Dido

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 recent 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 not 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 first single “Here With Me,” the gentle soulfulness of “Thank You,” 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. Proof of that success keeps piling up, starting with extensive praise from the press. Time magazine raved, “Singular, heavenly music. A sparkling debut.” Meanwhile, Dido’s live performances have attracted equally favorable notices. Reviewing her live show, The Washington Post said she was “Soaring like a goddess. Here’s a fearless prediction: Dido is headed for the top.” Opening for Sting on a few dates of his own tour supports that prediction. Meanwhile, “Here With Me” has become the theme to the hit WB TV series Roswell, even being played in its entirety during the season finale. Then, rapper Eminem used a portion of “Thank You” – which was already featured in the Gwyneth Paltrow movie “Sliding Doors” – to incorporate into “Stan,” the haunting single from his #1 album. And just recently, her first single, “Here With Me” exploded at radio. This has pushed Dido’s No Angel past the #1 position on the Billboard Heetseekers chart, and she is now rapidly climbing the Top 200 Album chart. And, with well-received appearances on shows like Live With Regis, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night With David Letterman, Dido’s visibility – and popularity – continue to rise.