Blunt about his 'whining'

British singer-songwriter James Blunt is coming to South Africa in February, whether you like him or not.

The 40-year-old will play Cape Town's Grand Arena on February 12, and Carnival City, east of Johannesburg, on the 14th and 15th. Both venues have capacities of about 5 000.

A decade since his successful (annoying to many others) debut Back to Bedlam, Blunt is still getting flak for music many have described as "whining drivel" - not that he is taking it all lying down.

In fact, he should add one more title to his already long Twitter bio ("1 Big Hit; Just the 2 of us; 3 Wise Men; 4th album out now; 5 Grammy nominations; 20million albums sold. Currently on a world tour - come to a show"), and that is "Troll Slayer".

Blunt clearly searches for people mentioning him and shoots them down one after the other. One can almost picture him chugging a Corona and jamming to Nas' Hate Me Now, as he replies to hate tweets.

When one user wrote: "My mom hates James Blunt", he replied "Because I won't pay the child support?"

When another said: "I wanna go see James Blunt so I can call him a f**got and throw a soda at him", he masterfully replied "I'm on a US tour now. Tickets available online".

There's even a Facebook page called I Hate James, with the description "I can't stand James Blunt, and neither should you".

But in an interview with Australia's news.com.au, he suggested blocking trolls was not as much fun as replying to taunts.

He is quoted as saying: "It totally defuses them. What I try and do is say things with humour. I mock myself as much as I mock anyone I write to."

He found a fan in Ian Goodin, who was touched enough to write on planetivy.com: "It's become cool to hate him, but I'm coming up short for reasons why. Why do we hate talented people and praise the talentless? Maybe it's because his middle name is Hillier? His accent? His haircut? His shoes? He plays guitar, piano, percussion AND the violin. He can sing without autotune and writes ALL of his own songs. He's got Brit Awards, MTV Awards, two Ivor Novellos and five Grammy nominations. He was funny on Top Gear."

So what of this tour?

When he played London's Royal Albert Hall in April, The Telegraph noted it was attended by "mostly tipsy middle-aged couples and a few family ensembles. Even the reluctant toe-tappers were on their feet by the end."

• Tickets for Cape Town's show went on sale yesterday for R455 to R625. Johannesburg seats go on sale this morning, R395 and R735, through Computicket or www.bigconcerts.com