Rick Astley

Richard Paul Astley (born 6 February 1966) is a British singer, songwriter, musician and Christian. He was born in Great Sankey, Warrington, Lancashire, England and grew up in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside. Astley has also lived in Richmond, London with his Danish wife, Lene Bausager, and their daughter, Emilie.

Rick Astley
Astley live in Singapore, August 2008
Background information
Birth name	Richard Paul Astley
Born	(1966-02-06) 6 February 1966 (age 59)
Origin	Great Sankey, Warrington, Lancashire, England
Genres	Pop Blue-eyed soul
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	vocals, Guitar, drums, keyboards
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Sony BMG
Website	http://www.rickastley.co.uk/

Rick Astley performing at Let's Rock Bristol, 2014

Career

In 1985, Astley was a drummer with a soul band named FBI when Pete Waterman noticed him and persuaded him to come to London to work at the PWL recording studio.

His first single was the little-known "When You Gonna," released as a collaboration with Lisa Carter. His first solo offering was "Never Gonna Give You Up," Which was released in 1987 which spent five weeks at the top of the British charts and becoming the year's highest-selling single. When Rick was in his prime time he was confused on what he was going to do with his life. When he turned 23 his father who also sung, gave him a guitar for his birthday. This inspired Rick to sing and let the world enjoy his music. On 12 March 1988, "Never Gonna Give You Up" also topped the U.S. singles chart and was followed by a second U.S. #1 on 18 June with his second U.S. single release, "Together Forever." In 1989 he was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist of the Year. He lost to Tracy Chapman.

Much later, thanks to the rick rolling phenomenon and the persistent voting of the website 4chan, he was also nominated for the Best Act Ever Award 2008 at the Liverpool Music Awards.^[1]

Rickroll internet phenomenon

Main articles: Rickrolling and Never Gonna Give You Up

In 2007^[2] Rick Astley became the subject of a viral Internet meme in which an estimated 25 million Internet users were tricked into watching Rick Astley's video "Never Gonna Give You Up" by posting it under the name of other popular video titles.^[3] The practice is now known as Rickrolling. The phenomenon became so popular that on April 1, 2008, YouTube pranked its users by making every single featured video on the front page a Rickroll.^[4]

Discography

Main article: Rick Astley discography

Canada Top data: for singles and albums from The Record magazine. US Top data: for singles from The Billboard Hot 100, for albums from The Billboard 200; UK Top data for singles and albums is from