Dido (singer)

Dido
Birth name Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong
Born (1971-12-25) 25 December 1971
Kensington, London, England
Genres Pop
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • piano
  • guitar
  • drums
Years active 1995–present
Labels
Associated acts
Website www.didomusic.com
Notable instruments
Gibson J-200

Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong,[2] known as Dido (/ˈdaɪdoʊ/, born 25 December 1971), is a British singer and songwriter. Dido attained international success with her debut album No Angel (1999). It sold over 21 million copies worldwide,[3] and won several awards, including the MTV Europe Music Award for Best New Act, two NRJ Awards for Best New Act and Best Album, and two Brit Awards for Best British Female and Best Album. Her next album, Life for Rent (2003), continued her success with the hit singles "White Flag" and "Life for Rent".

Dido's first two albums are among the best-selling albums in UK Chart history, and both are in the top 10 best-selling albums of the 2000s in the UK.[4] Her third studio album, Safe Trip Home (2008), received critical acclaim but failed to duplicate the commercial success of her previous efforts.[5] She was nominated for an Academy Award for the song "If I Rise".[6] Dido was ranked No. 98 on the Billboard chart of the top Billboard 200 artists of the 2000s (2000–2009) based on the success of her albums in the first decade of the 21st century.[7] Dido made a comeback in 2013, releasing her fourth studio album Girl Who Got Away, which reached the Top 5 in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Dido was born at St Mary Abbots hospital in Kensington, London, on Christmas Day 1971.[8] On her birth certificate, her name was registered as Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong.[9][10] Because she was born on Christmas Day, she also celebrates an "official birthday" on 25 June, following the example of Paddington Bear.[11] Her mother, Clare (née Collins), is a poet of French ancestry,[10][12] and her father, William O'Malley Armstrong, was an Irish publisher and former managing director of Sidgwick & Jackson.[13][14] Her elder brother, Rowland Constantine O'Malley Armstrong,[15] is better known as record producer Rollo, part of the British electronica trio Faithless. Despite their birth names, the pair were known from childhood by the names that are famous now – Dido and Rollo.[10] Dido has made it clear that "Dido" is now her real name and not simply a stage name or nickname.[2][11][16] Her name derives from that of the mythical Queen of Carthage. As a child, she had to deal with its ambiguous and unusual nature, which led to her being bullied[2] and even to her pretending to have an ordinary name.[10] As she explains:

To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It's one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. ... Florian is a German man's name. That's just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing. ... I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it.
— Dido, Interview published in The Observer in 2001[10]

Dido was educated at Thornhill Primary School in Islington, Dallington School, City of London Girls' and Westminster School where she was taught by the contemporary musician and Head of Academic Music, Sinan Savaskan. After she stole a recorder from school at the age of five,[17] her parents enrolled her at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. By the time she reached her teens she had learned to play the piano, recorder and the violin. She later studied law at Birkbeck, University of London, while working as a literary agent. She never completed the degree, deciding instead to take up music full-time. After learning the guitar, she showcased her skills to audiences during her 2004 Life for Rent tour.

Career

1995–96: Early recordings and early years

In 1995, Dido began recording 10 demo tracks which were put together on a collection entitled Odds & Ends and sent out by Nettwerk management. Nettwerk had signed her after she was brought to their attention by her collaborations with Faithless, the UK dance act spearheaded by her brother, Rollo Armstrong (Dido co-wrote and provided vocals for album tracks, such as "Flowerstand Man" and "Hem of His Garment"). The collection was released 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 1999 debut album, No Angel. Odds & Ends brought her to the attention of A&R Peter Edge at Arista Records, who signed her in the USA in late 1996, and negotiated a co-sign deal with her brother's independent record label, Cheeky Records.[18] 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. Peter Leak became Dido's manager during the recording of No Angel after Edge played some of the in-progress recordings and been "blown away" by them.[18]

1998–2002: No Angel and breakthrough

Cheeky Records, to which Dido was signed, was sold to BMG records in 1999. This delayed the release of the album No Angel in the United Kingdom, but also allowed her to concentrate on promoting 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", 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 program Roswell.[18] 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.[18] Manager Peter Leak told HitQuarters that sales jumped from 2,000 to 9,000 units during the week of the show's transmission.[18] 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 a British romantic comedy Love Actually. 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.

American rapper Eminem helped introduce Dido to a US audience in 2001 when he received permission from Dido herself to sample the first verse of "Thank You" in his hit single "Stan". Dido also appeared in the music video as Stan's pregnant girlfriend. She did not want to do the video at first, as she was uncomfortable with the scene in the video where she had to be tied up and have her mouth covered with duct tape, but later agreed to it and got along well with Eminem and the crew on set. In North America, the video usually aired with the trunk scene censored.[19] 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 re-release. "Thank You" was also sampled by the Airheadz in their trance track "Stanley Here I Am" originally as a bootleg, but later entering the UK Top 40 in April 2001.

No Angel went on to become the top-selling album of 2001 worldwide,[20] 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", a further Top Twenty hit, "Hunter" and a fourth and final single release "All You Want" which reached the top 25. It was certified platinum in over thirty-five countries, and is estimated to have sold over 21 million copies worldwide.[3] Dido's widely emulated hairstyle at this time became known as the "Dido flip". Her sold-out worldwide tour featured hip-hop artist Pete Miser as her live band's DJ. No Angel claimed No. 97 according to the Decade-end album chart by Billboard.[21]

2003–05: Life for Rent and Live 8

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. 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 Live at Brixton Academy). It is the 4th biggest selling album of the 21st century in the UK.

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").

Also in 2005, Dido provided vocals for her brother's side project Dusted on the album Safe from Harm. She sings on the tracks: "Time Takes Time", "Hurt U" and "Winter" and she co-wrote three tracks on the album: "Always Remember to Respect & Honour Your Mother, Part 1", "The Biggest Fool in the World" and "Winter".

Dido performing with Youssou N'Dour in Hyde Park, London

2006–08: Safe Trip Home and hiatus

Dido's third album, Safe Trip Home, was released in November 2008. The album, which Dido began work on in October 2005, was produced by Jon Brion and Dido herself and features contributions from Brian Eno,[22] Questlove, Mick Fleetwood, Rollo Armstrong, and Matt Chamberlain. Recording sessions were held at London's Abbey Road and at Jon Brion's home studio in Los Angeles. During production of the album, Dido attended evening classes in music and English at the University of California, Los Angeles.[23] The first single from the album, "Don't Believe in Love", was released in October 2008, and a track titled "Look No Further" was made available to download from her official website for a limited time. The album failed to sell as well as No Angel or Life for Rent, and Dido opted not to tour in support of the album due to her difficulties with performing the material that was written about the death of her father.[24] It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.[25]

In December 2008, Dido's Safe Trip Home song "Let's Do the Things We Normally Do", was criticised by Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry and Minister for Sports, Arts and Leisure for Northern Ireland, for referencing lyrics from a song, "The Men Behind the Wire", which was written in the aftermath of the introduction of detention without trial for persons accused of being members of paramilitary groups. Campbell described "The Men Behind the Wire" as "written about people who were murderers, arsonists and terrorists", and suggested "she [Dido] should clarify her position so that her fans and the wider public knows where she stands on these things".[26] The album's artwork features a photograph of astronaut Bruce McCandless II during a spacewalk, as part of space shuttle mission STS-41-B; McCandless sued Dido, Sony Music Entertainment, and Getty Images Inc for unauthorised use of this photo in September 2010.[27]

2009–present: Girl Who Got Away, Greatest Hits and fifth album

Shortly after the release of Safe Trip Home, Dido returned to the studio to start recording new material for inclusion on her fourth studio album. In July 2009, Dido said that the album would have an electronic approach, in an attempt to take it in a totally different direction to her previous albums.[28] In September 2010, Dido released the single "Everything to Lose" via digital download,[29] following its appearance on the soundtrack of the film Sex and the City 2 (released in May 2010).

In January 2011, Dido released "If I Rise", a collaboration with producer A.R. Rahman, for which an official music video was released.[30][31] "If I Rise" was written for 127 Hours, a thriller film directed by Danny Boyle.[32] The soundtrack features a mix of electric guitars with orchestral arrangements and sound loops, and "If I Rise" is featured in the climax of the film.[33] The song was nominated for Satellite Award, Houston Film Critics Society Awards and Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award, as well as the 83rd Academy Award for Original Song.[34] It won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Song.

Dido's fourth album, Girl Who Got Away, was released by Sony Music Entertainment in March 2013.[35][36][37] "No Freedom" was released as the album's lead single in January 2013.[38] The album was recorded in London and California[39] and features production from Rollo Armstrong, Sister Bliss, Lester Mendez, A. R. Rahman, Rick Nowels, Greg Kurstin, Brian Eno, and Jeff Bhasker.[40] Dido appeared on the second series of televised singing competition The Voice UK in May 2013, serving as an advisor to coach Danny O'Donoghue during the show's battle rounds.[41]

In November 2013, Dido released the album Greatest Hits, a compilation of previous material and remixes that also included a new track, "NYC".[42] The release of Greatest Hits completed Dido's contractual obligations with RCA Records, and she spoke of her plans to release her music independently.[43] By late 2013, she was writing material for a fifth studio album.[44]

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 much of Dido's solo material, including many tracks on No Angel, Life for Rent and Safe Trip Home.

She provided guest vocals for each of the six studio albums by Faithless, from 1996's Reverence to 2010s The Dance. 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". She co-wrote Britney Spears's worldwide number one hit "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman", soundtrack feature track to Spears's first major film debut.

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. A sample of the Dido track "Do You Have a Little Time" is used on the song "Don't You Trust Me?" by Tupac, on the album "Loyal to the Game", which was almost entirely produced by Eminem in 2004.

Annie Lennox has joined Dido and 21 other female artists[45] to raise awareness of the issue of mother-to-child transmission of HIV to unborn children in Africa. The single "Sing" was released on World Aids Day on 1 December 2007, in conjunction with Annie Lennox's appearance at the Nelson Mandela 46664 concert in South Africa.

Personal life

After releasing No Angel in 1999, and after much time spent promoting the album, Dido broke up with her fiancé, entertainment lawyer Bob Page, after a seven-year relationship.[46] Dido married Rohan Gavin in 2010. They have one son, Stanley, who was born in July 2011.[47][48] Dido says she is a "diehard" lifelong supporter of Arsenal F.C.[49]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominee Result
2001 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards Favorite Female: New Artist Nominated
IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Awards Top 10 Best Selling Foreign Albums No Angel Won
2002 ASCAP Pop Music Awards Song of the Year "Thank You" Won
NRJ Awards Best Newcomer Won
Best Album No Angel Won
World Music Awards World's Best-Selling British Artist Won
World's Best-Selling Pop Female Artist Won
World's Best-Selling Adult Contemporary Artist Won
Meteor Ireland Music Awards Best International Female Nominated
Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Original Song "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" Won
2003 World Music Awards Best British Pop/Rock Female Artist Nominated
IFPI Hong Kong Top Sales Music Awards Top 10 Best Selling Foreign Albums Life for Rent Won
2004 Ivor Novello Awards International Hit of the Year "White Flag" Won
Best Song Musically and Lyrically Nominated
Grammy Awards Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Nominated
MTV Europe Music Awards Best Album Life for Rent Nominated
NRJ Awards Best International Artist Won
Best Album Life for Rent Won
World Music Awards UK's Best-Selling Artist Won
2005 International Dance Music Awards Best Dance Artist Solo Nominated
The Groovevolt Music and Fashion Awards Best Album: Female Life for Rent Nominated
2007 ASCAP Awards UK Award ASCAP Won
2010 Songwriter of The Year Won
Grammy Awards Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical Safe Trip Home Nominated
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2010 Best Song "If I Rise" Won
Houston Film Critics Society Awards 2010 Best Original Song Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2010 Best Song Nominated
Satellite Awards 2010 Best Original Song Nominated
Academy Awards 2010 Best Original Song Nominated
Denver Film Critics Society Award 2010 Best Song Won

BRIT Awards

Year Award Nominee Result
2001 Dido Best British Female Artist Nominated
2002 Dido Best British Female Artist Won
No Angel Best British Album Won
"Thank You" Best British Video Nominated
2004 Dido Best British Female Artist Won
"White Flag" Best British Single Won
Life for Rent MasterCard British Album Nominated
2010 No Angel BRITs Album of 30 Years Nominated

MTV Video Music Awards

Year Award Nominee Result
2001 "Thank You" Best Female Video Nominated
"Stan" (with Eminem) Best Video of the Year Nominated
Best Rap Video Nominated
Best Male Video Nominated
Best Directed Video Nominated
Best Cinematography Nominated

MTV Europe Music Awards

Year Award Nominee Result
2001 Dido Best New Act Won
Best Female Nominated
No Angel Best Album Nominated
"Stan" Best Song Nominated

Discography

Main article: Dido discography

References

  1. ↑ "RCA's Peter Edge, Tom Corson on the Shuttering of Jive, J and Arista". Billboard.biz. 7 October 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Sharon Osbourne interviews Dido (16 October 2003). The Sharon Osbourne Show. It's Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong when asked to say her real name.
  3. 1 2 Peter Paphides (25 March 2005). "Music to watch girls by". London: Times Newspapers, Ltd. Archived from the original on 17 June 2011. Retrieved 15 May 2008. she didn’t know she was going to sell 21 million copies of her first album
  4. ↑ "The 20 Biggest Selling Albums of the 21st century". Music Week. Archived from the original on 20 September 2011. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
  5. ↑ Adrian Thrills (17 February 2011). "It's Dido's time to rise again". London: Daily Mail. Retrieved 6 March 2011. Safe Trip Home, regarded by many as her best set of songs to date
  6. ↑ "83rd Academy Award nominees". Oscars.org. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
  7. ↑ Archived 23 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ Clare Teresa Armstrong (Mother) (4 February 1972). "BIRTH – Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong". Registration District of Kensington. GRO Volume 5C (London: General Register Office for England and Wales). p. 2242. "CERTIFIED to be a true copy of an entry in the register of Births, Still-births or Deaths in the District above mentioned." This is an authorized copy of Dido's birth certificate, Crown copyright.
  9. ↑ "ARMSTRONG Florian Cloud De B.". Births Registered in January, February, and March 1972 (London: General Register Office for England and Wales). p. 37.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Sheryl Garratt (20 May 2001). "How Dido did it". Comment & Features (London: The Observer). Retrieved 2 October 2008.
  11. 1 2 Nigel Williamson. "Dido interview". The Times Magazine (20 January 2001). pp. 14–16.
  12. ↑ "Dido revient au naturel" [Did returns to the natural]. Le Parisien (in French). 17 November 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2015. Dido, dont la mère est d'origine française
  13. ↑ Patrick Janson-Smith (17 January 2007). "William Armstrong – Publisher at Sidgwick & Jackson". Obituaries (London: The Independent). Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  14. ↑ Margaret Willes (12 January 2007). "A rebel at heart – Margaret Willes remembers William Armstrong". PN Archive. Publishing News. Archived from the original on 25 June 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  15. ↑ "Armstrong Rowland Constantine O'M.". Births Registered in April, May, and June 1966 (London: General Register Office for England and Wales). p. J66B0032B.
  16. ↑ "MoRe and mOrE Questions & Answers 2002!!! =)". The Official Dido Message Boards. Retrieved 30 September 2008. Q: Is Dido a stage name like Sister Bliss or is it your real name? A: Dido is my real name
  17. ↑ Vinod Advani (3 August 2001). "In tune with Dido". Features. The Hindu. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 "Interview with Peter Leak". HitQuarters. 13 December 2004. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
  19. ↑ Hot right now:     (12 November 2008). "The 50 Most Shocking Music Videos Ever!". Gigwise. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  20. ↑ "No Angel (Album)". Dido's Official Website. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  21. ↑ Archived 8 April 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  22. ↑ John Aizlewood. "Dido – Untitled: Expected Early 2008". Q Magazine (October 2007).
  23. ↑ "Entertainment | Singer Dido takes music lessons". BBC News. 27 October 2008. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  24. ↑ Neil McCormick (3 March 2013). "Dido interview: why I've returned to performing". The Telegraph (London).
  25. ↑ "Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical". GRAMMY.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2010. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
  26. ↑ "'Thoughtless' Dido criticised over IRA rebel song on new album". Daily Mail (London). 6 December 2008.
  27. ↑ Edvard Pettersson (1 October 2010). "Astronaut McCandless sues singer Dido over 'free flying' photo". Business Week. Retrieved 4 October 2010.
  28. ↑ "A catch-up with Dido, part 1". Didomusic.com. 7 October 2009. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  29. ↑ "Everything To Lose: Dido: Amazon.co.uk: MP3 Downloads". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
  30. ↑ "A.R.Rahman and Dido together for a music video". Times of India. Retrieved 12 December 2010.
  31. ↑ "Exclusive: Dido and A.R. Rahman's 'If I Rise' Video". Wall Street Journal. 18 February 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2011.
  32. ↑ "127 Hours: Music From The Motion Picture Soundtrack Album to Be Released Digitally on 2 November and in Physical Format on 22 November on Interscope, Featuring New Original Music by Oscar-Winning Film Composer A.R. Rahman". 28 October 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  33. ↑ Sasha Stone (22 October 2010). "Best Song and Score – Is the Academy Not Cool Enough for Reznor and Ross?". AwardsDaily.
  34. ↑ "Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards".
  35. ↑ "Photo by didoofficial • Instagram". Instagram.com. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  36. ↑ "tweet – 8 November 2012". Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  37. ↑ "New Dido album to be released Q1 2013". musicweek.com. 22 November 2012.
  38. ↑ "Dido stellte dem Sony-Team neue Songs vor". mediabiz.de. 23 November 2012.
  39. ↑ Sleeve notes to girl who got away
  40. ↑ Adrian Thrills (17 February 2011). "It's Dido's time to rise again". London: Daily Mail. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  41. ↑ Warner, Sam (2013-05-09). "Dido, Cerys Matthews join 'The Voice' for Battle Rounds - pictures". Digitalspy.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  42. ↑ "Dido Reminisces on 'Greatest Hits,' Teaming with Eminem for 'Stan'". Billboard. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  43. ↑ Newman, Melinda (2013-11-26). "Dido on her greatest hits and becoming a free agent: Interview". Hitfix.com. Retrieved 2015-11-25.
  44. ↑ Rachel Corcoran (8 September 2013). "Who's that girl: Dido on motherhood, keeping a low profile and song-writing". The Express (London). Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  45. ↑ "Annie Lennox Sings Praises For Charity Work" (php). Retrieved 8 December 2007.
  46. ↑ Nadia Cohen. "Dido cancels her wedding". TV & Showbiz (London: Daily Mail). Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  47. ↑ "A note from Dido". Didomusic.com. 6 February 2011. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  48. ↑ Ben Todd and Simon Neville (24 December 2011). "Dido gives birth to son Stanley". London: Dailymail.co.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  49. ↑ "Dido: Sing When You're Winning". FourForTwo. Retrieved 2 December 2015.

External links

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