James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974), better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and former reconnaissance officer for the British Army. He originally signed to EMI Music Publishing and is currently signed to Custard Records and Atlantic Records.
Blunt rose to prominence in 2004 with the release of his debut studio album Back to Bedlam, achieving worldwide fame with the singles "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". The album sold over 11 million copies worldwide, topping the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two in the US. "You're Beautiful" was number 1 in both the US, UK and a dozen other countries. Back to Bedlam, was the best selling albu...
James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974), better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and former reconnaissance officer for the British Army. He originally signed to EMI Music Publishing and is currently signed to Custard Records and Atlantic Records.
Blunt rose to prominence in 2004 with the release of his debut studio album Back to Bedlam, achieving worldwide fame with the singles "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover". The album sold over 11 million copies worldwide, topping the UK Albums Chart and peaking at number two in the US. "You're Beautiful" was number 1 in both the US, UK and a dozen other countries. Back to Bedlam, was the best selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
Blunt has gone on to sell over 20 million albums and 20 million singles worldwide.
He has received several awards, including two Brit Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards as well as receiving five Grammy Award nominations.
Blunt was a reconnaissance officer in the Life Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and served under NATO in the Kosovo War in 1999. Blunt was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for Music in 2016 by University of Bristol.
Blunt's fourth album, "Moon Landing", was released on 18 October 2013. It featured production from Back to Bedlam producer Tom Rothrock. The lead single, "Bonfire Heart", debuted at number six before peaking at number two the following week in the UK Singles Chart. The single went to number 1 in Australia, Germany, Switzerland and Austria, and was in top 10 in several other countries.
On 16 September 2014, Blunt confirmed on his official Instagram account that Moon Landing would be re-released on 3 November 2014. The new version of the album was named Moon Landing - Apollo Edition and contained 19 tracks: 11 from the original disc, plus the three bonus tracks of the deluxe version (Telephone, Kiss This Love Goodbye and Hollywood) and five new tracks (Smoke Signals, When I Find Love Again, Breathe, Trail of Broken Hearts and Working it Out). The new track When I Find Love Again was released as a single that same day, after being played on BBC's Radio 2 for the first time. The official music video for When I Find Love Again was released on 14 October 2014. The new version of the album also contains a 19-track live DVD recorded during Blunt's performance in the 2014 edition of the Paléo Festival.
On 3 May 2015, Blunt was confirmed to be replacing Ronan Keating on the seventh season of The X Factor Australia. He was joined by American rock musician Chris Isaak and returning judges Guy Sebastian and Dannii Minogue.
On 2 February 2016, Blunt announced via his newsletter that work on his fifth album had just started.
