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→‎Parodies and references: reinsert personal life section, removed by an anon in January
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* [[Mitch Benn]] performed a song called "I May Just Have to Murder James Blunt" in his show ''[[Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music]]'' on [[June 27]]th.
* [[Mitch Benn]] performed a song called "I May Just Have to Murder James Blunt" in his show ''[[Mitch Benn's Crimes Against Music]]'' on [[June 27]]th.
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] composed and recorded a parody of "You're Beautiful" entitled "You're Pitiful," intended for release on his twelfth album. Yankovic had done so with permission from Blunt himself. However Blunt's label, [[Atlantic Records]], chose to forbid Yankovic from releasing his parody. Yankovic removed the song from his album to avoid conflict with the record label, and in June of 2006 posted it as a free download on [http://weirdal.com his own website].<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482774</ref>
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] composed and recorded a parody of "You're Beautiful" entitled "You're Pitiful," intended for release on his twelfth album. Yankovic had done so with permission from Blunt himself. However Blunt's label, [[Atlantic Records]], chose to forbid Yankovic from releasing his parody. Yankovic removed the song from his album to avoid conflict with the record label, and in June of 2006 posted it as a free download on [http://weirdal.com his own website].<ref>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482774</ref>

*Black Lotus Productions created a parody called 'Emotional'
==Personal life==
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2076934037509358175
Blunt met [[Carrie Fisher]] through then girlfriend Dixie Chassay, whose family are old friends of the actress.<ref>http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article344933.ece</ref> Fisher offered him lodgings, and he spent five months at Fisher's Hollywood bungalow, formerly owned by [[Bette Davis]], from September [[2003]]. Blunt recorded the hit ''"Goodbye My Lover"'' at the piano in Fisher's bathroom.<ref>http://www.one2onemag.com/stories.asp?storyid=250</ref> Blunt's hit song, ''"You're Beautiful"'' is reported to be about seeing Chassay with her new partner.<ref>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=391139&in_page_id=1773</ref>

His last girlfriend was reported to be [[Czech]] supermodel [[Petra Němcová]],<ref>http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=23494</ref> but they broke up.


==Discography==
==Discography==

Revision as of 20:08, 23 June 2007

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

Template:Infobox musical artist 2

James Blunt (born James Hillier Blount, February 22 1974) is a BRIT Award winning, 5 times Grammy Nominated, 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 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".

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 in the British Army Air Corps, and his family has a long history of military service. The Blount family 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, and was among 30,000 troops into Pristina as the first British officer to enter the Kosovan capital.[2] It was while on duty in Kosovo that he wrote his 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 9, 2002.[3][4]

Singing career

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[5] while lodging with actress Carrie Fisher.[6]

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 #44, 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 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 U.S. 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 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 3, 2005, 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 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).

In 2005, he performed 90 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.[7] 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.

His second studio album, All the Lost Souls, is scheduled for release on September 17, 2007 in the UK, Europe and rest of the world, and September 18, 2007 in North America.

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 favorite part of the female anatomy".[8]

According to The Sun, "You're Beautiful" has eclipsed Robbie Williams' "Angels" as the wedding favourite in the United Kingdom. In the same article, "Goodbye My Lover" was revealed to be a funeral favourite as well, with two high profile funerals in Canada using the song in memorials for Laval police officer Valerie Gignac and Toronto teenager Jane Creba.[9][10]

Parodies and references

Personal life

Blunt met Carrie Fisher through then girlfriend Dixie Chassay, whose family are old friends of the actress.[14] Fisher offered him lodgings, and he spent five months at Fisher's Hollywood bungalow, formerly owned by Bette Davis, from September 2003. Blunt recorded the hit "Goodbye My Lover" at the piano in Fisher's bathroom.[15] Blunt's hit song, "You're Beautiful" is reported to be about seeing Chassay with her new partner.[16]

His last girlfriend was reported to be Czech supermodel Petra Němcová,[17] but they broke up.

Discography

For a complete discography see James Blunt discography.

Albums

Hit 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, the United States, The Netherlands, and Germany. For a full singles discography, see James Blunt discography.
Year Single Peak positions
UK UK DL AUS IRL U.S. MEX NL GER
2004/05/06 "High" 16 12 42 18 100 31 - 22
2005/06 "Wisemen" 23 18 11 36 44 9 47
2005 "You're Beautiful" 1 1 2 1 1 16 1 2
2006 "Goodbye My Lover" 9 6 3 13 66 4 28

Reviews

Awards

2005

2006

References

  1. ^ bbc.co.uk
  2. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/content/articles/2005/05/18/music_feature_james_blunt_interview_200505_feature.shtml
  3. ^ news.bbc.co.uk
  4. ^ news.bbc.co.uk
  5. ^ jamesblunt.com
  6. ^ bbc.co.uk
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ slate.com
  9. ^ canada.com
  10. ^ canada.com
  11. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPzaw5kfIm0
  12. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKzgUGAlviY
  13. ^ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482774
  14. ^ http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article344933.ece
  15. ^ http://www.one2onemag.com/stories.asp?storyid=250
  16. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=391139&in_page_id=1773
  17. ^ http://www.entertainmentwise.com/news?id=23494

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Blunt.
Wikiquote has quotations related to James Blunt.
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