Swings Both Ways is the tenth studio album by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. The album was released on 15 November 2013, and is Williams's second swing album after 2001's Swing When You're Winning, and also marked Williams' first major work with former longtime collaborator Guy Chambers since 2002's Escapology. Chambers produced the album and co-wrote most of the album's new material with Williams. The album topped the UK Albums Chart, becoming the 1,000th number one album for the Official Charts Company. Swings Both Ways sold 109,000 copies in its first week, becoming Williams' 11th number one album, tied with Elvis Presley. Internationally, the album charted strongly and reached number one in various European countries including Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.Swings Both Ways is the tenth studio album by British singer-songwriter Robbie Williams. The album was released on 15 November 2013, and is Williams's second swing album after 2001's Swing When You're Winning, and also marked Williams' first major work with former longtime collaborator Guy Chambers since 2002's Escapology. Chambers produced the album and co-wrote most of the album's new material with Williams. The album topped the UK Albums Chart, becoming the 1,000th number one album for the Official Charts Company. Swings Both Ways sold 109,000 copies in its first week, becoming Williams' 11th number one album, tied with Elvis Presley. Internationally, the album charted strongly and reached number one in various European countries including Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.false2022-10-22 13:45:41Swings Both Ways8.520132013-11-152013-11-1545PopSwingTraditional Pop1113252193019bb0acd78-8956-44eb-a509-0df4d222d28cdb4624cf-0e44-481e-a9dc-2142b833ec2f39a1195e-7698-4e10-9e30-203c2889bf3e/media/data/media5/Music/Robbie Williams/Swings Both Ways (2013)/folder.jpgRobbie WilliamsAlbumArtist/config/metadata/People/R/Robbie Williams/folder.jpgRobbie WilliamsArtist/config/metadata/People/R/Robbie Williams/folder.jpgRobbie WilliamsRobbie WilliamsRobert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, Life thru a Lens, was released in 1997, and included his best-selling single "Angels". His second album, I've Been Expecting You, featured the songs "Millennium" and "She's the One", his first number one singles. His discography includes seven UK No. 1 singles, and all but one of his 14 studio albums have reached No. 1 in the UK. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the UK, with two of them in the top 60, and he gained a Guinness World Record in 2006 for selling 1.6 million tickets in a single day during his Close Encounters Tour.
Williams has received a record 18 Brit Awards, winning Best British Male Artist four times, Outstanding Contribution to Music twice, an Icon Award for his lasting impact on British culture, eight German ECHO Awards, and three MTV European Music Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted the Greatest Artist of the 1990s. According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), he has been certified for 20.36 million albums and 9.2 million singles in the UK as a solo artist. Five of his albums have also topped the Australian albums chart, and has sold 75 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists of all time. He also topped the 2000–2010 UK airplay chart. His three concerts at Knebworth in 2003 drew over 375,000 people, the UK's biggest music event to that point. In 2014, he was awarded the freedom of his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent and had a tourist trail created and streets named in his honour. Williams' latest compilation album, XXV, was released on 9 September 2022.
After 15 years, Williams rejoined Take That in 2010 to co-write and perform lead vocals on their album Progress, which became the second-fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time. The subsequent stadium tour, which featured seven songs from Williams' solo career, became the biggest-selling concert in UK history when it sold 1.34 million tickets in less than 24 hours. In 2011, Take That frontman Gary Barlow confirmed that Williams had left the band for a second time to focus on his solo career, although he stated that the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin Take That in the future. Williams has since performed with Take That on three separate television appearances, and collaborated with Barlow on a number of projects such as the West End musical The Band.