Robbie Williams — or rather, his wax figure — has arrived in Budapest. Madame Tussauds Budapest is honoring the rock star, who has been at the top of his game for over three decades and will be performing in the capital in two days. From now on, for just over a month, visitors can lounge next to Robbie in the Madame Tussauds Budapest exhibit and hum along to their favorite hits, from Rock DJ to Let Me Entertain You.

This is the first time Robbie Williams has appeared in Budapest as a wax figure, but he has performed live for Hungarian audiences multiple times over the years: he has been a headliner on the Sziget Main Stage and has filled both the Puskás Arena and the Papp László Sports Arena (both of whose namesakes are also featured in the Madame Tussauds Budapest exhibit). The figure arrived from Vienna and had no special requests; after a quick haircut and outfit adjustment, he took his place at the Cinema Café.

At the Hungarian premiere, radio legend Csaba Abaházi shared his own experiences and thoughts about the singer: “Back in the ’90s, we had an inside joke on the tour bus. If someone was feeling down, the others would just ask, ‘Are you sad because Robbie left Take That?’ That shows how big of a star he already was back then. To be a rock star, you need innate talent — becoming one isn’t easy. I’m sure there are singers with better voices than Robbie’s, and others have had great songs written for them too, but he became one of the defining figures of pop music,” said Abaházi.

Another special guest at the unveiling was Vidor Greguss, who has twice been called up on stage by Robbie Williams. The tall man was first invited up in 2003 and then again in 2023. “Even Robbie was amazed that after two decades he spotted the same person in a crowd of tens of thousands. I’ll be in the front row again this Friday, and I hope there will be a third encounter — it certainly won’t be down to me if it doesn’t happen,” said Greguss.

Robbie has truly earned his place as a Madame Tussauds figure — in London, Berlin, and now Budapest. The now 51-year-old global star first burst onto the scene as a teenager with the boy band Take That, which he left after five years and 25 million records sold. His solo career that followed is best illustrated by a Guinness World Record from 2006: in a single day, 1.6 million tickets were sold for stops on his world tour. He’s given us hits like Angels, Let Me Entertain You, Rock DJ, Feel, Kids, Something Stupid, Come Undone, and Millennium. His list of duet partners is also impressive, having sung with Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman, Kelly Clarkson, and Michael Bublé.

Robbie hasn’t slowed down lately either: in a month, he will release his 13th studio album, titled Britpop. In addition, he has a solo exhibition in London called Radical Honesty, where he expresses his emotions — including themes like modern-day anxiety — through paintings and sculptures.

Offstage, Robbie leads a respectable family life with his wife, actress Ayda Field, and their four children. The rock star has been fascinated by paranormal phenomena and aliens for decades, so he’ll surely feel at home in the Cinema Café as E.T.’s neighbor.