Love it or loathe it, James Blunt’s track You’re Beautiful is one of the best-selling love songs of the 2000s, selling over 625,000 copies in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.
So, it might come as a surprise to some music fans to discover that there’s actually a dark meaning behind the song.
The music video for the track seems to depict the singer taking his own life by jumping from a cliff into icy water while he sings about a woman who is clearly important to him. But who is it about?
What’s the meaning behind James Blunt’s ‘You’re Beautiful’?
The singer recently appeared on The John Bishop Show, where he revealed the true meaning behind his single, You’re Beautiful.
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He told viewers: “It’s about me stalking somebody else’s girlfriend on the underground while I’m high… but people play it at their weddings, which is nice”, which may not be the romantic song meaning you were hoping for.
Previously, he explained that the song is “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.”
The singer-songwriter also told The Guardian of the moment which inspired his song “One day I was on the underground in London and saw an ex-girlfriend with her new boyfriend. Our eyes met, but we just walked past each other, and I went home and wrote the words to You’re Beautiful in two minutes.
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“I went to see my songwriter friend Sacha Skarbek in Los Angeles, and, with Amanda Ghost as a co-writer, we finished the song. It’s always been portrayed as romantic, but it’s actually a bit creepy. It’s about a guy who’s high and stalking someone else’s girlfriend on the subway. But everyone has those moments where you wonder... what if I'd said something?”
Gabriella Ferlita