Songwriter of the Year

Dido Armstrong

Named after a mythical queen, Dido Florian Cloud DeBouneville Armstrong was always destined to become part of pop royalty.

From an early age she showed a true love for music and by her teenage years had learned to play piano, recorder and the violin.

In 1996, Dido started to collaborate on her brother Rollo's project Faithless as a co-writer and vocalist resulting in the track "Flowerstand Man." Whilst working with Faithless, she was discovered by Warner Chappell Music and began to write and record her debut album. A record deal with Arista Records followed and by the end of 1998 she was putting the finishing touches to her very own record. The album was called No Angel and would eventually go on to sell an outstanding 14 million copies throughout the world and is certified Platinum in over thirty-five countries. No Angel is still the UK's biggest selling debut album by a British female artist EVER.

The first single from No Angel, "Here With Me", was used as the theme for the now seminal sci-fi tv show Roswell. This usage exposed Dido to an army of fans who bought the record and supported her on her extensive tour of the US.

It was the use of her song "Thank You" in the film Sliding Doors that attracted Eminem to want to sample the title for his single "Stan." She also appeared as a featured artist on the record and even appeared as Stan's long suffering girlfriend in the video!

In 2003 Dido released her second album, Life For Rent, and it was to become one of the fastest selling albums in UK history, selling over 152,000 on the first day alone and going on to sell an incredible 400,000 copies in its first week of release. Four singles came from this album, "White Flag," "Life For Rent," "Don't Leave Home" and "Sand In My Shoes." These all contributed to the album's 10.5 million sales, which made Life For Rent the 4th biggest selling album of the 21st century in the UK.

Along with being nominated for numerous awards, Dido has won four BRIT awards, four NRJ awards, an Ivor Novello award for Songwriter of the Year, 2 MTV awards and 11 ASCAP awards.

This year sees the release of her third album Safe Trip Home, and she remains grounded by the experience "I still manage to get into this headspace when I'm writing where I completely forget that anyone's going to hear the songs," admits Dido. "I don't really draw any limits for what I put in the songs, emotionally. Some of these songs are about general themes and some are about other people's lives, but some are specific and personal to me. Maybe I leave myself exposed, but I find it hard to do anything that isn't emotional or doesn't move me in some way. By not explaining my lyrics to people, it actually gives me the freedom to express myself without limits in the songs."

That, as much as anything, is what makes Safe Trip Home such a rewarding listen. "This album is full of the joy of making music," says Dido. "The process of making it has been a wonderful experience, something to totally cherish. I've put every emotion into these songs. And now I just really hope they move people."

It's hard to imagine that they won't.


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