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Sing When You're Winning

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Untitled

Sing When You're Winning is the third British solo album (fourth overall) by English pop singer Robbie Williams, released in 2000. Following his last album, I've Been Expecting You in 1998, and in the middle of promotion and touring in 1999, Robbie found time to start the work on what would be his third studio album.[1] The title name is a reference to a famous football chant of the same name (Williams being a fan of Port Vale F.C.). The album cover features multiple images of Williams celebrating winning a trophy at Chelsea's stadium Stamford Bridge. The original CD release does not feature Williams' name or the album title on the front cover, nor does it feature a track listing on the back. This was changed for future releases.

The album was certified as 8x Platinum in the UK.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Let Love Be Your Energy"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:59
2."Better Man"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers3:22
3."Rock DJ"Robbie Williams, Kelvin Andrews, Guy Chambers, Nelson Pigford, Ekundayo Paris4:18
4."Supreme"Dino Fekaris, Freddie Perren, Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:18
5."Kids" (with Kylie Minogue)Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:47
6."If It's Hurting You"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:10
7."Singing for the Lonely"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:31
8."Love Calling Earth"Robbie Williams, Kelvin Andrews, Guy Chambers4:04
9."Knutsford City Limits"Robbie Williams, Kelvin Andrews, Guy Chambers4:45
10."Forever Texas"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers3:37
11."By All Means Necessary"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers4:45
12."The Road to Mandalay"Robbie Williams, Guy Chambers28:17
  • "The Road To Mandalay" finished at 3:58, but is followed by 25 minutes of silence, followed by Williams saying "No, I'm not doing one on this album!", in reference to how his previous albums include hidden tracks. This brings track 12's length to 28:17.
  • Latin-American editions of the album include the Spanish version of "Better Man" called "Ser Mejor" as a bonus track.
  • A French version of "Supreme" was also recorded and was featured as a bonus track on some editions of the album.

Charts

When the album, Sing When You're Winning was released in August 2000, it immediately became a hit in the United Kingdom, debuting at number-one and being certified 2x Platinum on its first week of release.[2] The album also topped the charts in New Zealand, Ireland and Germany, and secured top ten placings in Argentina, Austria, Australia, Finland, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland.[citation needed] The album artwork by photographer Paul M. Smith, along with Robbie's complete football strip (including a signed jockstrap), was later sold at Robbie's Bid It Sum auction to raise money for his charity, Give It Sum.[citation needed]

Williams toured the United Kingdom with Kylie Minogue in October and November 2000 selling-out in every venue[citation needed], Robbie also toured around the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe in the summer of 2001.

The album had spent 91 weeks inside the UK Charts, going on to sell 2.4 Million copies in the UK alone being certified 8x Platinum by the BPI.[3] The album became the best selling album of 2000 in the country and the 51st Best Selling album in UK Music History.[4] The album went on to sell over 6 million copies Worldwide.[citation needed]

The album found little success in the United States, peaking at 110 in the Billboard 200.[5]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[6]
The A.V. Club(?)[7]
Entertainment Weekly(A-)[8]
NME(5/10)[9]
PopMatters(?)[10]
Rolling Stone[11]
Slant[12]

Initial critical response to Sing When You're Winning was positive. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 69, based on 11 reviews.[13]

Singles

The first single taken from the album was "Rock DJ", a song inspired by Williams' UNICEF mentor, the late Ian Dury. The video was censored by Top Of The Pops for its gore content, with many other channels following suit. Controversy ensued in the United Kingdom and many other countries, with the video showing Williams tearing chunks of skin and muscle from his body while performing a strip show, in an attempt to get noticed by a group of women.[14] The track became an instant hit around the globe, hitting number-one in the United Kingdom, becoming his third number-one single as a solo artist and exactly a year after his sell-out concert at the Slane Castle. The song also reached number-one in Ireland, New Zealand, Mexico & Argentina and hit top-ten placings across Europe, Australasia and Latin America. Despite its worldwide success the song failed to break in the United States charts, although it did get some TV Airplay on MTV and VH1. The song went on to win several awards including "Best Song of 2000" at the MTV Europe Music Awards, "Best Single of the Year" at the Brit Awards and an MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects. It went on to sell over 600,000 copies in the UK alone, and was certified Platinum by the BPI.[15]

The second single was a collaboration with Australian pop icon Kylie Minogue, "Kids". The track was written when Minogue approached Williams to write some songs for her debut Parlophone album Light Years. Williams decided to include the track on his album and released it as a single, becoming an instant hit upon release in October of that year. The song hit number two in the United Kingdom and snared top 10 placings in Australia, New Zealand, Latvia, Mexico and several other countries. One of the biggest hits of 2000, "Kids" sold over 200,000 copies in the UK alone and was certified Silver.[16]

Further singles, such as "Supreme" (which Williams recorded in both English and French variants), "Let Love Be Your Energy" and "Better Man" (which Williams recorded in English and Spanish) followed suit, becoming top ten hits around the world.

"Eternity", a track that was not featured on the album, was released in the summer of 2001 backed with "The Road to Mandalay", the former was written by Williams in what he called "the most amazing summer". After years of non-stop work he took a month off and recorded this track, which became his fourth number-one single in the United Kingdom, selling over 70,000 copies in its first week in the UK [17] and also hit the top ten hit all over Europe.

Certifications, peaks and sales

Country Peak Position Certification (if any) Sales/shipments
Argentina 9 2x Platinum[18] 80,000+
Australia 7 3x Platinum[19] 210,000+
Austria 4 Gold[20] 15,000+
Canada 17 Gold[21] 50,000+
Europe 4x Platinum[22] 4,000,000
Finland 6 Gold[23] 21,905+
France 19
Italy 5
Germany 1 Platinum/3x Gold[24] 500,000+
Ireland 1
Mexico 8 Gold[25] 75,000+
Netherlands 3 Platinum[26] 80,000+
New Zealand 1 (5 Weeks) 7x Platinum[27] 105,000+
Norway 5 Gold[28] 20,000+
Sweden 4 Gold[29] 30,000+
Switzerland 2 Gold[30] 25,000+
United Kingdom 1 8x Platinum[31] 2,400,000+
United States[5] 110

References

  1. ^ "Discography>Albums>Sing When You're Winning". Robbiewilliams.com. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  2. ^ BPI Certification for "Sing When You're Winning" (1 September 2000)[dead link‍]
  3. ^ BPI Certification for "Sing When You're Winning"[dead link‍]
  4. ^ Best Selling Album of 2000
  5. ^ a b Billboard[dead link‍]
  6. ^ Allmusic review
  7. ^ The A.V. Club review
  8. ^ Entertainment Weekly review
  9. ^ NME review
  10. ^ PopMatters review
  11. ^ Rolling Stone review
  12. ^ Slant review
  13. ^ "Robbie Williams:Sing When You're Winning (2000): Reviews". Metacritic. CNET Networks, Inc. Retrieved 2009-04-02.
  14. ^ "Controversial Robbie single hits the shops, July 2000". BBC News. 2000-07-31. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  15. ^ BPI Certification for "Rock DJ"[dead link‍]
  16. ^ BPI Certification for "Kids"[dead link‍]
  17. ^ www.devstars.com (2001-07-21). ""Eternity"/"The Road To Mandalay" first week sales in the United Kingdom". Theofficialcharts.com. Retrieved 2009-10-11. [dead link‍]
  18. ^ "CAPIF". CAPIF. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  19. ^ "ARIA". ARIA. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  20. ^ IFPI Austria[dead link‍]
  21. ^ "CRIA". Cria.ca. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  22. ^ IFPI Platinum Europe Awards 2002
  23. ^ IFPI[dead link‍]
  24. ^ IFPI Germany
  25. ^ AMPROFON
  26. ^ "NVPI". Nvpi.nl. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  27. ^ "RIANZ December 23, 2001". Rianz.org.nz. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  28. ^ "IFPI Norway". Ifpi.no. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  29. ^ IFPI Sweden – 2001 Certifications[dead link‍]
  30. ^ Steffen Hung. "IFPI Switzerland". Swisscharts.com. Retrieved 2009-10-11.
  31. ^ BPI[dead link‍]
Preceded by UK number one album
16 September 2000 – 29 September 2000 		Succeeded by
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