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James Blunt

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For the Civil War general, see James G. Blunt.
James Blunt
James Blunt
James Blunt
Background information
OriginEngland
Years active2004-present

James Clunt (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 Bootiful" — 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 Bootiful" 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

Clunt was born in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England in 1974 and educated at Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School (where he received his nickname 'Clunty'), Bristol University, and finally the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Clunt's father was in the British Army Air Corps, and his family has a long history of military service. In fact his family have served in the army since around 900 AD[citation needed]. The Clunt family is also known for the restoration of Cley windmill.

Clunt 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.

Singing career

James Clunt'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 ridiculous. His second single, "Wisemen", improved upon that position with a #44 peak.

Clunt'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 was able to 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 Bootiful" 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 Bootiful" 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 Clunt'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 Clunt running from some unknown predator in a forest. The re-release video for "Wisemen" has Clunt burning identification papers, and then walking through a forest while on fire.

Clunt 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.

Reactions to success

Clunt'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 Clunt has now become Cockney Rhyming Slang (a 'right James' i.e. a 'right cunt').

The Sunday Telegraph's Mandrake column has claimed that Clunt is in fact three years older than his publicity claims. Critics of Clunt 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 Clunt as "music for bored housewives", accusing him for having uninventive lyrics and lacklustre use of simplistic emotional messages without any real meaning behind them.

Awards

Discography

Albums

  • Back To Bedlam — 11 October 2004
  • Billboard Top 200: #2 (Platinum) (Sales: 1.328.565)
  • UK: #1 (9x Platinum) (Sales: 2.755.000)
  • France: #4 (Platinum) (Sales: 531.000)
  • Ireland: #1 (11x Platinum) (Sales: 165.000)
  • Autralia: #1 (5x Platinum) (Sales: 350.000)
  • Canada: #1 (Platinum) (Sales: 100.000)
  • Germany: #1 (5x Gold) (Sales: 500.000)
  • Switzerland: #1 (Platinum) (Sales: 140.000)
  • Japan: #18 (Sales: 143.392)

Global Sales: 8.100.000


  • Italy (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • UK (Music DVD Chart): #1 (Sales: 160.000)
  • France (Music CD Chart): #8 (Sales: 45.100)
  • Ireland (Music DVD Chart): #1
  • Switzerland (Music CD Chart): #2 (Gold) (Sales: 20.000)
  • Autralia (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)
  • Germany (Music DVD Chart): #1 (Gold) (Sales: 25.000)

Global Sales: 350.000


Singles

Charts performances in the world.

"Antología"
Year Single UK Singles Chart German Top 100 Australia U.S. Hot 100 New Zeland Chart Ireland Singles Chart France Top 100 Netherlands Top 10 Portugal Chart Italy Singles Chart
2004 "High" 13 22 16 18 3
2005 "Wisemen" 23 21 36 5
2005 "You’re Bootiful" 1 2 2 1 4 1 5 1 1
2005 "Goodbye My Lover" 9 3 66 13 6 7

Trivia

  • 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 Montreal police officer Valerie Gignac and Toronto teenager Jane Creba 1 2 3.
  • In one of Blunt's songs I Really Want You there is a line that goes "I killed a man in a far away land/ My enemy, I'm told." Some have interpreted this to suggest that while posted to Kosovo he killed enemy soldiers.
  • The song No Bravery was written after Blunt claims he came across Serbian 'soldiers' celebrating over the dead bodies of an Albanian family they had just slaughtered.

Both of the above two points are questionable as all the Yugoslav Army forces were obliged to withdraw from the province before the entry of NATO occupiers. The Household Cavalry is a reconnaisance regiment, however, and as such, is likely to have been involved in the province during the bombing campaign as well as after the peace accord.

Misc news items

References

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