James Blunt (born James Hillier Blunt — February 22, 1974 in Tidworth, Wiltshire) is a British musician and a rising star whose debut album, Back To Bedlam, and single releases — especially number one hit "You're Beautiful" — brought him to fame in 2005. His style is a mix of jazz and Northern soul, and comparisons have been made between him and early Elton John. Along with vocals, Blunt plays a wide variety of instruments including the piano, guitar, organ, marimba, and mellotron.Blunt was educated at Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School (where he received his nickname 'Blunty'), and finally the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Before the release of his album, Blunt was a commissioned officer in the British Army, rose to the rank of Captain and served as a NATO peacekeeper in Kosovo. He was also on duty for the funeral of the Queen Mother on April 9, 2002. In a TV4 Nyhetsmorgon interview, he mentioned that he had been shot at more times than 50 Cent.1 Early success 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.2 Singles 3 External links Early successJames Blunt's debut single in the UK, "High", 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 ended up becoming a Top 10 hit in that country. Some people also suspect his song "High" as being a drug reference, which Blunt claims to be ridiculous. His second single, "Wisemen", improved upon that position with a #44 peak.However, it was the third single, "You're Beautiful", that became Blunt's 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 Beautiful" in the UK, the song crossed over to mainland Europe, becoming one 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, the song climbed into to the Top 10 at three radio formats: Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Adult Alternative. "You're Beautiful" is also a Top 5 hit on the US Hot Digital Songs chart, published by Billboard Magazine.The videos for three 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 video for "Wisemen", he is kidnapped and taken hostage. In the video for "You're Beautiful", he alludes to suicide.His dramatic rise to popularity and success has garnered envy, jealousy and resentment. 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.The Sunday Telegraph's Mandrake column has claimed that Blunt is in fact 3 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. Critics have also labelled Blunt as "music for bored housewives", pointing at his uninventive lyrics and lacklustre use of simplistic emotional messages without any real meaning behind them.In January 2006, he was nominated for five Brit awards.In December 2005, he was parodied in a Dead Ringers sketch, with Jon Culshaw imitating his hit song "You're Beautiful". Comic lines included "I have a girlie voice," and "All the other singers hate me." The sketch ended wit