James Blake (musician)
English singer-songwriter (born 1988)
James Blake Litherland (born 26 September 1988) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. Known for his emotive, soulful light head voice and use of falsetto, he first gained recognition following the release of three extended plays in 2010: The Bells Sketch, CMYK and Klavierwerke. Blake subsequently signed with A&M Records to release his self-titled debut album (2011) the following year, which was met with critical praise and peaked within the top ten of the UK Albums Chart.
Blake departed A&M in favour of sister label Republic Records, on which he released his second album, Overgrown (2013), to further critical and commercial success; it likewise peaked within the chart's top ten and moderately entered the US Billboard 200. His third album, The Colour in Anything (2016), was followed by his 2018 single "King's Dead" (with Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Future), which peaked at number 50 on the UK Singles Chart and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Its success foresaw the release of his fourth album, Assume Form (2019), which remains his highest-charting entry on both the UK Albums Chart and Billboard 200. His fifth, sixth, and seventh studio albums, Friends That Break Your Heart (2021), Playing Robots Into Heaven (2023), Trying Times (2026), followed thereafter. In 2024, Blake released the collaborative album Bad Cameo with American rapper Lil Yachty.
Blake has written and produced work for other artists, often doing so jointly with his partner Jameela Jamil. His credits include Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, and Frank Ocean.
The public source identifies “James Blake (musician)” as english singer-songwriter (born 1988). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around James, Blake and musician.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q350362. VIAF identifies the subject as 169625994. The Library of Congress control number is no2011042897. 5 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988, 2010, 2011 and 2013.
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This entry incorporates text from “James Blake (musician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.