“I guess the title is misleading because people think it has to do with my experience in the music business. Instead, it’s the way a lot of people will look at the world today. If we asked children twenty years ago what they wanted to be, they would say a doctor, or fireman, or race car driver. Now if you ask, they just want to be famous. You turn on the TV and you see images that tell you success is measured by fame. If you open magazines, they tell you what clothes you should wear or what music you should listen to. The song is the story of a teenager who is saying he doesn’t want to be force-fed who I should be, this notion of freedom is not freedom at all. I want to be myself.”
– Blunt in an interview with Mike Ragnoga of Solar Powered KRUU-FM – Songfacts
Before I discuss today’s featured song, I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year 2025 with open arms. ‘Hurray’! I hope it brings you happiness, health, and prosperity.
I was surprised to learn Superstar is the 6th song to be presented here from James Blunt after his previous entry – Goodbye My Lover. It is a track from British singer-songwriter’s third studio album, Some Kind of Trouble (see image inset). The album was recorded largely in London with members of James’ touring band. The album cover depicts an image of YouTuber Shay Carl Butler throwing his daughter Emmi up in the air. The original photo was taken by Butler’s wife, Colette, with an iPhone.
The album’s reception by critics wasn’t kind receiving a meagre aggregate score of 45/100 from Metacritic. Ouch. Even still, I like today’s song along with three others from the record, namely: I’ll Be Your Man, Best Laid Plans and Stay The Night. They may not reach the heights of some of his other big hits, but I enjoy listening to them on occasion. Blunt described the album, saying “It’s got a certain innocence to it, which my last album didn’t have. It doesn’t sound like the current popular electro sound; it sounds like the late 70s / early 80s when the US electric guitar bands came to the UK. What I really like about it is its energy and optimism..”
The album debut at number four on the UK Albums Chart, with first-week sales of 100,000 copies. On the Billboard 200, the album debuted at number eleven, with sales of 26,000 copies. To date, the album has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.
[Verse 1]
There is an empty space in the chair tonight
Cause he don’t feel right
There are stormclouds brewing at the back of his mind
As he steps outside
He will be twenty in a week
But he’s old for his years
He’s had many of those
To confront his own fears
But his father’s not the man he’d like to grow up to be
And his mother isn’t growing old gracefully
[Chorus]
He says times like these I don’t want to be a superstar
Cause reality tv killed them all in America
Though the sun always shines in the magazines
Tonight can we be free to be who we really are
[Verse 2]
There is an empty space between the lines tonight
And it burns so bright
And the angry silence that he throws on the floor
Says he don’t care anymore
He had money for the truth
But love’s a lot more
And the answer’s is not the one he was looking for
His father’s not the man he’d like to grow up to be
And his mother is his mother reluctantly
References:
1. Some Kind of Trouble – Wikipedia
