Robbie Williams has admitted that his new album ‘BRITPOP’ was delayed to keep away from clashing with Taylor Swift‘s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
In mid-September, Williams broke the information that his extremely anticipated new album ‘BRITPOP’ – his first in almost a decade – was being pushed again from an October 10 launch till February 6 subsequent yr. The album was as a result of arrive per week after Swift’s twelfth studio album ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
On the time, Williams’ staff wrote on numerous platform on the delay was as a result of “scheduling adjustments”, main followers to invest that he was pushing the album launch to keep away from being caught in the identical launch window as Taylor Swift.
Speculating on X/Twitter on the time, one fan famous how the delay might be associated to the charts, as reaching the Quantity One spot with ‘BRITPOP’ would mark an enormous milestone for Robbie Williams.
“Robbie Williams’ BRITPOP has been delayed from October tenth to February sixth 2026. Prone to keep away from clashing with Taylor Swift,” they wrote. “And to safe his sixteenth #1 UK Album, which might permit him to overhaul The Beatles as the largest UK Artist in historical past.”
On October 9, Williams performed his smallest-ever ticketed present in London, the place he ran by means of his debut album in full, in addition to performing his upcoming report ‘BRITPOP’ in its entirety. Throughout the present, Williams admitted to these in attendance that the album was delayed largely to Swift’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’.
“We’re all pretending it’s not about Taylor Swift, but it surely fucking is. You’ll be able to’t compete with that” Williams instructed the gang. “Right here’s the reality: I would like 16 Quantity One albums. Taylor then determined to place her album out the identical weekend as me.”
“I used to be like, ‘For fuck’s sake! I’ll put it out the subsequent week’, they usually had been like, ‘She does these different deluxe variations’. I used to be like, ‘Fucking hell! Can I put it out the week after that then?’ They had been like, ‘Oasis is likely to be round then’… ‘For fuck’s sake! Let’s do it in fucking February when nobody’s bought an album out’.”
He continued: “I used to be frightened about making you all fucking wait, after which I used to be like, ‘Fuck it! I desire a sixteenth Quantity One album!’ I’m sorry, however I’m fucking being egocentric. What number of instances in your life do you get to have probably the most Quantity One albums the UK’s ever fucking had?”
For extra of what went down at Williams’ intimate gig on October 9, try our protection of the present right here.
As for Swift’s ‘The Life Of A Showgirl’, the album has scored a three-star assessment from NME: “To hunt escapism just isn’t a sin, however one of the best pop music makes the non-public really feel like life or demise. ‘Converse Now’, ‘Fame’, ‘Folklore’: her biggest works might be genuinely transformative. For the primary time, ‘The Lifetime of a Showgirl’ sees Swift not catalysed into creative development by love, however merely comfortably secured by it.”
The album has additionally been met by criticism from followers – a few of whom have referred to as it her “worst” report but, whereas others condemned the “cringey” songwriting on tracks like ‘Wooden’. Swift has since stood her floor, saying she’s unbothered by the criticism: “I’ve such an eye fixed on legacy once I’m making my music — I do know what I made, I do know I am keen on it. I do know that on the theme of what the Showgirl is, all of that is a part of it.”