*Dido*
(1971-)
Dido was five when she
stole her first recorder. This didn't lead to prison, but rather to her
entrance one year later to the guildhall school of music in London. A bit
of a child prodigy, by the time she was 10 she played piano, violin, and
the aforementioned recorder.
Her teenage years were
an interesting mixture of stealing her brother's record collection (from
the clash to Gregory Isaacs to Duran Duran) and touring the UK with her
classical music ensemble. And then, at 16, she finally fell in love with
Ella Fitzgerald. So began a passion that eventually led dido from listener
to participator: she started singing with various bands in and around London,
and despite the fact that her brother, Rollo, told her not to give up her
day job, she eventually appeared on the debut album of a band that Rollo
formed in 1995. This band was faithless, and they went on to sell five
million records. Over the next two years, dido toured with Faithless (a
very different experience from her classical days) and, whenever she was
back in London, also
recorded demos of her
own songs. On Faithless's current release, Sunday 8pm, Dido appears on
two songs*one of which incorporates her own "My Lover's Gone." Arista records
heard these demos at the beginning of 1997, and Dido was invited to the
Dorchester Hotel in London to meet Clive Davis. The meeting was successful
(Clive even helped out with some of the backing vocals as Dido sung to
him).
So began the recording
of Dido's debut album, No Angel. The album was produced by Dido, her brother,
Rollo (obviously now deciding she should give up her day job), Rick Nowels
and Youth, and what a beautiful album it is. Unified by both Dido's stunning
voice and lyrical acuteness, the album travels through various and diverse
styles ranging from the impassioned magnificence of "here with me," the
gentle soulfulness of "Thank You" (featured in the recent Gwyneth Paltrow
movie Sliding Doors), the deep dubbiness of "Honestly Ok," to the lyrical
perversity of "Don't Think of Me." Combining Dido's love for warm acoustic
sounds and her brother's fascination for beats and all things electronic,
the album is both new and classic at the same time. Above all, it is the
quality of the songs that will make this album both durable and successful.
From:
www.sonique.com
~
Dido Armstrong, 25 December
1971, England. Armstrong is the sister of Faithless mastermind and leading
UK dance music producer, Rollo. She sang "Flowerstand Man' on Faithless"
1996 debut, Reverence and contributed backing vocals to several other tracks,
while maintaining a day job in a London office and studying for a law degree
part-time. Like her peer, Sonique, Dido's first solo successes were in
the USA, rather than her native UK. Musically gifted from an early age,
Dido (named after the Queen of Carthage) attended London's Guildhall School
of Music and played recorder, piano and violin by the age of 10. Her teenage
years were spent listening to her brother's record collection and touring
with a classical ensemble. She began singing with various London-based
bands before becoming involved in her brother's project, Faithless. After
the million-selling success of Reverence, Dido toured with the band for
18 months and contributed to Faithless' second album, Sunday 8pm. At this
stage, Dido was writing her own material and had assembled an album's worth
of demo tapes.
These demos led to a publishing
deal in the UK with Cheeky Records and a deal with the US arm of Arista
Records in 1999. Her debut, No Angel, was produced by Rollo and Youth and
received its US release in June 1999. The track "Here With Me" was used
as the theme for the hit US television series Roswell, and "Thank You"
was used on the soundtrack of the Gwyneth Paltrow movie, Sliding Doors.
Dido's media profile was raised enormously when rap star Eminem sampled
"Thank You" for his single "Stan", which became a huge hit on both sides
of the Atlantic. With the emphasis very much on quality song writing, No
Angel combined electronic and acoustic elements to create a lush, down-tempo
style. It was released in the UK in October 2000 in conjunction with live
performances on the east coast of the USA. Phenomenal sales followed as
the album became the preferred listening at a million middle-class dinner
parties.
From:
www.didomusic.com |
Personal Favourites
~
"Here
with Me"
"Hunter"
"My Lover's Gone"
Famous Works
~
"Thank You"
Links
~
Find out more about this
artist. Links
with a * are highly recommended.
Dido's
Official Website |
