Yahoo News What happened to Dido?
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Here’s a fun fact: Dido’s album No Angel was the second highest-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. Only James Blunt’s ‘Back To Bedlam’ sold more copies.
Dido is one of the most succesful recording artists of all time in Britain, she’s still only 44, and yet most of us have no idea what she’s been up to for the last ten years.
Now though, it looks as though Dido could be on her way back via an unlikely source…
Rise To Fame
Dido became a huge pop star in the Noughties after selling more than 21 million copies of her debut album No Angel following its 1999 release, and followed that up with a still massive 13 million sales of her second record Life For Rent.
On No Angel, she had the song Thank You which was sampled by Eminem on his hit track Stan, while the main attraction on 2003’s Life For Rent was the catchy ballad White Flag. Both helped the records become two of the best-selling albums in UK chart history.
But there was no such huge hit to call upon on 2008 album Safe Trip Home and despite it reaching number two on the UK Albums Chart, sales dropped dramatically with the record selling just over a million copies. Had the bubble burst?
Break
With her third studio album not matching the impressive heights Dido had set herself with her first two records she went on a five-year break.
She continued to provide backing vocals for Faithless - her brother Rollo is one third of the electronica band - on their 2010 album The Dance, as she has done on all of their five other records since 1996’s Reverence.
Dido also married her husband Rohan Gavin (see below) in 2010, and one year later in 2011 she gave birth to their son, Stanley.
Copyright [WENN.com]
She has since insisted her baby’s name has no connection to Eminem’s song Stan, but admitted becoming a mother has changed as a person.
Dido told HitFix: “I’m a more emotional person since having Stanley. I was never the big cry person. Now I’ll be in the cinema and I start crying. I was crying at Philomena 10 minutes in.
"My husband was like, ‘Are you alright?’ So any of these songs that are emotional, I feel it all bigger because of Stanley. It opens up a part of you.”
Greatest Hits
Dido was back making music in 2013 when she released two new singles within five months of each other from her fourth studio album Girl Who Got Away.
No Freedom charted at 51 in the UK Singles Chart following its January 2013 release and in May 2013 her follow up tune End of Night didn’t even make the UK chart.
However, her returning album peaked at five in the UK Albums Chart and sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide, so she clearly hadn’t been forgotten by her loyal fans.
Just months after Girl Who Got Away (still her latest album), Dido dropped her greatest hits record in late 2013 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Life For Rent, but it failed to set the world alight, managing a peak of just 27 in the album chart.
The release of her Greatest Hits signalled the end of her contract with RCA Records and while most artists would no doubt be panicking, especially if they hadn’t enjoyed recent success, Dido was just pleased to be an independent artist again.
She told HitFix: “I’m like an overexcited kid. I have so many ideas.
”‘I can do this, I can do that.’ I’m like, 'Take a breath.’ “
Off the Radar
Her musical freedom appeared to signal the start of a new chapter for Dido and she followed that up by revealing a month later in December 2013 that she was "in the middle” of writing another record.
She told the Daily Express at the time: “I’m in the middle of writing an album of original material and it took me a while to get back in to it after Stanley was born just because I was so focused on him and my husband.”
But, nearly three years on, there is no sign of it.
It’s not as if she needs the money, as website The Richest estimates her net worth at around £11.5 million, partly thanks to the huge success of her first two albums.
At the time of writing, the last update on the star’s 'News’ section of her official website was on January 15, 2014 when she uploaded an audio clip of her discussing her track Everything to Lose, which features on her Greatest Hits album.
But Dido’s name was briefly on people’s lips again in May 2015 when Miley Cyrus covered her poor-performing chart single No Freedom for the US star’s non-profit organisation, the Happy Hippie Foundation.
Copyright [Twitter/Jedward]
Jedward Comeback
If that was a little light at the end of the tunnel, a chasm of illumination appeared to open on Planet Dido last week.
Amazingly, she shot back into the spotlight when former X Factor duo Jedward, of all people, shared a picture of themselves with the singer on their Twitter page.
If that wasn’t a surprise enough, the Irish pair hinted they are planning to collaborate with the singer, who looks no different to when she was storming the UK charts back in the Noughties.
They captioned the image: “We’ve Been Waiting :) @didoofficial GET ON THAT MIC”
The message was no doubt music to the ears of Dido fans, and there are still plenty about with the star boasting a huge 117,000 Twitter followers.
It looks as though we could have some more Dido music to sing along to in the very near future.
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