Soldier Turned Popstar

“Music brings us together and the army makes us comrades – James Blunt, who is descended from a centuries-old military family, is not only among the most outstanding British musicians of our time but also has an excellent and memorable military career behind him”, wrote the minister on his social media page. Indeed, James Blunt was born into a true military family as among his ancestors, military service has a centuries-old tradition. His father was a pilot in the British Royal Air Force; therefore, his father’s service had a significant influence on musically talented James Blunt’s childhood, as they used to live in Germany, Cyprus and Yorkshire. Following the example of his father, he took his pilot exam as early as the age of 16, and so he was one of the youngest Britons with a private pilot licence.

He received a ten-month training at the famous Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, after which he became an officer in 1997. In 1998, he was transferred to the British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta, Canada, where he participated in leading an opposing army on a six-month combat training exercise involving tanks and armoured fighting vehicles. The most important period of his military service was the six months that he served with the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo in 1999. The battalion that first entered Pristina was led by Blunt, so, he was the first British officer who reached the capital of Kosovo. His unit was given the assignment of securing Pristina International Airport in advance of the arrival of another 30,000-strong peacekeeping force. However, the Russian Army had moved in and taken control of the airport before his unit’s arrival, so a conflict developed between NATO and the Russians. James Blunt, too, took the lion’s share in handling this incident.

After the service in Kosovo, he was posted to the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, where he was a guard of Queen Elizabeth II and in April 2002, he stood guard at the coffin of the Queen Mother during her lying in state. He wrote his first songs while serving in Kosovo, then left the army in 2002 and started giving concerts. His success began in 2004 when he made it to the top of the charts with his song, You’re Beautiful. This was not the first time that he came to Hungary. At this concert, he presented his new single entitled Who We Used to Be, which anticipates the singer’s new musical direction and summarizes the stages of his life so far.