‘Robbie Williams launches Brit Pop summer with comeback – along with Gary Barlow dig’

In a time where we’re all hungry for 90s nostalgia, Robbie Williams has quelled that hollow pit with his comeback Brit Pop tour – and expertly so.

Launching into the limelight with Take That at the tender age of just 16, Robbie cemented his ‘cheeky chappy, bad boy’ persona of the group and was known for ‘not having the best vocals’. It’s something the now 51-year-old continually quipped at on his first night at the Emirates Stadium over the weekend.

However, the supposed weakness of his voice appeared to always be a long-peddled myth. He might be able to put on a camp fun-infused production, but he can also still belt out his hits that served as the soundtrack to many young womens’ lives in the 90s and early 00s.

He kicks off the night with new punky single ‘Rocket’ to 60,000 fans – young, old and someone dressed up as Ali G – with optimistic lyrics mentioning ‘what a time to be alive’.

Isn’t it just. Robbie notes that the world has gone ‘mad’ and wants to bring back the carefree fun of the 90s, introducing himself as The King of Entertainment.

And that effortlessly slides him into smash party hit ‘Let Me Entertain You’. Some may call Robbie narcissistic, but he’s rightfully owned the ‘main character energy’ title.

In his diamante emblazed jacket, matching tailored joggers, a neck full of bling and his silver spiked up hair, the full-package of a performer treated the stage like it was made for him.

That’s exactly it.

Robbie is not just a singer, he’s a performer and nailed every aspect of it – it’s clear by the second song. Even away from the staging, the voice and the dancing, Robbie knows how to charm a crowd with his antics – like placing the microphone on his crotch and mimicking an erection.

Perhaps pervy if an up and coming musician did that circa 2025, but Robbie is the embodiment of the harmless ‘cheeky rascal’ behaviour of the 90s and early 00s – and this is the Brit Pop tour after all.

Robbie reminds us of that by singing a medley from other artists, including Blur’s Song 2 and The White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’.

But, before long, it’s back to Robbie and him reeling off his impressive roster of hits. He swaps his bedazzled shell jacket for a long red fluffy coat for ‘Rock DJ’.

And it didn’t take long for the intergenerational crowd to ‘move their bodies’. The classic Robbie hit was encased in cheese for years, but it’s now fully matured and living a new life of appreciation.

Much alike surprise guests Five, who were seen on stage together for the first time in 25 years singing their popular tune ‘Keep on Movin’, along with Robbie.

Maybe five years ago it would have been seen as ‘cringe’ and a ‘desperate’ attempt of a comeback, but they received a roaring reception from the crowd and, again, rightly so.

Robbie is right, in a time when the world has gone ‘mad’ it’s time to embrace the fun and be unashamedly ‘cringe’. It’s a sentiment he touched on while wearing a pink puffy mesh cape and an equally camp coloured suit.

While keeping a straight face in the over-the-top garment, Robbie said: “I’ve never been cool. No one has ever said that Robbie Williams is mysterious, no one has looked at me and said ‘he reads Bukowski and drinks espressos in silence’.

“I tried being cool once and I couldn’t pull it off, I just ended up constipated. I’m not the guy in the corner with the cheek bones and the superiority complex.

“I’m the guy in the middle of the dancefloor doing the whitest dance moves known to man and trying to sing along to all the songs even if I don’t know the f***ing words…

“If you’re still trying to be cool – STOP IT – it’s exhausting. Embrace your cringe.”

And that’s one of the reasons Robbie is still on stadium tours 30 years into his career. He is himself – fun, high-energy, a laugh and someone who doesn’t shy away from speaking about their struggles.

The mesh cape comes off, and the razzle dazzle comes back out with his rendition of Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’.

Robbie is on top of the world, and you can clearly see how much performing to tens of thousands people means to him – despite him urging that he’ll love performing on any sized stage in front of any sized audience.

But, even the King of Entertainment doesn’t mind sharing his shine. He invites on Thom Rylance from band Lottery Winner for some stripped back versions of his lesser known songs – before finishing with a rendition of ‘Relight My Fire’.

Robbie wasn’t playing around on naming his tour Brit Pop. He even roped in Lulu to come out and sing her part in the hit Take That song she featured on.

He leant into the past, but also into the future. Throwing digs at TikTok dancing kids and AI, which he welcomed in a hilarious – yet creepy – segment.

Robbie ended up ‘chatting’ to a mega-sized version of teen Robbie, who had been under the super computer treatment.

The bizarre exchange included digs at Gary Barlow, the England football team and teen Robbie commenting on how he’d never get into drugs or alcohol…

“There’s this guy in the band, Gary Barlow, amazing ‘sing-writer’. I can just tell we’re going to be best mates forever like never ever fall-out,” the AI version quipped.

Robbie then spoke to a ‘future’ version of himself, that appeared to have had quite the surgical treatments. The future version of himself joked that he’d been suffering from erectile dysfunction and mentioned that Robbie ‘never had the best voice’.

But, the performer proved that has never been the case – on the vocal part for certain. He finished the night with a string of emotional numbers, including ‘She’s The One’.

Robbie sang the romance song to a fan who had travelled 6,000 miles from China to see him sing live, he made a gag about not realising he had ‘cracked’ the country.

The white suit came our for ‘Feel’, and so did the pyrotechnics, before finishing the night on everyone’s favourite karaoke, wedding and funeral song – ‘Angels’.

He might not quite have the voice of an angel himself, but we can no longer deny that Robbie ‘doesn’t have the best voice’.

It’s just that his excellent ability to perform and engage a crowd with his personality outshines everything else.

Unfortunately much of the Brit Pop cohort ended up struggling with personal issues, priming them away from the spotlight or pushing them towards the stage of British holiday camps.

But, Robbie, his talent and his unapologetic self managed to hoist himself back out of the darkness and back to stadium level once again.

Robbie Williams put on an unapologetic cringe and campy display that we’ve been starved of for too long – and let’s up he keeps dishing it up.

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk