TORONTO - How starved are women for a sensitive man these days?

Just ask James Blunt, the English singer who has shot up the charts all over the world despite his thin songs and even thinner voice. Or examine the evidence at Massey Hall during Blunt's sold-out show Tuesday.

Young girls, old girls, middle-aged girls -- all kinds of girls, plus a few obliging escorts -- made up the excitable, lovesick audience. Girls who know every single word of Blunt's lyrics, and who clearly dream of being the one to heal his poor wounded heart, or maybe just run their fingers through his tousled hair.

Blunt is an English public school graduate and Kosovo veteran whose music is known as "toff rock," among other, ruder terms, in his native country. But his debut album, Back To Bedlam, has sold more than seven million copies worldwide, and he recently became the first Brit to top the U.S. singles charts -- with the damnably ubiquitous ballad You're Beautiful -- since Elton John eulogized Princess Diana in 1997.

And he didn't get where he is without knowing how to pluck a few heartstrings. Screams followed Blunt's slim, attractively rumpled figure as he zig-zagged from one side of the stage to the other, playing the crowd like a seasoned pro. Shortly after suggesting that the women in the audience could stand up and take their clothes off if they felt like it, he launched into Cry, and all of a sudden the area in front of the stage was swarmed by (fully clothed) fans. As he shyly -- or slyly -- sang the line, "Cry on my shoulder," he took a moment to survey his would-be harem with evident satisfaction.

Switching back and forth between guitar and piano and backed by a competent but stolid four-man band, Blunt sang the wistful, weepy songs on his album -- High, Goodbye My Lover, Tears And Rain, So Long Jimmy -- with his reedy falsetto, and threw in a couple of odd covers, including the Pixies' Where Is My Mind. He also played a couple of new songs that are stronger and considerably less syrupy than those on Back To Bedlam, which bodes well for his future.

Still, the show's highlight was No Bravery, a powerful piano-only ballad written about Blunt's experience in the army. Even if it hadn't been accompanied by footage of bombed-out Bosnian villages, No Bravery would have silenced the audience.

But the hormones were revved up again for You're Beautiful, and the girls went home happy.

SUN RATING: 3 (out of 5)