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Dido (born Florian Cloud de Bounevialle
Armstrong, December 25, 1971) is an English BRIT
Award-winning and Grammy Award-nominated singer and
songwriter who performs under a nickname her mother gave
her in childhood.
Biography: Dido's mother, Claire (née Collins),
is a French poet and her father, William O'Malley
Armstrong (9 November 1938–22 December 2006) was an
Irish publisher and former managing director of Sidgwick
& Jackson. Informally named after the mythical
Carthaginian queen, Dido was educated at Thornhill
Primary, City of London Girls' and Westminster School.
Because she was born on Christmas Day, in childhood she
celebrated, rather in the manner of the British monarch,
an "official" birthday on 25 June.
At the age of five she stole a recorder
from school. At six she attended the Guildhall School of
Music in London, England. By the time she reached her
teens Dido had learned to play the piano, recorder and
the violin. She learned to play the guitar as an adult,
showcasing her skills to audiences during her 2004 Life
for Rent tour. Before taking up music full-time she
worked as a literary agent whilst studying a degree
course in law at Birkbeck, University of London, which
she never completed.
Early recordings: In 1995, Dido began recording
demo tracks, put together on a collection entitled Odds
& Ends, and sent out by Nettwerk management, who had
signed her after being brought to their attention
through her collaborations with Faithless (Dido co-wrote
and provided vocals for album tracks, such as
"Flowerstand Man" and "Hem of His
Garment"), the UK dance act spearheaded by her
brother, Rollo Armstrong. The collection was sent out by
Nettwerk on CD-R acetate in 1995, and featured a mixture
of finished productions and demo versions, which she
later considered for release on her debut album,
released in 1999 as No Angel.
Odds & Ends brought her to the
attention of Arista Records, who signed her in the USA,
striking a deal with her brother's record label, Cheeky
Records, to co-sign her. Of the tracks included on Odds
& Ends, "Take My Hand" was included on all
editions of No Angel as a bonus track; "Sweet Eyed
Baby" was remixed and renamed to "Don't Think
of Me", while "Worthless" and
"Me" were released exclusively on the Japanese
edition.
Breakthrough: (1998–2000): Cheeky Records, to
which Dido was signed, was sold to BMG records in 1999.
This delayed the release of No Angel in the United
Kingdom, but also allowed her to concentrate on
promoting the album No Angel in the United States,
including a slot on Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair tour.
Through touring, both before and after the album was
available, Dido's music began to receive more exposure.
The first official single chosen by Dido
and her label, "Here with Me", was used as the
theme music for the television programme Roswell.
However, it was arguably the airplay on MTV in Europe of
the video for "Here with Me", with its
inventive manipulation of context, dreamlike NYC
road-walking scenes, together with Dido's evident
musicality and the distinctive strings arrangement (all
perhaps echoing Massive Attack/Shara Nelson's
"Unfinished Sympathy"), that helped form the
bedrock of her future success.
In 1998, the music producer for the film Sliding Doors
picked her track "Thank You" for the
soundtrack. No Angel was first released in 1999, and
Dido toured extensively to promote the record.
The rapper Eminem helped introduce Dido to another
audience when he sampled the first verse of "Thank
You" in his UK number-one single "Stan",
after seeking permission from Dido herself; she also
appeared in the music video as Stan's long-suffering
girlfriend. Interest soared in her debut album, leading
it to hit charts in Europe on import sales alone,
charting in the top five on the UK albums chart before
its official UK release.
No Angel (1999–2001): No Angel went on to
become the top-selling album of 2001 in the United
Kingdom, debuting at, and returning to, number one in
the official UK albums chart many times throughout the
year. It spawned two top ten hit singles, "Here
with Me" and "Thank You", and a further
top twenty hit, "Hunter".
It was certified platinum in over
thirty-five countries, and is estimated to have sold
over 13.5 million copies worldwide. Dido's widely
emulated hairstyle at this time became known as the
"Dido flip". After a sold-out worldwide tour
(which featured hip-hop artist Pete Miser as her live
band's DJ), Dido announced she was taking a sabbatical
in 2002, in which time she began to write and record her
second album.
Life for Rent (2003–2004): Life for Rent was
eventually released on 30 September 2003 and became one
of the fastest selling albums in UK music history,
debuting at number one in the UK, Ireland, France,
Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa, Australia, Greece,
Mexico, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand and in the top
five in the USA, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands,
Germany and Austria. Preceded by the number-two hit
single "White Flag", the music video for which
features Buffy, Angel and Bones star David Boreanaz, the
album sold over 152,000 copies in the first day alone in
the UK, and went on to sell over 400,000 in the first
week.
Three further singles — "Life for
Rent", "Don't Leave Home" and "Sand
in My Shoes" — were lifted from the album, with
Dido embarking on a worldwide tour in support of the
album (a DVD of footage from the tour was released in
2005 entitled Dido: Live/Dido – Live at Brixton
Academy).
Live 8 (2005): Following her sold-out world tour
of 2004, Dido was asked to perform at three of the Live
8 concerts on 2 July 2005 — performing in London, then
at the Eden Project in Cornwall, before flying over to
Paris, performing both solo ("White Flag") and
duetting with Youssou N'Dour ("Thank You" and
"Seven Seconds"). Dido's bemused expression as
she walked on stage in Hyde Park silently acknowledged
the surrealism of being introduced by Bill Gates.
Third album: In late 2005 Dido began recording
her third solo album, experimenting with different
sounds and producers, including Jon Brion in Los
Angeles. The album was originally expected to be
released in late 2006, but Dido has stated on her
official website that the album will be released in
early 2007. According to HMV UK, it is scheduled to be
released on September 17, 2007.
In the February 2007 edition of Q
magazine, it was stated that album would drop in late
2007, and that Dido was inspired by long drives along
the Pacific Coast of California.
On February 18, Direct-Current.net reported that the
street date circulated by Sony BMG was September 18,
2007; as of June 10, 2007, the U.S. Arista Records
website also showed this date. The album was delayed due
to the death of her father.
Other work: In addition to her solo work, Dido
has co-written and provided vocals for tracks with
Faithless, including "One Step Too Far" —
which was released in the UK as a limited edition
single, where it debuted at number six — and "No
Roots", the title track of the fourth Faithless
album. Rollo — Dido's brother — co-writes and
co-produces a lot of Dido's solo material, including
many tracks on No Angel and Life for Rent.
She has provided guest vocals for each
of the five studio albums by Faithless, from 1996's
Reverence to 2006's To All New Arrivals. Dido worked
with her brother on a CD to accompany the children's
book he wrote with Jason White, Safe from Harm; the CD
is also titled Safe from Harm and the artist is listed
as "Dusted".
Dido has provided guest vocals to tracks by other
artists including "Feels like Fire" for Carlos
Santana's 2002 album, Shaman, and a duet with Rufus
Wainwright entitled "I Eat Dinner (When the
Hunger's Gone)" for the Bridget Jones: The Edge of
Reason film soundtrack.
In 2001, Dido co-wrote "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a
Woman", performed by Britney Spears, with producers
Max Martin and Rami. When performing at the 2003 MTV
Europe Awards, Ali G, that year's host, introduced Dido
as "Dildo", further adding to her introduction
"Go on girl, strap it on!". |
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