News Dido answers more of your questionsFri 31st Oct, 2008Here are Dido's latest answers to questions which you folks have emailed in to askdido@didomusic.com.Hi, Dido! I must say I was a bit inspired seeing you play the recorder on Grafton Street! And now I want to learn to play it myself ! What kind of recorder was that? I saw it was wooden, and you were assembling it, it had like 3 parts, right?EvaldasDido replies: It was a treble recorder. The best one to start on is that or a descant (which is smaller). Good luck!Now we know you are interested in politics, so what do you think of the U.S. election? And who do you think will win?MichaelDido replies: I think the result concerns all of us in our daily lives, across the whole world. I wish we all got a chance to vote. I really do. If I could vote I would vote for Barack Obama without any doubt.Dido will you marry me?Chris AustinDido replies: :-) Not in this life time but thanks for asking.
More 'Ask Dido' questions answeredMon 3rd Nov, 2008Hey folks. Here are some more of Dido's answers to the questions which you've been sending to askdido@didomusic.com. What one piece of advice would you give to brilliant newcomers like Duffy, Mika, Feist, Adele and many others?Jorge Pagaza, Mexico.Dido replies: They don't need any advice from me! They're all brilliant, self-assured, amazing, talented artists who I love listening to.Your favourite place in the world?Sam MilgateDido replies: The west coast of Ireland. In Conemara. And my bed.I was wondering if you would consider releasing (and maybe re-recording) the songs from your demo such as Too Bad, Keep Your Faith In Me and especially one of my favorite songs Give Me Strength?JustinDido replies: Probably not! I think these were songs that were early experiments that I then grew out of or wasn't moved enough by them at that time in my life to sing them anymore. I loved the Over The Rhine version of Give Me Strength, though.
Another film added to SafeTripHome.comTue 4th Nov, 2008Head over to SafeTripHome.com to check out a new film on the site. This one was directed by Tinge Krishnan and is set in Bangkok. It's soundtracked by It Comes And It Goes, a rather lovely track from Dido's new album. Let us know what you think of the film - and the song!
Dido on Regis and Kelly on FridayWed 5th Nov, 2008Hey folks. Dido is now over in America, promoting the album's release (not long to go now!). Following radio appearances today and tomorrow, Dido will be appearing on Live with Regis and Kelly on Friday morning-
Dido rocks steady in her 'Safe Trip Home'Friday, October 31st 2008, 8:34 PMDIDO. "Safe Trip Home" (Arista) Dido delivers devastating news with a shrug. Whether she's vowing to fight to the death for a lover, or raking herself over the coals for her most ruinous flaws, she sounds no more agitated than if she had just sat down to a quiet afternoon tea. In every song, Dido keeps her volume measured and her tone even. It's a style that can most topically be described as "Obama-esque." She's pop's most unflappable singer. You'll find no change in that style on "Safe Trip Home," Dido's third CD. It's yet another poised, understated, tasteful affair. If such consistency could signal a stasis for many artists - or worse, numb their listeners into a stupor - Dido continues to beguile, and in a striking number of ways. First, there are her finely spun melodies and carefully chosen lyrics. Then there's the inventive arrangements of her latest producer, Jon Brion (who has done parallel wonders for female singers like Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple). But the cornerstone of Dido's appeal remains the consideration of her vocals. That wasn't always so obvious. She began in the duo Faithless, as one of many singers who mined a style of wan understatement. Scores of groups, from Everything But the Girl to Portishead to Morcheeba, all provided variations on this sallow approach. But for her solo albums, starting with 1999's "No Angel," Dido refocused her energies, bridging the roles of singer-songwriter and art-song chanteuse. In her work since, she has always employed the tools of a good actor: communicating rich emotion in small gestures, thereby making sure to leave room for the audience to feel everything they know she's holding back. Listeners sense that unstated well of pain on the new album, starting from the opening song, "Don't Believe in Love." Here she sings plainly about her inability to connect to a romantic partner. It's a song, like many on the CD, that involves guilt and regret. But Dido's concentrated tone, and her reluctance to let the full ruin of her realization show, involves the listener all the more intimately in her plight. The singer has found a great partner in producer Brion. A veteran of soundtracks, he knows how to use just the right instruments to underscore a mood, to create the perfect setting for a character. In "Look No Further," the flinty strings have a subconscious resonance. In "Let's Do the Things We Normally Do," an askew violin creates a dreamlike backdrop, while the one track cut with Eno ("Grafton Street") hinges on a synth that lopes like a ghost. It's impressive stuff, but the setting would mean nothing without Dido's presence at the fore. Once again, she makes the case for less as so much more.
Dido iPhone site launchesThu 6th Nov, 2008We've tweaked the didomusic.com site so that it runs more smoothly on an iPhone (or, indeed, iPod touch).You can view all of the same sections as the normal desktop browser version, and you can still login to leave comments.
SAFE TRIP HOME OUT VERY SOON!Dido's third album, Safe Trip Home, is released in just over a week - and the glowing reviews are already flowing in from across the globe.If you'd like to pre-order a copy of the album on CD or download, click here to go to our pre-orders page and order from the retailer nearest to you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------US TV PERFORMANCES COMING UPFollowing her appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly today, Dido has two more big US TV appearances next week. She's on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Monday Nov 10th and on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Wednesday Nov 12th, both on NBC. Dido is also playing a special show for KLLC Radio in San Francisco on Nov 12th. If you'd like to win one of 25 pairs of tickets to the show which we have to give away, then click here.That's about all for this time.Dido HQ Âé 2008 RCA Label Group UKPO Box 607 / London / SW6 4YY
By Ann DonahueLOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Dido counts herself lucky. The British pop singer has two homes: one in Los Angeles and one in London. And by "homes," she doesn't necessarily mean houses -- she means places where she feels comfortable and creative."London is still home -- but I feel real love for Los Angeles," she says. "It's a city built on people having an imagination."Sitting at the dining room table at a house in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon, Dido says that in the five years since her last album, "Life for Rent," she spent time reconnecting with family and friends -- and gaining confidence to explore new kinds of music.That search, with the assistance of producers Jon Brion and Dido's brother, Rollo Armstrong, led to "Safe Trip Home," due November 18 from RCA. While the songwriting is classic Dido, with haunting, personal lyrics about life's bittersweet turns, the musical accompaniments are unusual, featuring everything from Swiss hand bells to strings and woodwinds.Dido's sound has evolved on lengthy, reverb-laden tracks like "Northern Skies" and "Let's Do the Things We Normally Do," which show a Brian Eno influence. But it won't come across as jarring to a massive fan base that snapped up 4.2 million U.S. copies of 1999's "No Angel," thanks in part to Eminem's use of "Thankyou" for his smash hit "Stan." After its 2003 release, "Life for Rent" went on to sell 2.1 million copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.Dido's U.K. sales numbers are astonishing. "No Angel" is the No. 2 album of the decade so far, behind James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" (3.2 million vs. 3 million). "Life for Rent" was the top-selling U.K. album of 2003; sales stand at 2.8 million, according to the Official U.K. Charts Co."Safe Trip Home" is Dido's first album release since the Internet conquered the music industry. As such, RCA is developing a social networking site based on the creation of user-generated short films inspired by songs on the new album.The site (http://www.youtube.com/safetriphome) encourages amateur cineastes to showcase their work and for Dido fans to respond to those videos."Because she is a global artist, we reached out to different directors in different parts of the world and asked them to create films based on what their concept of 'home' might be," Dido's manager Peter Leak says.In some cases, there are literal travelogues of a hometown; others are esoteric depictions of what the filmmaker finds comforting.As for touring of the nonvirtual kind, Dido is planning listening parties in London and L.A. before street date, but she hasn't yet committed to a full schedule of roadwork. "It's been something that has been important to her, that this record is presented to her fans first," says Aaron Borns, RCA Music Group senior VP of marketing and Dido's domestic product manager.Inevitably she will hit the road, says London-based Nigel Hassler at Helter Skelter, who books the singer globally outside North America."On her last tour she played mainly prestigious open-air venues -- amphitheaters, castles and stately homes -- plus a run of arena shows," Hassler says.Outside the United Kingdom, France is one of her strongest territories in terms of sales and touring, Hassler says, recalling a "truly magical" 2004 show at the ancient Roman amphitheater Nimes Arena in front of a sold-out crowd of 12,000. Hassler also reports "a lot of demand" from markets where Dido has yet to tour extensively, including Australia, China, South Africa and Southeast Asia.Of course, you can take the girl out of London, but you can't take London out of the girl. "I drank an enormous amount of Guinness during the course of the album," she says. "We had a Guinness tap in the studio inside of a kegerator. It is a food group, in my opinion."Reuters/Billboard
Album of the Week: Dido - Safe Trip Home By Gavin Martin 7/11/2008 4/5She is a personal diarist with mass appeal, like Bridget Jones with a microphone. Dido’s previous two albums, No Angel (1999) and Life For Rent (2003), sold an astonishing 21 million copies in total. Astonishing because Dido’s talent does not reach out and demand attention. Instead of trumpeting their arrival with flashy conceits and octave-scaling showboating, her songs are about everyday experiences and relationships.On Look No Further, she lays out the credentials that have endeared her to so many – spurning the high life that’s surely within her grasp, she conjures a classically-cushioned, mellow beat-driven vision of hearts and home.Compare this album to the naughty burlesque come-ons of Madonna’s Hard Candy – and hear why 36-year-old Dido is the genuine English home girl that Madonna, despite marriage and relocation, never could be. No matter that Dido’s posher than the Queen or that her first album in five years was partly recorded in Los Angeles with an American producer. Her London Guildhall music background and chilled club culture connection (strengthened by her brother Rolo’s part in dance collective Faithless) are steady foundations
Leno and Ellen appearances this weekMon 10th Nov, 2008Hey folks. We have two more US TV appearances to tell you about. This evening, Dido will be appearing on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on NBC. Then, on Wednesday, she's on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, also on NBC.In other news, the album is out here in the UK a week today. Woot!
