Rick Astley

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Rick Astley in Singapore, 2008

Richard "Rick" Paul Astley (born February 6, 1966 in Newton-le-Willows , Lancashire , now Merseyside ) is a British singer . He celebrated great chart successes between 1987 and 1993, including the titles Never Gonna Give You Up , Whenever You Need Somebody , Together Forever , Take Me to Your Heart and Cry for Help . After almost 30 years, Astley reached number one on the UK charts again in 2016 with his comeback album 50 .

biography

Rick Astley grew up in the north of England as the youngest of four children. His father introduced him to music at an early age and enrolled him in the church choir. He founded his first bands in early childhood. When he founded the band FBI with school friends and gave several concerts with them in the vicinity of his homeland, Astley's popularity grew slowly. A short time later he received his first offers from music producers . His bandmates supported him in his endeavors for a solo career, so that Astley left the FBI and joined the hit factory of Pete Waterman ( Stock Aitken Waterman ), which made Kylie Minogue and Samantha Fox pop stars, among others .

At the end of July 1987 his debut single Never Gonna Give You Up was released in the typical Euro disco sound, with which he conquered the top of the charts for a long time, first in England and later in 15 other countries (including the USA and Germany) . This success was followed by the second single and the following album Whenever You Need Somebody . For the next twelve months, Astley was one of the UK's most successful artists, scooping the BPI Awards for Best Single Never Gonna Give You Up and being nominated for a Grammy in the US . The other single releases from the album also achieved top ten placements in many countries.

Astley's second album, Hold Me in Your Arms , was released in November 1988 and seamlessly followed on from the first hits. In 1989 and 1990 his first world tour took him through Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia.

Rick Astley (2009)

After separating from Waterman, he released his third, artistically somewhat more ambitious album Free in February 1991 , which included Elton John , Michael McDonald and Climie Fisher . With the LP and the single releases, he was able to record some successes in England, the USA and some European countries. However, he was unable to build on the success of the first records.

When Astley's fourth album Body and Soul was released in September 1993 , on which well-known colleagues such as Lisa Stansfield or Climie Fisher again worked, his priorities had already shifted a little. He and his wife had a daughter. He pushed the music with the touring stress and the work in the studio more into the background. The album sold poorly, so that the serious music press, which never had a lot of love for Astley's works, felt confirmed. Astley initially retired from the music business.

In 2000 he started recording his own songs again. In October 2001, Polydor released his comeback single Sleeping , which was followed two months later by the album Keep it Turned On . Both hit the charts in Great Britain and much of Europe, but never met with great success.

A greatest hits album came out in the summer of 2002 and a compilation of his best love songs in mid-2004 , both of which sold well. In England he gave a few concerts again after more than ten years. More than ten years later, Rick Astley's seventh studio album 50 (his age when it was released) was released in June 2016 , with which he reached number 1 in the UK charts and then went on tour.

Internet phenomenon "rickrolling"

At least since May 2007, the existing internet meme " Rick Rolling ". In this joke, Internet users are directed to a video portal on which the music video of Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up is presented to them, mostly by pretending to be information that arouses great interest . On June 17, 2020, Rick Astley himself fell victim to a rickroll.

Awards

  • 2008: MTV European Music Award Best Act Ever

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1987 Whenever You Need Somebody DE1
platinum
platinum

(36 weeks)DE 		AT3 (22 weeks)
AT 		CH2
platinum
platinum

(13 weeks)CH 		UK1
Quadruple platinum
× 4
Quadruple platinum

(34 weeks)UK 		US10
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(60 weeks)US
First published: November 16, 1987
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman , Ian Curnow, Phil Harding, Daize Washbourn
1988 Hold Me in Your Arms DE3
gold
gold

(25 weeks)DE 		AT20 (2 weeks)
AT 		CH11
gold
gold

(11 weeks)CH 		UK8th
platinum
platinum

(19 weeks)UK 		US19th
gold
gold

(23 weeks)US
First published: November 26th, 1988
Producers: Stock Aitken Waterman, Rick Astley, Ian Curnow, Phil Harding, Daize Washbourn
1991 Free DE8 (21 weeks)
DE 		AT24 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH26 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK9
gold
gold

(9 weeks)UK 		US31 (18 weeks)
US
First published: February 18, 1991
Producers: Gary Stevenson, Rick Astley
1993 Body & Soul - - - - US185 (1 week)
US
First published: September 28, 1993
Producers: Gary Stevenson, Rick Astley
2001 Keep It Turned On DE56 (1 week)
DE 		- - - -
First released: December 3, 2001
Producers: Gary Stevenson, Ben Robbins, Chris Braide
2005 portrait - - - UK26 (3 weeks)
UK 		-
First released October 17, 2005
Producers: Gary Stevenson, Ben Robbins, Chris Braide
2016 50 DE21 (7 weeks)
DE 		AT41 (3 weeks)
AT 		CH44 (4 weeks)
CH 		UK1
platinum
platinum

(42 weeks)UK 		-
Initial release: June 10, 2016
Producer: Rick Astley
2018 Beautiful life DE40 (3 weeks)
DE 		AT70 (1 week)
AT 		CH44 (3 weeks)
CH 		UK6th
silver
silver

(19 weeks)UK 		-
First published: July 13, 2018

family

Astley is married to the Danish film producer Lene Bausager . The couple have a daughter together. Astley and Bausager met after a concert in Denmark in 1989. The couple lives in Surrey (as of 2013).

swell

  1. ↑ Release date Sleeping
  2. ↑ Rickrolling Rick Astley. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US
  4. ↑ http://sondagsavisen.dk/kendte/2008-11-29-80er-ikonet-rick-astley-er-tilbage/
  5. ↑ http://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/419111/Rick-Astley-Five-things-I-can-t-live-without

Web links

Commons : Rick Astley  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Astley, Rick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Astley, Richard Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British singer
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Newton-le-Willows