Blunt: 'Criticism is due to visibility'

James Blunt has insisted that he is not surprised at the criticism of his song You're Beautiful.

The singer has been attacked by critics fed up of hearing the smash hit track, which was recently voted the most irritating song of all time in a public survey.

He told Underground Online: "I'm very visible and people are going to take a shot at that, that's to be expected, isn't it? If I weren't visible, no one would voice their opinions about it. I have phenomenal support in the music industry. [But] you're also going to have people who don't enjoy that kind of music."

He added: "That's the beauty of music. I enjoy that. I made a chocolate cake and some people enjoyed that chocolate cake. And whether they're going to have too much chocolate cake along the way... It's nice, now and then, to have a cheesecake."

Blunt himself finished at number 29 in a survey of the "most annoying things" earlier this month. However, he pipped traffic wardens and noisy neighbours to the top spot in poll of pet hates conducted last year.