Ghost Writer: The Unsung Star of British Music

From The Independent:

She's hardly known outside the music industry, yet Amanda Ghost is increasingly seen as Britain's most influential songwriter. Sophie Morris talks to a young Londoner who has penned hits for everyone from James Blunt to Beyoncé.

In the summer of 2005, James Blunt's irritatingly catchy ballad, "You're Beautiful", went stratospheric. It topped the charts in Britain, the US and Canada and became the first song by a British artist ever to climb to the top of the Latin American Top 40. Blunt went on to collect two Ivor Novello awards the following year.

Then word leaked out that the creative hand behind his crooning, forlorn vocals actually belonged to one Amanda Ghost, a British singer-songwriter who was at the start of her own burgeoning performing career when she co-wrote the tune. At the time, she tried to play down her involvement, saying she had just "tweaked a chorus". Now she admits that that was considerable understatement, explaining that she was wary of overshadowing Blunt's well-earned success – and pointing out that there is no shame in having worked with another writer on a song.

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