James Hillier Blount, better known as James Blunt, is a Grammy Award-nominated British singer-songwriter and musician.

Born 22nd February 1974 in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England, Blunt fell in love with music at a young age. He had learned to play piano, violin and guitar, and was writing his own music, by his early teens. However, a long standing family tradition of serving in the armed forces persuaded Blunt to join the British Army in the mid-1990s. After training at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst and rising to the rank of Captain, he served in Canada and Kosovo for six years before leaving the army in 2002 to pursue a career in his first love – music.

Blunt was very quickly signed to EMI Records, and later to Custard Records, with whom he released his debut album in March 2005. Back to Bedlam was an instant success, shooting straight to number one in the UK and Australia and number two in the US, and selling over eleven million copies worldwide. It eventually went on to become the UK’s best-selling record of the decade and earned Blunt a total of two Ivor Novello Awards and five Grammy Award nominations.

The album’s lead single You’re Beautiful became a global smash hit, reaching the top of the charts in the UK, Canada, the US and six other countries. This was followed by three more UK Top 40 singles: High, Goodbye My Lover and Wiseman.

The singer’s second album All The Lost Souls was released in September 2007, reaching number one in the UK, Canada and fifteen other countries around the world, as well as the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The lead single 1973 reached the Top 5 in several countries, while follow-up singles Same Mistake, Carry You Home, I Really Want You and Love, Love, Love also performed well.