10/6/03
He has the swagger of Eminem, the swivel hips of Tom Jones and the swing of Dean Martin. Yes, says David Vincent, Robbie Williams has the wits to woo America.
Let Me Entertain You -The Mail on Sunday (Night and Day Magazine) -thanks to Carole, Jackie and Susie
LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU
According to a jubilant British press, Robbie Williams as failed to make it as a solo artist in America. We’ve all seen the headlines: ‘Robbie bombs in the USA’, ‘Superstar at home, superflop Stateside’, ‘Yanks but no thanks’. Indeed, Robbie’s album Escapology, peaked at number 43 in the US charts, with a weekly average sale of 21,000 and the single Feel only reached number 30.
But while that might be a disaster by British standards, it is considered a reasonable showing for a little-known artist in the US. More importantly, leading American music industry and media insiders say Robbie has been anything but a failure. In fact, most think it’s only a matter of time before the US starts swooning at the mere sight of him. It’s a direct contradiction of the British media’s reading of events.
‘It’s just not as bad a picture as the British press are painting,’ says Andy Pemberton, editor-in-chief of cult music magazine Blender. ‘Journalists in the UK are following a model for success that doesn’t apply over here. The formula in Britain is that if someone isn’t a massive hit after on big push, you forget it. Here, it’s a much slower burn.’
That’s an issue that Robbie’s record label, EMI, has deliberately acknowledged in their US strategy for their star. They launched Escapology on April 1 at what they call ‘a development artist price’. That means for a set period they’ve discounted it to $9.98 (£6). Wal-Mart has reduced it further to just $5.88 (3.60).
That might sound a desperate tactic, but it’s common practice in America. It’s also a strategy that has served EMI well. When they took a similar path with Norah Jones’s album Come Away With Me, US sales rocketed passed the million mark and she picked up a Grammy in February.
However, before discussions even got to pricing Escapology, the first thing EMI did was address the lyrical content of some of Robbie’s songs, replacing three tracks about life as a celebrity, which would not work well in a country where he was unknown. Then, just before release, Robbie went on a ten-day television and radio blitz.
Some feared that his humour would be too ironic. ‘He’s a cross between the British comedian Ali G and Monty Python – and both can be an acquired taste,’ wrote Lynette Holloway in the New York Times. Others worried that he traded on his character rather than his music. Historically, British artists who have succeeded in the US – the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, George Michael and Craig David – have all focused on their music, not their personalities.
Robbie, however, was unconcerned: ‘I can’t change my personality or my music to fit a specific market. I’m very British, and so is my sense of humour.’
As it turned out, Robbie was right not to fret. He went down a storm on Last Call With Carson Daly – an edgy talk show that attracts millions of viewers and has provided a springboard for many artists – despite groping one female member of the audience and shoving his head between the breasts of another. And he made headlines when he told music channel VH1, ‘It would be great to see somebody like Kid Rock kissing a man.’
Pemberton says: ‘Robbie has almost supernatural confidence, and that works in America.’
On radio, Robbie has given a string of interviews and acoustic performances. The US radio industry is huge and enormously fragmented. There are no national stations but hundreds of local ones, which makes unifying the country behind him an exhausting but essential, task.
Feel is now on the playlist of stations such as KLLC in San Francisco, WBMX in Boston and KFMB in San Diego. ‘We’re starting to take calls about the track,’ says KLLC boss John Peake. ‘The buzz is definitely starting to happen.’
The response from powerful media commentators in America to Robbie’s initial whirlwind of publicity is blunt and to the point. ‘Saying that Robbie has failed in the US is just idiotic,’ says Carson Daly. ‘It’s so incredibly ignorant. I was thrilled he came on my show. He was an A-list booking.’
Daly’s executive producer, David Friedman, is equally forthright. ‘Robbie’s one of the best guests we’ve had,’ he says. ‘And we’ve had David Bowie, Elton John, 50 Cent and Lil’ Kim among others.
Robbie is not only a brilliant performer musically, he’s a real character. I would say 95 per cent of those who hadn’t seen Robbie before the show went out and bought his CD the next day. Now, all the other TV shows are trying to book him. It makes us feel great that we got there first. Any time Robbie wants to come back, we’d have him. He could co-host the show, as far as I’m concerned.’
Eve MacSweeney, associate editor of American Vogue, believes that ulterior motives may be at play in Britain. ‘The press there are just dying to get Robbie, then go in for the kill,’ she says. ‘It’s schadenfreude because of his new £80 million deal with EMI. The reason his success in the US has not been immediate is complicated, and it’s not personal to Robbie. It’s the nature of the American market.’
American music insiders and critics are also unanimously backing him to make it. Rolling Stone said: ‘If Justin Timberlake had half as much personality, the US pop charts would be a lot more fun.’ The New York Times said: ‘Mr. Williams has the swagger of Eminem, the swivel hips of Tom Jones and the swing of Dean Martin/ The Daily News (New York) said: ‘A song like Something Beautiful has the lift of an Elton John smash like Levon, while Love Somebody puts you in mind of Queen.’ Billboard Magazine said: ‘The singer/songwriter crafts yet another beautiful album full of witty lyrics, catchy music, and gorgeous orchestrations. Considering the high-quality music that Williams makes, it remains a mystery as to why he is not a bigger star in the US. But that could change with Escapology.’
To top it off, Robbie’s even found a fan in Diane Sawyer, co-host of Good Morning America and a US institution. He appeared on the hit show in early April – one of many Robbie TV interviews that his British critics obviously missed – and flirted for Britain. Sawyer was so taken that she had her producers ring him after the show to book him for a summer special.
Back in the UK, EMI seem resigned – if exasperated – to the negative publicity in the newspapers: ‘We will allow him to grow at his own pace – just as we did with Coldplay,’ said one EMI insider. Wisely, they want to dampen down expectation. Too many of Robbie’s contemporaries – Oasis, Ronan Keating, Kylie Minogue – have found America an impossible nut to crack. But they also say it hasn’t altered their plans about how to break the US market. All is going as expected. They want to take it slowly, and wait for that one hit album that sells ten million copies – ten times as many as it could in the UK.
The US, as one EMI executive put it, is ‘pure gold’. And as Mark Collen, senior marketing vice-president, says: @At the end of the day, Robbie must have America. It’s a pride issue for him. He wants to be a truly global superstar.’
But it’s not just Robbie who is yearning for his superstardom. EMI probably want it for him even more. Last year, when they announced his multi-million-pound deal, the jaws of many in the industry were sent clattering to the floor. EMI was already under the spotlight after laying off 1,800 staff and paying Mariah Carey a reported £20 million when it ditched her. The company’s share price plummeted from £3.70 to less than £1.
On top of that, it is the only major record company not owned – and protected – by a conglomerate, and its share of the lucrative US market has slumped to a paltry 8.1 per cent. Industry insiders ruminated over how the company could possibly recoup its layout.
In fact, the deal could prove very lucrative for EMI – because it includes a cut of Williams’s touring, merchandising and publishing revenue. And, contrary to articles in the press, EMI don’t need Robbie to break America to recoup the £80 million. ‘The deal was done based on my international success, excluding America’ says Williams.
Helen Snell, media analyst at investment bank UBS Warburg, says: ‘I don’t believe that breaking Robbie in the US is an integral part of the contract. (EMI music boss) Alain Levy wouldn’t sign a contract where the US is the make-or-break market.’
However, EMI will need to sell seven million copies of each of Robbie’s next six albums. But Escapology is already above the six million mark in the UK, Europe and Asia. With touring, merchandising and publishing cuts thrown in – EMI takes 20 per cent – the company are on target to recoup their investment.
Robbie is the key ingredient in Alain Levy’s recipe for EMI’s recovery, and he has made sure every aspect of the push into America has been perfectly choreographed. He isn’t about to give up just because success hasn’t been instantaneous – they’re planning at least two years in advance.
So, there’s no doubt EMI and Robbie’s ego want him to be a global superstar, but does Robbie?
As Kylie, Ronan Keating and the Gallagher brothers have all discovered, cracking the American market is no mean feat. In the mid-Nineties, it looked as if America were there for the taking for Oasis. But the public and the press soon tired of the fights, abandoned tours and Liam’s abuse of the audience.
Keating had his teeth straightened before flying to the US, but he didn’t even get a chance to flash his smile before being told his face, his molars and his music didn’t fit. The single Lovin’ Each Day sold only 25,000 copies in two months.
As for Kylie, after years of trying, she elbowed her way into the Billboard top ten with Can’t Get You Out of my Head. It was bona fide hit single. The door opened for her to make inroads, but essentially she decided she couldn’t be bothered. ‘The minute you stop fancying that person is when the person starts taking a fancy to you,’ Kylie told Billboard at the time. ‘That’s how I feel about the US. I don’t know if I have the drive and enthusiasm to break in America.’
So, what should Robbie do next? ‘Robbie really has to do a tour, as well as the interviews and TV appearances,’ says Friedman. ‘In Europe, either you’ve got it or you haven’t. Here, it’s more a kind of brainwashing through repeated exposure.’
Whether he’s prepared to do gigs at 600-seater venues in backwater towns after such lavish events as his 120,000 – capacity summer spectacular at Phoenix Park in Dublin is debatable. Robbie is currently in Europe promoting his second single from Escapology, Come Undone, and preparing for his European tour. A tour of America has been pencilled in for September to November and further releases from Escapology will merge later in the year before he begins recording his next album, probably in Los Angeles.
On TV, Robbie has completed a second US blitz. He appeared on The Tonight Show, usually hosted by Jay Leno, but that evening fronted by queen of daytime TV, Katie Couric, and went down a storm.
Perhaps most important of all, Disney’s Finding Nemo will be released in the US on Saturday. The animated film, from the makers of Toy Story, is tipped to be the hit of the summer and includes the song Beyond The Sea from Robbie’s Swing When You’re Winning album. It’s great timing for Robbie and will bring his music to the attention of a huge number of American film-goers.
Now, the question remains: can Robbie be bothered with the slog of a promotional tour, persona appearances in Nowheresville and courting local radio stations for the next two years?
‘It’s a tough business now,’ says Daly. ‘You can’t just stop when (talk show host) David Letterman calls. You have to infiltrate. Robbie has to really introduce himself. He’s got the skills to back it up, but Americans’ attention span is low – you need to constantly hit them over the head. And initially he only did ten days of promotions here. That’s not enough.’
Robbie might not have been the overnight sensation in America that some were expecting, but the door remains wide open. Don’t write him off yet.
