Robbie Williams has topped The Beatles’ all-time record for the most UK Number One albums with his new record ‘BRITPOP’.
The pop star surprise-released his 13th solo album last Friday (January 16), having already postponed it from its original release date of October 2025 to this February.
Today (January 23), it was announced that the album had gone in at Number One on the UK Albums Chart, making it the 16th chart-topper of his solo career, which puts him ahead of the Fab Four, who scored 15 UK Number One albums.
Robbie Williams and The Beatles. CREDIT: Hector Vivas/FIFA/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
“This is unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable,” he told BBC News. “I’ve always said my success has been the equivalent of stretching an elastic band from Stoke-on-Trent to the Moon. Well, I reckon the elastic band just got longer, and now it’s orbiting Venus.”
He added: “It’s just sensational what has happened. I feel like the Forrest Gump of pop.”
Every one of Robbie’s studio albums reached the summit, except 2009’s ‘Reality Killed The Video Star’.
Martin Talbot, CEO of Official Charts said: “Not even the confident young 26-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent would have believed this were possible when he joined Take That back in 1990, but here he is, on top of the world, the UK’s number 1 album artist – of all time! Just let that sink in, Robbie!”
Robbie Williams celebrates scoring a record-breaking run of Number One albums in the UK. Credit: Press/Robbie Williams
‘BRITPOP’ held off the challenge of Madison Beer’s third album ‘Locket’, which debuted at Number Three on the chart, and toppled Olivia Dean’s ‘The Art Of Loving’, which had topped the chart for the previous three weeks. Sleaford Mods’ ‘The Demise Of Planet X’ landed at Number Six.
The Official Albums Chart Top 5 for January 23 is:
Earlier this month, Williams admitted that the prospect of dethroning The Beatles was something that he wanted “more than anything in my career right now”.
He added: “Let me just qualify that by saying I’ve broken the matrix. When that sort of record is mentioned and it’s me, I don’t know how that’s happened, I just know that it has. It massively makes my imposter syndrome come out to play and the first thing I feel is embarrassed about it.”
“And then the other bit, where the ego steps in is going, ‘It’s outside of my family, my kids and my wife, the most important thing to me in the world’,” he added. “Do I think I deserve that? No. Am I on the precipice of maybe achieving that? Yeah. Should I grab it with both arms? Yeah. And can I learn to be grateful and happy for it? Grateful, maybe, proud, I’m not sure yet, we’ll see if that happens.”
Following Williams and The Beatles in the all-time list are The Rolling Stones (14), Taylor Swift (14), Elvis Presley (13), Madonna (12) and Bruce Springsteen (12).
During his very intimate show in London last autumn, Williams confirmed that he had delayed the release of ‘BRITPOP’ to avoid a clash with Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
“Here’s the truth: I want 16 Number One albums,” he told the audience. “Taylor then decided to put her album out the same weekend as me. I was like, ‘For fuck’s sake!’”
‘BRITPOP’ contains the singles ‘Pretty Face’, ‘Rocket’, ‘Spies’ and ‘Human’, as well as a song about being Morrissey’s stalker. Williams wrote the latter cut with his former Take That bandmate Gary Barlow.
The singer will embark on a run of small UK dates next month, dubbed the ‘Long ’90s’ tour. The brief stint includes a stop at London’s O2 Brixton Academy on February 8.
In a three-star review of ‘BRITPOP’, NME described the album as “a love letter to the ’90s and a bid to live forever”.
“He’s standing firm. Rather than neck a BuzzBall on a Lime Bike and do his take on ‘Brat’, Robbie knows his game and has done a record for himself,” it added. “An album to be remembered for? Probably not, but it’s bold, it’s a laugh, and he’s done it his way. That’s what makes him Robbie. For that alone, he’ll live forever.”
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