ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

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

Updated on October 10, 2014

Dido's Thank You and Eminem's Stan

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.

Best Dido albums to buy on Amazon

Photo of Dido

Dido live by Kura.kun
Dido live by Kura.kun

DIDO - THANK YOU (Live Acoustic)

Dido's hit albums

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!

2000-12-16 - Eminem & Dido - Stan (Live @ TOTP)

2003-09 - Dido - White Flag (Live @ TOTP)

© 2010 Steve Andrews

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)