbie Williams

Robbie's dad, Pete Conway, was an entertainer and, although his parents divorced when he was very young and he was brought up by his mother, Robbie inherited his father's love of showbusiness. He started working as a salesman but one day his mother saw an advertisement in a paper for members of a new group being put together by manager Nigel Martin-Smith, and applied on his behalf. Robbie was on his way to becoming part of Britain's biggest boyband, Take That. After five years of wall-to-wall hits and sell-out shows, Robbie's mischievous and rebellious nature triggered his departure from the band in 1995 and he embarked on a solo career. His first single, a cover of George Michael's Freedom, was followed by a fallow period, but the 1997 Christmas smash Angels, written with Guy Chambers, launched him into superstardom. The intensity of his fame caused problems but Robbie weathered various storms and occasional notoriety with iconic hits like Millennium and Let Me Entertain You. Towards the end of 2009 Williams, who had disappeared from the music scene for several years, made a comeback appearance on that year's X-Factor and in 2010 he was awarded the BRIT for Outstanding Contribution to Music.