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James Blunt Profile |
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Birth Date: February 22, 1972
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Birth Place: Tidworth, Hampshire, England, UK
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Birth Name: James Hillier Blount
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Height 5'8"
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Biography |
James Blunt 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 jazz, Northern soul, pop and soft rock. 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.
Blunt was born in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England in 1974 and
educated at Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School
(where he received his nickname 'Blunty'), Bristol
University, and finally 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 reconaissance 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 9 April 2002. In a TV4 Nyhetsmorgon interview, he
mentioned that he had been shot at more times than 50 Cent.
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, 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 Fall 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 on fire.
Blunt has performed numerous television and radio
appearances throughout the UK, Europe, North America and
Australasia. On 3 December 2005, he was the musical guest on
Saturday Night Live. His music has been featured on
television programs throughout the world. He made his acting
debut on the (US) ABC Family Channel program 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. He stated on the Oprah show that "You're Beautiful" is
based on a true story when he saw his ex-girlfriend at a
subway station with another man.
Blunt's dramatic rise to popularity and success has garnered
hostility. His short-notice billing at a major summer
festival, ousting 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. He once sang 'Jingle Bells' live
on TV for a christmas festival in England. Critics have also
labelled Blunt as "music for bored housewives", accusing him
for having uninventive lyrics and lacklustre use of
simplistic emotional messages without any real meaning
behind them. |
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Other Information |
He had planned to be a musician after he saw an older boy
playing the electric guitar it inspired him to become one
too.
He was in the army for four and a half years. He spent six
months in Kosovo as part of the peace keeping force. He
recorded his memories of his time in the army in 'No
Bravery, the closing track of his album, 'Back To Bedlam'.
He attended Harrow, a large, well-known public school for
boys. His music was never appreciated in school as it was
too emotional for the teenage boys in his class. Despite
these set backs, he continued to practice everyday.
He plays the Guitar and the Piano. He also writes all of his
own lyrics and music.
Wrote the song "Good-bye My Lover", for an ex-girlfriend
(who is still alive despite rumors that she passed on). He
considered her to be the woman he wanted to marry before she
left him.
Wrote the song "You're Beautiful" after seeing another
ex-girlfriend on the London Underground with her new
boyfriend. He claimed on the BBC concert that aired on BBC1
on the 9th of December 2005 at 11:3s GMT that "our eyes met
for a second but we re-lived an entire lifetime of
memories".
Won 2 prizes at the 2006 Brit Awards for "Best Pop Act" and
"Best British Male" (15 February 2006).
Was on duty for the funeral of the Queen Mother (aka Queen
Elizabeth) (9 April 2002).
His song "You're Beautiful" became a US number one single,
making him the first UK artist since Elton John in 1997 to
top the US singles chart. [1 March 2006] |
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