The Celebrity Traitors star’s eighth studio album, Airplane Mode, flew to the top of the Official Charts today – sparking bizarre consequences for two men.
Singer James Blunt has promised to legally change his name after bagging his first No1 album in nearly two decades.
The Celebrity Traitors star’s eighth studio album, Airplane Mode, flew to the top of the Official Charts today.
That means Blunt, known for his banter with fans on social media, will have to follow through on a promise to change his name to Ryan Air if he reached No1.
He announced earlier this month: “You may have heard that my new album, Airplane Mode, is out now, and if it makes it to Number 1, I will legally change my name to Ryan Air.”
He added: “So stream it, buy it. Just get it to Number 1, or else I’ll have to carry on being James Blunt. And nobody wants that.”
Bizarrely, a man known on X as Joe Bangles who is famous for asking celebrities to name their favourite cheese, vowed to also change his name to James Blunt if the singer achieved the feat.
He also agreed to give £1,000 to Blunt’s chosen charity if he revealed his favoured cheese – something the star, 52, has refused to do for years, even when ambushed on live TV.
But, posing with his gold Official Charts No1 trophy on X tonight, he told the self-styled ‘cheesemonger to the stars’: “Hi Joe, I have bad news.
“My chosen charity is The Blue Marine Foundation. My favourite cheese is Delice de Bourgogne. I’m Number 1 in the album charts. And you’re no longer called Joe.”
He signed off the post: “Much love, Ryan Air.”
Bangles, whose real name is Alan Pender, replied: “It has been such fun. Appreciate you humouring me along the way and I can hang up my celeb cheese fact finding gloves and tuck into my new favourite cheese. Enjoy your number 1, it’s an amazing album and you deserve it!”
When appearing on This Morning earlier this week Blunt was instantly suspicious when a viewer sent in a question asking his favourite cheese.
He told hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond: “This person’s a plant. Their real name’s not Julie. This is a guy called Joe Bangles and I will never tell you my favourite cheese.” However, tonight he had a change of heart.
Blunt’s last album to achieve a UK number one was All The Lost Souls in 2007, while his 2005 release Back To Bedlam spent 10 weeks at the summit.
On learning he was No1 the singer told the Official Charts Company: “I can’t tell you how grateful I am to every single person who has gone out there and downloaded, or bought, or streamed my album. From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much.”
Asked how he planned to celebrate, the star said: “I’m going to get absolutely p***ed.”
The star previously promised to legally change his name to Blunty McBluntface if the reissue of Back To Bedlam made it to No1 two years ago but feel short of topping the chart reaching No7.
Bangles can add Blunt’s cheese reply to several high-profile names who have answered the question. When it was posed to Elon Musk in 2020, the Tesla billionaire replied simply: “Stilton.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
