My perennial favorite British pop star, Robbie Williams, has announced that he will do a full-monty striptease for Elton John's 60th birthday in March. Of course, to my mind, nothing could top the one he did in the video for "Rock DJ." (Caution: not entirely safe for work, plus it gets a little gory.)
To me, this video says everything about fame, celebrity, fan culture and Robbie himself. The desperation for attention, the crowd's taste for blood, the total lack of shame on everyone's part. The sight of a rollergirl lovingly cradling a slab of bloody muscle to her face is, to my twisted mind, nothing short of art.
There's a lot of static about Williams' sexual orientation, whether he's straight and a tease, gay and closeted or just plain bi. My take on the man, based solely on his music and videos, is that Robbie Williams doesn't care what form the attention takes; if you're willing to adore him, he's yours. He needs you more than you need him, and he knows that makes him a beggar and he also knows how choosy they can afford to be. Whether or not this is true in his real life kinda doesn't matter to me. In fact, I hope it's a performance, that his loneliness and desperation don't run as deep as his art implies that they do.
Robbie's got a new single out called "She's Madonna," which, near as I can tell, is about taking home the queen of the drag-performer prom. I've heard snippets of the song, and it sounds pretty good. Unfortunately, all I can tell about the video, based on the stills I've seen is that Robbie makes a spectacularly unattractive woman.
I mean, look at that. It's like he's playing Frankenstein in Bob Mackie or something.
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