Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong (born December 25, 1971 in London) is a Brit award-winning English singer who performs under the name Dido.

Dido is partly of French descent; her mother, Claire, is a French poet and her father is British book publisher William Armstrong. Named after the mythical Carthaginian queen, Dido was educated at Thornhill Primary, City of London Girls', and Westminster Schools. At the age of six, she attended the Guildhall School of Music in London, England. By the time she reached her teens, she had already mastered piano, violin, and recorder. As an adult, she learnt to play the guitar, showcasing her skills to audiences during her 2004 Life For Rent tour.

Following her track, "Thank You" (which had already been used in the 1998 movie Sliding Doors) being sampled by the rapper, Eminem, in his UK #1 single, "Stan" (Dido appeared in the music video, acting as the fictional character, Stan's, long-suffering girlfriend), Dido shot to worldwide fame and critical acclaim with her debut album, No Angel, which was already available in the USA, and charted in the UK top 5 on import sales alone. Her debut single, "Here With Me," had already caused demand for the album, as it was used as the theme music for the television programme Roswell (it was later used in the soundtrack for the movie Love Actually).

No Angel was the top-selling album of 2001 in the United Kingdom, debuting at, and returning to, #1 in the official UK albums chart many times throughout 2001. Her second album, Life For Rent, was released September 30, 2003, and became one of the fastest selling albums in UK music history, debuting at #1, and debuting in the US top 5. Dido has also won 4 Brit awards, winning Best British Female artist and Best British Album for No Angel at the 2002 ceremony, and Best British Female artist and Best British Single for "White Flag" at the 2004 ceremony. She also won Best Album for No Angel and Best Newcomer at the 2002 NRJ awards in France.

Dido's brother, Rollo Armstrong, is part of the music group Faithless, and gave Dido her big break, by allowing her to provide guest vocals on certain Faithless album tracks, such as "Flowerstand Man" and "Hem Of His Garment." She continued the trend, even after she found fame in her own right, providing vocals for "One Step Too Far," which was released in the UK as a limited edition single, where it debuted at #6, and "No Roots" the title track of the final Faithless album. Rollo also co-writes and produces tracks with Dido, including many tracks on both No Angel and Life For Rent. Dido has also provided guest vocals to tracks by other artists including "Feels Like Fire" for Carlos Santana's 2003 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" movie soundtrack.

Following her sold-out world tour of 2004, Dido took time out of her worldwide travels 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 solo and duetting with Youssou N'Dour.

In late 2005, Dido began working on her third solo album, writing and recording in America. She appeared at Clive Davies' pre-Grammy awards party in January 2006, where she said she aims to release the album sometime in 2006.

Contents [hide]
1 Discography
1.1 Albums
1.2 Singles
1.3 DVD
2 Trivia
3 External links
 

Discography

Albums

Odds & Ends - 1996 - (Commercially Unreleased Management Promotional CD)
No Angel - June 1999 - (#1 UK, 9x Platinum; #4 US, 4x Platinum; #1 AUS, 9x Platinum) - Worldwide Sales: 13.5million
Life For Rent - September 2003 - (#1 UK, 7x Platinum; #4 US, 2x Platinum; AUS #1, 5x Platinum) - Worldwide Sales: 8.5million
Total Album Sales: 22 Million [1]

Singles

Guest Appearance: The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem

"Stan" (Eminem featuring Dido) - December 2000 - #1 UK; #2 AUS, #2 Latvia
From No Angel:

"Here With Me" - February 2001 - #4 UK; #39 AUS, #2 Latvia
"Thank You" - May 2001 - #3 UK; #1 AUS; #3 US; #1 BRA, #14 Latvia
"Hunter / Take My Hand" - September 2001- #17 UK; #16 AUS
"All You Want" - December 2001 - Chart Ineligible UK; #40 AUS
Guest Appearance: Outrospective by Faithless

"One Step Too Far" (Faithless featuring Dido) - April 2002 - #6 UK, #18 Latvia
From Life For Rent:

"White Flag" - September 2003 - #2 UK; #1 AUS; #18 US, #3 Latvia
"Life For Rent" - December 2003 - #8 UK; #27 AUS, #11 Latvia
"Don't Leave Home" - April 2004 - #25 UK
"Sand In My Shoes" - September 2004 - #29 UK; #37 AUS
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" (As part of Band Aid 20) - November 2004 - #1 UK, #35 Latvia

DVD
"Dido: Live"/"Dido: Live At Brixton Academy" (2004) - June 2005

Trivia

The video for "White Flag," the lead single from Life For Rent, features actor David Boreanaz, star of American TV vampire series Angel.
Dido actually finished a Law Degree at a London University before choosing to focus on her music full-time.
Different lines from her song "Do You Have A Little Time?" were sampled and used as the hook in the 2Pac song "Don't You Trust Me?" from his latest posthumous release.
The right-wing British National Party quoted lyrics from 'White Flag' and 'This Land Is Mine' on their website, quoting the lyrics as a nationalistic white supremic statement, until they were forced not to, as Dido did not want to be associated with the group.
Dido co-wrote the UK #2 Britney Spears' song "I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman" from the 2001 album Britney, with Swedish songwriter Max Martin. The song was also featured in Spears' 2002 film Crossroads, and was awarded a Razzie for Worst Original Song.
Dido sang the vocals for an arranged album of the Nintendo Famicom game Final Fantasy III known as Final Fantasy III: Eternal Legend of The Wind.
Dido and Rollo both grew up without a television in their house, as their mother did not believe in it.
Dido is a huge football fan, and supports Arsenal FC; Ray Parlour is one of her favorite players.
Dido admits to having played 'Monopoly' on her own as a child.
Dido got her start in music with her stolen recorder when she was 5.
Dido's second album Life For Rent contains a hidden track, "Closer," which follows the final song, "See the Sun," after a two minute pause
Life For Rent, Dido's second album, is copy protected using the Copy Control system in the UK, Australia and parts of Europe, against Dido's wishes.