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Now Blunt tops US charts too

BRIT WINNER: Blunt

His ballad You're Beautiful entered the US chart yesterday at the top spot.

The former Army captain has become the first UK artist to achieve the feat since Sir Elton John triumphed in the notoriously-difficult US charts in 1997.

You're Beautiful is said to have been written after the singer, who was a double winner at this year's Brits, saw his ex-girlfriend on a train with a new man.

Blunt's Back to Bedlam album sold 2.4 million copies in Britain and spent nine weeks at number one.

Breakthrough

The 29-year-old's US success comes amid a growing sense that a new crop of UK acts is on the verge of a breakthrough in America, according to representatives of the British record industry.

There has also been interest in the likes of KT Tunstall, Hard-Fi and the Arctic Monkeys.

Peter Jamieson, chairman of UK record companies' trade association the BPI, said: "The current strength of UK repertoire and the state of the US market presents us with probably the best opportunity we have had in a decade.

"That's why the UK music industry is putting so much effort into US promotion in 2006. Chances like this don't come along very often."

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