British pop singer Dido came to fame with the American rapper Eminem

Like many people I first heard Dido singing her part of controversial rapper Eminem's hit single Stan . It was a perfect balance of her gentle vocals and lyrics contrasted with his rough male ones and was not surprisingly a number one success in the pop singles charts.

The song Stan is very sad account of an obsessed fan who writes to his successful rapper hero Eminem (Slim) but never gets a reply and eventually kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend. Eminem sings lyrics in the role of both the fan and the singer who tries to send a reply but is too late.

Eminem had heard Dido's single Thank You and decided it was perfect for his own song as a sample. She agreed to him using it and also went on to act in the video made to promote Stan in which she plays the part of Stan's girlfriend. Dido appeared on stage with Eminem on Top of the Pops as well.

Dido was given the names Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong but she is commonly known as just Dido and prefers it that way, or Dido Armstrong if you want to include her surname too. Worldwide she is known to her fans as simply Dido.

Thank You

Being on Eminem's single catapulted Dido to world fame as a singer and she had a big hit with Thank You at around the same time.

Thank You was taken from her debut album No Angel , which went on to become a best-selling album in 2001 and made Dido an internationally famous star.

In 2003, Dido followed the success of Thank You and No Angel with Life For Rent, an album on BMG's Cheeky label, from which the hit singles White Flag , Life For Rent , Don't Leave Home and Sand In My Shoes were all taken.

Wkipedia tells us about this album: "Life for Rent is the fastest selling album by a female artist, and passed the five million mark worldwide. It sold one million in 5 days, on the way there it sold 102,500 on day one and 400,351 in the first week on its way to the record."

For me personally I had fallen in love with Dido's voice. She is also stunningly beautiful, I think, and I am sure I must be one of millions of her fans who think so too.

I had bought her album Life For Rent and played it over and over, and was lucky enough to be able to see her live at a free festival in Cardiff in 2004. Now there were several other big name acts appearing at this festival including The Darkness and Pink but I was not impressed with their sets that relied a lot on show and having a full band on stage.

By contrast, Dido was singing accompanied only by a backing guitarist on semi-acoustic guitar. She was dressed smartly but casual and unlike the other acts was not relying on visuals, sound effects, lighting, or a bunch of backing musicians. Dido did not need this and as a singer-songwriter myself this made a huge impression on me.

I could see that Dido was a real professional as a songwriter and a performer of her own material and did not need anything more than a stage and a microphone to deliver her songs to an appreciative and spellbound audience.

My favourite songs from Life For Rent are White Flag, Life For Rent and Mary's In India but all 11 tracks are excellent.

White Flag

White Flag is really a love song but a love song with a difference. Dido sings:

"I know you think that I shouldn't still love you
Or tell you that
But if I didn't say it, well I'd still have felt it
Where's the sense in that?

I promise I'm not trying to make your life harder
Or return to where we were

But I will go down with this ship
And I won't put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I'm in love and always will be."

The songs are all written by Dido in collaboration with others including her brother Rollo Armstrong but they all have Dido written all over them.

Life For Rent

Here is a sample of Dido's excellent lyrics from her hit Life For Rent :

"I've always thought
that I would love to live by the sea
To travel the world alone
and live my life more simply
I have no idea what's happened to that dream
Cos there's really nothing left here to stop me

It's just a thought, only a thought

But if my life is for rent and I don't learn to buy
Well I deserve nothing more than I get
Cos nothing I have is truly mine."

Dido went on to release a third album Safe Trip Home in 2008 and this was also a great success.

She has been working on a fourth album that is planned for release in 2010. I will be looking forward to getting it.

Thank YOU, Dido, for all your brilliant songs!