James Blunt

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For the American Civil War general, see James G. Blunt.

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James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, February 221974) is an English singer-songwriter 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 rock and acoustic rock. Along with vocals, James 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 with the song "Candle in the Wind". Blunt won two BRIT Awards and was nominated for five Grammy Awards in 2006.

Early life

Blunt was born in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England in 1974 and educated at Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School (Elmfield House). From Harrow School he gained an army sponsored place at Bristol University, before finally completing his education at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Blunt's father was a Colonel in the British Army Air Corps, and his family has a long history of military service. The Blount family (Blunt is the performer's stage name) is also known to have owned and restored Cley windmill.[1]

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. He was put in charge of leading 30,000 troops into Priština as the first British officer to enter the Kosovan capital.[1] It was while on duty in Kosovo that he wrote the song "No Bravery". He also stood guard at the coffin of the Queen Mother during the days of her lying in State and was part of the funeral procession on April 92002.[2][3]

Music career

Back to Bedlam

Within a year of leaving the army, Blunt signed to EMI Music Publishing as a singer/songwriter. He soon caught the eye of former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry, who had written and produced songs for Pink, Courtney Love and Christina Aguilera. Perry signed him to her new US-based Custard Records label, and Blunt recorded his album, Back to Bedlam, in Los Angeles with producer Tom Rothrock at Rothrock's home studio, Embassy studios while lodging with actress Carrie Fisher.[1][4]


James Blunt's debut single, by "soft release" 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 was a Top 10 hit in that country. His second single, "Wisemen", this time properly commercially available, peaked at #42, and sent the album into the UK's Top 20 chart. A support slot on Elton John's 2004 tour followed. 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, 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 U.S., "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 one on the U.S. Hot 100.

The videos for all of Blunt's singles released from Back To Bedlam 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 off a cliff into the sea. The re-release video for "High" then features Blunt running 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 and in "Goodbye My Lover", he is the outsider in a love triangle, forced to imagine the couple, a man and woman (played by Matt Dallas of Kyle XY and Mischa Barton of The O.C.) together.

On December 32005, James Blunt 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 72006). He was interviewed and performed "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover" on the Oprah Winfrey Show on March 82006 (taped on February 212006).

In 2005, he performed ninety live shows, mainly across the UK and Europe, ending the year supporting Jason Mraz in a North American tour. The "Back to Bedlam World Tour" started off in Europe in early January 2006, moving through the UK in February, and then progressing to his first full headlining tour in North America starting in March. In April, Blunt performed several dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan before returning to North America for May, and then starting another UK/European tour in June and July. October and November saw the return of Blunt to North America.[5] In addition to the songs from the Back to Bedlam album, Blunt has included several cover songs, including "Where Is My Mind?" and "Breakfast in America". Blunt has also performed several unrecorded original works in live performances.

On 7 July2007, Blunt performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London. He performed two of his own songs, "Wisemen" (from Back to Bedlam) and "Same Mistake" (to be on All The Lost Souls). Additionally, he covered Cat Stevens' "Wild World".

All The Lost Souls

James Blunt releases his second studio album on September 17 2007 throughout the world, and a day later in North America. Blunt completed the songs for the album at his home in Ibiza through the winter of 2006-07. Five of the ten songs on the album have been performed during his 2005-06 tours; however, lyrics, melodies and harmonies were refined for the studio recording. The album was recorded with his touring band, and Tom Rothrock returned as producer.

The first single from All The Lost Souls is called "1973" and was inspired by Blunt's nights out in a club called Pacha, in Ibiza, which opened that year. The DJ Pete Tong, remixed "1973" and plays the track during his set in Pacha.

Reactions to success

Blunt initially had little investment from both the independent record label he was signed to, Custard Records, or from his distributors Atlantic Records. Although trading standards authorities forced him to add an explicit lyrics warning to the packaging of his debut album, critics of Blunt have cited 'inoffensive' songs and vast marketing investment as reason to see him more in the mould of a commercial act rather than a genuine singer-songwriter. In 2006, the name James Blunt was entered into the Dictionary of Cockney rhyming slang (a 'right James Blunt') in reference to the word cunt. Blunt is said to have responded, "John F. Kennedy got an airport named after him - I got my favourite part of the female anatomy".[6]

According to The Sun, "You're Beautiful" has eclipsed Robbie Williams' "Angels" as the wedding favourite in the United Kingdom.[7]

Discography

Main article: James Blunt discography

Albums

Hit singles

See also: James Blunt discography § Singles

The following singles reached the top twenty in the United Kingdom and/or Australia. Their peak positions are shown, along with the peak positions for Ireland, Mexico, Italy , the United States, The Netherlands, Germany and Canada.

Year Single Peak positions
UK UK DL AUS IRL U.S. MEX ITA NL GER CAN
2004 "High" 16 12 42 18 100 31 3 - 22 66
2005 "Wisemen" 23 18 11 36 - - - 9 47 3
2005 "You're Beautiful" 1 1 2 1 1 16 - 1 2 1
2006 "Goodbye My Lover" 9 6 3 13 66 - - 4 28 85
2007 "1973" 4 4 17 5 102 57 44 9 2 13

Awards

2005

2006

References

  1. ^ a b c "James Blunt interview". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 2005-08-15.
  2. ^ "Blunt words of sensitive soldier". News.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2006-02-16.
  3. ^ "About James Blunt". About.com. Retrieved 2005-05-22.
  4. ^ "STILLS PHOTOGRAPHS". jamesblunt.com. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
  5. ^ "2006 Tour Dates". jamesblunt.co.uk. Retrieved February 29, 2004.
  6. ^ "Dancing With Belle and Sebastian Plus, the secret to Brit-pop success revealed!". slate.com. Retrieved 2006-02-16. {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 33 (help)
  7. ^ {cite web|url=http://www.uk-disco.co.uk/articles-public/29_08_2006Top-10-First-Dance-Wedding-Songs.asp%7Ctitle=Top 10 Wedding Songs|work=UKDisco.co.uk|accessdate=2006-08-29}}

Further reading

External links

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