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James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, 22 February 1974) is a British musician whose debut album, Back to Bedlam, and single releases — especially the number one hit "You're Beautiful" — brought him to fame in 2005. His style is a mix of pop and northern soul. Along with vocals, Blunt plays a wide variety of instruments including the piano, guitar, organ, marimba, and mellotron.

He is signed to Linda Perry's American label Custard, and became the first British artist to top the American singles chart in nearly a decade when his song "You're Beautiful" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2006. The last British artist to do so had been Elton John in 1997.

Early life

Blunt was born in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England in 1974 and educated at Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School. From there he gained an army sponsored place at Bristol University, before finally completing his education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Blunt's father was in the British Army Air Corps, and his family has a long history of military service. The Blunt family is also known for the restoration of Cley windmill*.

Blunt was then a commissioned officer in the Life Guards regiment, a unit of the Household Cavalry of the British Army. He rose to the rank of Captain and served as an armoured reconnaissance officer in the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo. It was here that he wrote his song "No Bravery". He was also on duty for the funeral of the Queen Mother on April 9, 2002http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4701924.stmhttp://top40.about.com/od/artistsac/p/jamesblunt.htm. In a TV4 Nyhetsmorgon interview, and in an ExtraTV interview, he mentioned that he had been shot at more times than 50 Cent.

Singing career

James Blunt's debut single in the UK was "High" (co-written with Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue). This song peaked below the Top 100 of the UK Singles Chart. However, the song was chosen to appear in a Vodafone commercial in Italy, and as a result was a Top 10 hit. Some people have suggested that the title of his song "High" is in reference to drugs; Blunt, however, claims this to be untrue. His second single, "Wisemen", improved upon that position with a #44 peak.

Blunt's third single "You're Beautiful" was his breakout hit. The song debuted at #12 in the UK, and demonstrated a rare trend of upward mobility on the UK charts, rising all the way to the #1 position six weeks after its debut. The song also received massive airplay in the UK and also throughout all of the US, which helped propel Back To Bedlam to #1 on the albums chart, unseating the record-breaking album X&Y by Coldplay from the pole position.

After the success of "You're Beautiful" in the UK, the song crossed over to mainland Europe, becoming one of the biggest hits of summer 2005 across the continent.

In the USA, "You're Beautiful" made its debut in the summer of 2005 on WPLJ, a prominent radio station in New York City, despite not having been released to radio yet. Once the song was released to radio stations in the Autumn of 2005, the song climbed into the Top 10 at three radio formats: Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Adult Alternative, eventually climbing to number 1 on the Hot 100.

The videos for all of Blunt's singles to date feature symbolism and dark imagery. In the first video for "High", he is buried in a desert. In the first video for "Wisemen", he is kidnapped and taken hostage. In the video for "You're Beautiful", he alludes to suicide by jumping into an ocean as the final lyrics are sung. The re-release video for "High" then features Blunt running from some unknown predator in a forest. The re-release video for "Wisemen" has Blunt burning identification papers, and then walking through a forest while he is on fire.

Blunt has performed numerous television and radio appearances throughout the UK, Europe, North America and Australia. On 3 December, 2005, he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. His music has been featured on television programmes throughout the world. He made his acting debut on the (US) ABC Family Channel programme Wildfire, first aired on January 30 2006. He also appeared in episode 103 of the CBS comedy Love Monkey (original air date February 7, 2006) . He was interviewed and performed "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover" on the Oprah Winfrey Show on March 8, 2006 (taped on February 21, 2006). He stated on Oprah that "You're Beautiful" is based on a true story when he saw his ex-girlfriend at a subway station with another man. Blunt also sings a cover of Australian/New Zealand band Crowded House's hit Fall At Your Feet, which was played at several points during a recent episode of US teen drama The OC.

Reactions to success

Blunt's dramatic rise to popularity and success has garnered hostility. His short-notice billing at a major summer festival, ousting the now lesser known Declan O'Rourke, led the latter to refer to him as "James Cucking Funt" live on-air on an Irish radio station. The name James Blunt has now become Cockney rhyming slang (a 'right James').*

The Sunday Telegraph's Mandrake column has claimed that Blunt is in fact three years older than his publicity claims. Critics of Blunt have cited this, along with vast marketing investment and 'inoffensive' songs, in seeing him as more in the mould of a commercial act rather than a genuine singer-songwriter, yet Blunt initially had little to no investment from both the independent record label he was signed to or from distributors Atlantic Records.

On May 29, 2006, the British press reported that a local radio station Essex FM had announced that it had banned all songs by Blunt from being played, after listeners of the station repeatedly called and said they were "fed up with them". The station had actually just stopped playing the hit single "You're Beautiful" after having it on constant rotation for 14 months. They played the single "Wisemen" 26 times the next week. *

Parodies

Awards

2005 2006

Discography

Albums

Back to Bedlam — 11 October 2004
  • United States (Billboard Top 200): #2 (2x Platinum) (Sales: 2,000,000)
  • UK: #1 (9x Platinum) (Sales: 2,810,000)*
  • France: #2 (2x Platinum) (Sales: 610,900)
  • Ireland: #1 (12x Platinum) (Sales: 180,000)
  • Australia: #1 (7x Platinum) (Sales: 490,000)
  • New Zealand: #1 (7x Platinum) (Sales: 105,000)
  • Poland: #6 (2x Platinum) (Sales: 215,000)
  • Canada: #1 (3x Platinum) (Sales: 300,000)
  • Germany: #1 (3x Platinum) (Sales: 600,000)
  • Switzerland: #1 (3x Platinum) (Sales: 125,000)
  • Sweden:#1 (Platinum) (Sales: 60,000)
  • Japan: #7 (Gold) (Sales: 257,670)
  • Denmark: #1 (2x Platinum) (Sales: 80,000)
  • Spain: #4 (Platinum) (Sales: 80,000)
  • Greece: #1 (2x Platinum) (Sales: 40,000)
  • Belgium: #1 (Platinum) (Sales: 50,000)
  • Holland: #2 (Gold) (Sales: 70,000)
  • Greece:#1 (3x Platinium) (Sales: 120,000)
  • Austria #1 (Gold) (Sales: 15,000),
Global Sales: 9,765,000

The Bedlam Sessions Live DVD with Bonus live CD - 13 February 2006

  • Italy (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • UK (Music DVD Chart): #1 (Sales: 110,000)
  • France (Music CD Chart): #8 (Sales: 81.100)
  • Ireland (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • Switzerland (Music CD Chart): #2 (Gold) (Sales: 20,000)
  • Australia (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • Denmark (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • Greece (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • Sweden (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • NZ (Music CD Chart): #1 (Platinum) (Sales: 5,000)
  • Germany (Music DVD Chart): #1 (Gold) (Sales: 25,000)
  • Belgium (Music DVD Chart): #3 (Gold) (Sales: 25,000)
  • Poland #36 (Sales: 2,000)
Global Sales: 1,800,000

Singles

Chart positions are for United Kingdom (UK), Germany (GER), Australia (AUS), United States (USA), New Zealand (NZ), Ireland (IRL), France (FRA), The Netherlands (NL), Portugal (POR), Italy (ITA), Sweden (SE), Canada (CAN), Austria (AT), Slovakia (SK), Switzerland (SUI)..

Year Single UK GER AUS USA NZ IRL FRA NL POR ITA SE CAN AT SK SUI
2004 "High" 16 22 65 100 - 18 - 35 3 78 13 48 15
2005 "Wisemen" 23 - 11 - 21 36 - 9 - 12 38 3 - 9 -
2005 "You're Beautiful" #1 2 2 #1 4 #1 5 #1 #1 6 #1 #1 6 3 2
2005 "Goodbye My Lover" 9 28 3 66 19 13 6 4 - - #1 - 36 - 19

  • Notes:
  1. "High" was originally released in the UK in 2004 peaking at #148. It was re-released in 2005 after "Wisemen" and peaked at #16.
  2. "Wisemen" was originally released in the UK in 2005 peaking at #44. It was re-released in 2006 and peaked at #23.
  3. "You're Beautiful" went 6x Platinum in the United States.
  4. "Goodbye My Lover" went Platinum in Australia.
  5. "You're Beautiful" No.1 singles chart in 44 countres
  6. "Back to Bedlam" No.1 album chart in 53 countres

Trivia

See also

References

External links

Misc news items

English guitarists | English keyboardists | English organists | English musicians | English pianists | English male singers | English multi-instrumentalists | Saturday Night Live musical guests | British Army officers | Old Harrovians | Natives of Wiltshire | 1974 births | Living people

James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | 제임스 블런트 | James Blunt | James Blunt | ジェームス・ブラント | James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | Блант, Джеймс | James Blunt | James Blunt | James Blunt | 詹姆仕·布朗特

 

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