To be fair Robbie Williams was probably the biggest star in the UK for a few years at the turn of the Millennium and the Brits have always been about rewarding commercial success. At least they waited until he attained veteran status, the Spice Girls got it after just two albums.

Robbie was never as big a star as some British acts have been, if we're talking about commercial success. I wouldn't deny he had some good radio singles at his peak, but he's not one of the world's biggest ever British music stars, that's what I find confounding about the Brits' obsession with him. And let's face it, he's not even the most talented member of Take That.


Only two acts have won the Brits Icon before, Elton John and Bowie. Both genuine British music megastars recognised the world over. Funnily enough, Bowie had Robbie about right when he described him as "cruise ship entertainment". That's more or less what Robbie amounts to.

His new single flopped in the chart. PARTY LIKE A RUSSIAN reached 68 then dropped out of the top 100.

The streaming-era chart is brutal to older artists/groups. Virtually every artist/group that had a hit before the year 2000 is struggling to have any singles chart success in the streaming/combined sales top 40. I'm sure his new album will hit the top spot, though, but he's no longer relevant as a singles artist. I guess the BRIT people like artists with big selling albums? If his album sells big he'll be up for some award, perhaps.

to be frank lots of very current acts are struggling to have hit singles if their genres aren't from the handful that dominate the chart. Also, the singles chart itself is largely irrelevant these days. It's barely even relevant as a marketing tool for record companies (the very reason it was set up). The albums chart is on another planet now and a hit single counts for far less than it did in the day when Robbie Williams was knocking the hits out.