James Blunt hits back at critics and mocks his own chances of No 1 hit

The You're Beautiful singer, who is known for shrugging off haters with hilarious put-downs, appeared on ITV's This Morning.

Watch: James Blunt mocks his chance of being number one again

James Blunt might not be everyone's cup of tea, but he knows it - and owns it.

The You're Beautiful singer never shies away from a cutting response to critics of his music and has gained a huge number of social media followers who find his self-deprecating put-downs hilarious.

Recently, Blunt announced the 20th anniversary re-release of his multi-million copy selling debut album Back to Bedlam, vowing that if it went to number one he would change his name to something of the public's choosing.

Blunt appeared on Friday's This Morning to share his fears about what his new name could be, and was happy to make fun of himself again, repeatedly calling himself a one-hit wonder.

James Blunt has mocked his chances of getting his debut album back to number one. (ITV screengrab)
James Blunt has mocked his chances of getting his debut album back to number one. (ITV screengrab)

The singer had hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary in hysterics as he refused to say anything positive about his own music.

Asked about re-releasing 2004's Back to Bedlam, he said: "Modern music's gone downhill, so I might as well put out the album that actually sold."

Blunt added: "If it gets to number one I will change my name to whatever the British public choose. There was slight stupidity in that because the British public were, A, mean, and perhaps it's predictable what they would choose.

"I'm fairly confident that number one's out of reach because I know that the public would take pleasure in changing my name to Blunty McBluntFace, but in doing so, you would have to live with the shame of going to a record shop and buying and owning a James Blunt album. So I think, is it worth it? I think probably not. So I'm going for number two."

He also recounted the story of getting a US record deal after UK record labels turned him down, saying: "Getting a record deal is hard, I was rejected by every single UK record label. But you know, we have taste in music over here."

Blunt also took the show's viewer phone-in, titled Blunt Advice, where he was asked by one fan how he looked so good and answered: "On TV I always ask for soft focus. At home I use this amazing thing called soap, you can use it all over your body. I'm getting on a bit now so my plastic surgery routine is little and often."

Another viewer asked Blunt to write a jingle for her grandson's mixed ability rugby team and he replied: "Hang on, you're coming to the guy who has one hit to write another song? I'm assuming Ed Sheeran said no."

O'Leary also read out a message from a viewer called Julie asking what his favourite cheese was, but he said: "This person's a plant. This is a guy called Joe Bangles and I will never tell you my favourite cheese."

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 16: James Blunt performs at BBC Radio 2 In The Park 2023 at Victoria Park on September 16, 2023 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Luke Brennan/Getty Images)
The singer doesn't mind being the butt of the joke. (Getty Images)

Anyone who's paid attention to Blunt's public comments will know that the singer putting down his own music as a joke is a frequent occurrence.

Blunt owns a pub in Chelsea and has admitted in the past to using his overplayed biggest hit as a prompt to leave at last orders, telling a podcast: "We play You're Beautiful at five to midnight to clear people out!" Asked whether it was in the hope that his customers would start pairing off, he said: "No, no, there is just a natural reaction that they want to get the hell out of this place."

In 2022, he used his status as a much-maligned artist to try to get a podcast spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines removed from Spotify.

He tweeted: "If Spotify doesn't immediately remove Joe Rogan, I will release new music onto the platform," the British singer quipped on Saturday, adding the hashtag #YouWereBeautiful."

Blunt is a prolific poster, mainly in response to anyone being rude about him on X.

In 2016, after a year that included the Brexit referendum and Donald Trump being elected US President, he wrote: "If you thought 2016 was bad - I'm releasing an album in 2017."

These are some of Blunt's funniest responses to trolling on X.

In response to: "Why does James Blunt have a million followers? He stopped being relevant in 2009." Blunt replied: "2006, actually."

As one person posted: "James Blunt had his 15 min of fame and disappeared" he replied: "Even less than that! The song was only 3 minutes and 30 seconds long."

Another person criticised his lack of fans, writing: "@JamesBlunt why you only got 200k followers?" but he responded: "Jesus only needed twelve."

One person rudely commented: "James Blunt just has an annoying face and a highly irritating voice" but Blunt shot back: "And no mortgage."

Someone asked: "Who the f*** invited James Blunt to the Invictus Games?" and the singer answered: "Prince Harry. By text. BOOM!"

Another detractor wrote: "no one really likes James Blunt right?" and Blunt replied: "Yeah, I bought those 20 million albums myself."