James Blunt

James Hillier Blount was born on February 22, 1974, in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England. He attended Elstree School, Woolhampton, then Harrow School (where he received his nickname 'Blunty'), Bristol University, and finally the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. At the University he studied Aerospace Manufacturing Engineering and Sociology. James Blunt’s family has a long history of military service, since 995 AD they have served in one kind of army or another. Blunt's father was in the British Army Air Corps and considered all music, even classical, to be unnecessary noise. The Blunt family is also known for the restoration of Cley windmill.

James Blunt was able to attain the rank of Captain and served as an armoured reconnaissance officer in the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo. James would sometimes stroll through Serb villages wearing an East German cap singing, “All we are saying is give peace a chance”. It was there that he wrote his song "No Bravery". He was also on duty for the funeral of the Queen Mother on 9 April 2002.

In 2002, James Blunt left the army to become a full-time musician. He was able to get some management and publishing deals before long. His publishers were able to give Linda Perry (songwriter-producer for, among others, Pink and Christina Aguilera) some songs, which resulted in Blunt being offered a deal with Perry’s label, Custard Records. He went to California in September, 2003, to record his debut album Back To Bedlam with Tom Rothrock.

Blunt’s third single “You're Beautiful" made its debut in the summer of 2005 on WPLJ, a prominent radio station in New York City. In the Fall of that same year, when the song was released to radio stations, it climbed into the top 10 and eventually climbing to number 1 on the Hot 100, becoming the first British artist to top the American singles chart in nearly a decade. The last British artist to do so had been Elton John in 1997. James Blunt, in 2005, won an MTV Europe Music Award as Best New Act and in 2006 he won Best Pop Act and Best Male in the Brit Awards.