Outstanding Song Collection - Dido

It takes a special kind of talent to take six years out and then slip back into the music scene as if she’s never been away.

It’s been that long since Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O’Malley Armstrong — or just plain Dido to her fans — last released an album, 2013’s Girl Who Got Away. Yet here she is in 2019, looking exactly as she did in her late ‘90s/early Noughties pomp and sounding every bit as fresh.

Ever since she emerged via her early collaborations with dance behemoths Faithless, Dido’s voice and songs have plugged her directly into global music collections. Once she went solo, she became unstoppable: her 1999 No Angel and 2003 Life For Rent albums remain two of the biggest-selling records of all time in the UK, music that both perfectly articulated day-to-day life for millions and soundtracked it too.

Take a song like Thank You. It first appeared in a key moment in Gwyneth Paltrow movie Sliding Doors, appeared on No Angel and then was sampled for Eminem’s classic stalker tale, Stan, throwing Dido into an unlikely starring role on the rap-rock collision Anger Management tour, with the song becoming an even bigger hit in the process.

Not many songs enjoy such a life — it still regularly makes the top UK airplay songs of the year — but Dido has a whole host of such anthems in her collection. From Here With Me and White Flag to Life For Rent, Don’t Leave Home, No Freedom and Hurricanes, Dido has never rushed her art, but it never fails to hit the target.

Her current album, Still on My Mind — created with her brother Rollo in a similar style to her early work — has her right back in the limelight. But you never know how long it will be before this most private songwriter slips away again, so today offers an opportunity to pay homage to Dido and her incredible songs. Let’s make the most of it…