Her name is
Dido. She's born on Christmas Day 1971 and she's from London. The rest of
the band are all from New
York.
Her first instrument was (rather embarassingly) the recorder.
Dido entered London's Guildhall School of
Music at age six, and by the time she reached her teens had already mastered piano, violin and recorder. After touring with a British classical ensemble, she
accepted a publishing job, in the meanwhile singing in a series of local groups before joining the trip-hop outfit
Faithless -- helmed by her older brother, the noted DJ and producer
Rollo -- in 1995. As the group's 1996 debut album "Reverence" went on to sell some five million copies
worldwide, Dido began working on solo material, developing a lushly ethereal sound combining elements of acoustic pop and
electronica; signing with Arista, she released her debut CD "No
Angel" in mid-1999.
Her favorite vacation spot is Barbados. She likes music from Air (Moon
Safari) to Missy Elliot (Supa Dupa Fly). Her first concert was a gig of Santana
with Pat Metheny, Dido: "my mum took me when I was quite young".
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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.
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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, "Postcards"
and "Hem of His Garment", one of which incorporates her own "My Lover's Gone."
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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).
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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.
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