- Title: GERMANY: POP SINGER DIDO PERFORMS CONCERT IN OFFENBACH
- Date: 22nd April 2001
- Summary: OFFENBACH, GERMANY (APRIL ,2001)(REUTERS -PERFORMANCE CLEARANCE REQUIRED) DIDO PERFORMING 'HERE WITH ME' ON STAGE IN OFFENBACH
- Embargoed: 7th May 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Germany
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVAF4OW6ROJNNDYDDNGFKLVUD4FO
- Story Text: Dido, the singer with the haunting voice from London, may be taking Europe by storm, with her debut album No Angel, but if it hadn't been for Eminem and his sampling of her song Thank You for the suprise Xmas hit Stan, she might still be the well kept secret of America, where she launched her career. Amazingly, after picking up a US record deal back in 1999, it took her only eighteen months to rack up platinum sales Stateside, before she turned her attention back to Europe, where she is currently touring to promote the album.
While it is the dream of every British pop-star to crack the American market, few begin their careers by doing just that. Dido is one exception; the twenty-eight year old singer from London began her career eighteen months ago by signing to Arista records in the states and then sat back to watch her first album No Angel sell well over a million copies over there. But it was not the first outing by the classically trained singer; in 1995, she started singing with her brother Rollos band Faithless and joined them on their world tour to help promote their best-selling album Reverence.
" I toured with 'Faithless' for about two years and I knew I was going on my own, but it was definitely hard leaving 'Faithless', because it was such a sort of family atmosphere."
But despite such a musical pedigree Dido was nervous about taking the plunge.
"I had to make a decision about what I actually wanted to do, so I sort of sat there and thought, ok, what do I seriously love and, you know, I thought well I'd love to give music, you know, one try, but I'm not going to do it if it doesn't work out and it did, so."
Then, late last year she received a letter from Eminem telling her that he had sampled her song Thank You for his hit Stan and before she knew where she was she was playing Stans doomed girlfriend in the video.
"Eminem's record company called me and said and like, do you want to be in the video ? And I just thought what the hell you know, it'll be a real adventure; I mean, I don't know any of my friends, that if Dr Dre you know, was directing an Eminem video, they wouldn't go and be in it quite frankly (laughs)."
But while Eminem clearly contributed to her gaining recognition over here in Europe, Dido quite clearly gives the impression that this is one question she has been asked too many times.
"Basically Eminem sampled my song 'Thank You' for his record 'Stan' and I like it and he's very nice; there you go (laughs)"
Indeed Eminem cannot take all the credit for giving Europe Dido; the delay in releasing 'No Angel' over here is in part due to Dido's insistence on staying signed to brother Rollo's label Cheeky in the UK, a matter that was solved with the sale of Cheeky to Arista this year. Indeed for someone who had so many doubts about choosing a career in music, Dido seems totally content with her debut album.
"I didn't make this record to fester in a cupboard somewhere and never play it to anyone. I love people hearing my music.
You know, I do really love my album, you know what I mean, and I always did. And I think if you don't believe in your own album, and you don't think youre going to do well, then I don't know how you can go round and round and round the world talking about it and singing it. I always believed that people would enjoy this album , I just had to you now find ways of helping them hear it. Next for Dido is touring the world, which I'm just so looking forward to you know. I'm going to get to sing to a whole load of new audiences, every day is a new country. But you just don't know whats going to happen from day to day in each country and that's sort of exciting and it's like a whole new challenge to me."
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