The 大象传媒 Music Awards are in their third year this year, and 2016's lineup may be the finest yet. The show takes place at ExCel London and will be shown live on 12 December. Performers include Craig David, Emeli Sandé, Kaiser Chiefs, Lukas Graham, Zara Larsson, The 1975 and one infamous cheeky chappy from Stoke-on-Trent who you might have heard of.
Robbie Williams needs no introduction, but we'll give him one anyway. He's sold 75m albums (and that's before you consider how many he shifted with Take That) and he holds the record for most No. 1 albums by a British solo artist (overtaking David Bowie).
But perhaps the thing we love him most for is his candour. While many of today's pop elite are as guarded as the most maddeningly obfuscating politicians, Rob likes to get it out in the open, no matter how personal or embarrassing it might be for all concerned. Here are seven fine examples of Robert Peter Williams oversharing in his own inimitable way.
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1. When he live-tweeted the birth of his son
DJ Khaled made around the world recently when he Snapchatted his fiancé giving birth. Astonished you might be by the sharing of such an intimate moment in one's life, but it turns out Khaled learned from a pro. In 2014, Williams live-tweeted the delivery of his baby son, taking us through wife Ayda's contractions and even the breaking of water, in a series of video messages to his then-2.3 million followers. Robbie even did a few song and dance routines for his fans, proving once again that he's the consummate performer. As he once said: "I'm a born entertainer, when I open the fridge and the light comes on, I burst into song."
2. *That* story he told Graham Norton in October
Robbie likened watching the birth of his son to witnessing his "favourite pub burn down". The cheeky quip, made on The Graham Norton Show, got him into trouble with his wife, and it wasn't the only time he'd cause controversy sharing too much with the chat show host. In October, he appeared on the sofa alongside Hollywood actors Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick, and relayed a story so blue it ought to be its own specific shade. Let's just say it involved a cleaning lady, who wasn't really a cleaning lady, a castle and a morning surprise.
3. When he revealed all in a pop video
The video for Rock DJ goes further than most. Directed by Vaughan Arnell, it begins reasonably enough with the Robster singing for his supper as girls circle him on roller skates. As the promo unfurls, so does Rob, performing a strip tease for the assembled. Then things get quite grizzly, with the former Take That man slipping off his skin and stripping right down to his muscles and organs like a reanimated Gunther Von Hagens exhibit. Some music stations couldn't see past the humour, banning the pop video nasty from the airwaves before the watershed (the hullabaloo didn't harm sales). A note at the end of the video sought to reassure fans who might have thought he'd taken having a skin peel too literally: "No Robbies Were Harmed During The Making Of This Video." Phew.
4. The time that he asked for much too much from Kylie
On a radio station in Australia recently, Robbie made a joke involving his co-singer on the song Kids, Kylie Minogue, and instantly regretted it. Promoting new album The Heavy Entertainment Show on The Kyle And Jackie O Show, Robbie blurted out: "Maybe you could get [Kylie] to cut her pubes and then send them to me?" Realising what he'd said, he immediately began to backtrack. "I'm starting my international tour of apologies early. Sorry, Kylie, for saying that. It's just a laugh." Unsurprisingly, the tabloids had a field day.
5. When he mooned Mexico City
Robbie claims to be a "nudist at heart" and promises to be a dad that will embarrass his kids. He got in some practice in 2006 when he was at the MTV Latin Awards in Mexico City to accept the gong for Best International Pop Artist. Williams performed Rock DJ for the Palacio de los Deportes, and while he didn't throw them his skin this time, he did show the 10,000-strong crowd his bare bottom. That's gratitude for you.
6. His three-hour sweet-eating sessions
Perhaps it's Robbie's acquiescence to self-help therapy that makes him unable to guard what he says. He admitted to in October that he had "an addictive personality", saying: "One fire goes out and another pops up. And that fire became working out and eating Minstrels. I transferred the smoking to working out three hours a day, and then eating Minstrels for three hours every night. That's not an exaggeration. And then I stopped the working out and just carried on with the Minstrels and I ballooned to the point where the Daily Mail suggested I was akin to Elvis before he died. It was horrible, terrible. I had to go on stage, too: 'Yeah, I know, I look like Elvis before he died. Sorry, everybody, as I'm pointing at you suggestively, pretending that you think I'm sexy.'"
7. He bites and eats his nails - and not the ones on his hands
It's not just Robbie who is in the habit of revealing too much; Ayda, a guest panellist on Loose Women, has been getting in on the act of oversharing stories about her husband, too - including the fact he doesn't know what a cucumber looks like, and which of the Spice Girls he might have had dalliances with. But the biscuit-taker must be the fact he likes to sit and eat his toenails. "I'll just kind of look over and he'll have a little bit in his mouth," she said to howls of disgust from the studio audience. "Is that nail in your mouth? And he'll be like, 'Uh-uh.'" And they say revenge is a dish best served cold.
