James Hillier Blount, better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is known for his songs "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover".
real name: James Hillier Blount
labels: Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records, Custard Records
genres: blues, rock music, soft rock
awards: NRJ Music Award for International Revelation of the Year
plays: guitar, piano, voice, acoustic guitar
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Blunt was born James Hillier Blount on 22 February 1974 at Tidworth Camp military hospital in Hampshire. His mother, Jane Ann Farran (née Amos), owned a ski chalet company in the French Alpine resort of Méribel, while his father, Charles Blount, was a cavalry officer in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and later a helicopter pilot, becoming a colonel in the Army Air Corps. The first of three children, Blunt has two sisters. The family has a long history of military service that dates back to the arrival of their Danish ancestors in England during the 10th century.
Blunt had piano and violin lessons as a child and was introduced to the electric guitar aged 14 at Harrow by a fellow student. His dissertation at the University of Bristol was entitled The Commodification of Image – Production of a Pop Idol. One of his sources was Simon Frith, a sociologist and rock critic, and chair of the Mercury Music Prize panel of judges since 1992, who later undertook a lecture tour entitled "The unpopular and unpleasant thoughts inspired by the work of James Blunt".
"You're Beautiful" is a song by English singer-songwriter James Blunt. It was written by Blunt, Sacha Skarbek and Amanda Ghost for Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam (2004).
It was released as the third single of the album in 2005.
Newspapers have claimed that "You're Beautiful" is about a former girlfriend of Blunt's, Dixie Chassay, casting assistant for the Harry Potter films, although Blunt refuses to confirm or deny this. On 8 March 2006 on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Blunt said of the song, "It's kind of miserable. It was about seeing my ex-girlfriend on the Underground in London with her new man, who I didn't know existed. She and I caught eyes and lived a lifetime in that moment, but didn't do anything about it and haven't seen each other since." According to Blunt, he wrote the lyrics of the song at home in two minutes after meeting her. Blunt also recounts Ryan Adams's song "La Cienega Just Smiled" serving as the inspiration for the backing track. He then...
The music video for "You're Beautiful" was filmed on 23 March 2005 at Sa Cova Foradada in Portocolom, Mallorca. It was directed by Sam Brown and Robbie Ryan, with Flynn Productions. Blunt removes the upper portion of his clothing in a cold, bare, snowy setting with the sea behind him and places all of his personal belongings on the ground. While doing this, seagulls circle overhead like buzzards. At the end of the video, he jumps off a cliff into the water while he sings the lyrics: "But it's time to face the truth, I will never be with you". According to Blunt, he had to jump twice and suffered a split lip in the jumps.
About.com gave the song four and a half stars out of five, saying "The simple power of Blunt's songwriting is effective at conveying the pain of realizing he will never be with the object of his affections."
In Stephen King's 2009 novel Under the Dome, a character named Robert Roux dies listening to the song on his iPod when he encounters the titular dome and breaks his spine in the first chapter.