Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong, known professionally as Dido, is an English singer and songwriter. The name “Dido” derives from the mythical Queen of Carthage. Dido attained international success with her debut album No Angel in 1999. It sold over 21 million copies worldwide, and won her several awards, including two Brit Awards for singer and album, and the MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act. I picked up a copy of this album on a trip to Singapore having listened to it on the plane. Having returned home I suspect that it was a bootleg version because it had several extra tracks and live versions included.
The first official single chosen by Dido and her label, “Here With Me”, initially struggled to make an impact on radio, but while the label were considering switching to an alternative track, the song made a breakthrough as a result of its use in television programme Roswell. The song was used as the theme music of the show, but it was actually when it was played in its entirety during the season finale that it really made an impact with audiences.
Arguably it was this, as well as the airplay on MTV throughout Europe of the single’s video, which brought her mass attention. Subsequently, the song was used in the British romantic comedy Love Actually. In 1998, the music producer for the film Sliding Doors picked her track “Thank You” for the soundtrack. Dido toured extensively to promote the record. The first verse of “Thank You” is sampled in “Stan”, a collaboration with Eminem. This introduced her music to the US.
Her second album Life For Rent was released in 2003. Preceded by the hit single “White Flag”, 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. White flag is probably my favourite track from her catalogue and I find it to be a real earworm. The video continues a cameo from David Boreanaz, the star of the Buffy, Angel and Bones TV series.
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 the tour was released in 2005 entitled Live at Brixton Academy. Following her sold-out world tour of 2004, Dido was asked to perform at three of the Live 8 concerts in 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”).
