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Dido

By SARA TEMPLETON

Dido is the epitome of the modern female pop singer, someone who can cleverly combine words, emotions and melodies to great effect, and the biggest testament to her success is that she can manages to sing about love and life, but without turning off male listeners - truly an art.

One of the turning points in her career was when white rapper and bad-boy extraordinaire Eminem (a.k.a Marshal Bruce Mathers III & Slim Shady) sampled the chorus from her "Thank You" song to use in his confronting song "Stan", which was about an obsessed fan.

Since then, Dido's career has blossomed, and this in turn has allowed her to be more independent in her songwriting - surely a good thing.

Dido was born on Christmas Day (December 25th) in London in the year 1971 and her intriguing name was based on that of an African warrior queen [Feann Torr (from the Motoring Channel) butted in - he also wants people to know he was named after an Irish warrior king. But he can't sing].

She grew up with her literary agent-cum-poet mother, who never had a television, which could account for Dido's emotionally expressive work. She also found solace in music early on, and began to play the recorder, teaching herself new melodies and songs.

At the age of six, Dido was accepted into the Guildhall School of Music in London, which still has pretty good credibility today, and moved onto instruments such as the piano and violin as she grew older.

As her love of music intensified, Dido tried her hand at singing, and while her brother wasn't exactly what you term as 'supportive', she kept on keeping on, influenced by Ella Fitzgerald among others. After singing with a number of bands in the evenings, and attending law school in the daylight hours,

And her innate talent at playing instruments became even clearer when she moved from the recorder to playing the piano and the violin.

Originally only interested in instruments, Dido became fascinated with music after listening to jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald at age 16. Influenced by her brother's eclectic record collection and the sultry Ella, Dido began singing with several bands.

Despite the discouragement of her brother, who was not impressed by his sister's voice, Dido did not intend on giving up singing.

She worked in publishing and attended law school by day and sang lead vocals in different London venues by night, improving her skills as time wore inexorably onwards.

And while her brother, Rollo, was no big fan of his sister, he gave her a chance to prove herself when she guest-sang on his band's (Faithless) debut album, Reverence, in 1996.

Her work with Faithless impressed quite a few people and she ended touring with the band for the next two years, after which time she attended a meeting with music producer big-wig Clive Davis, in 1997. She sang, he listened, and the rest is history as she scored a recording contract.

Dido's debut album, No Angel, was released halfway through 1999 and with hits such as Thank You" and "Here With Me" her status as a superstar was signed and sealed, and her new Album, Life For Rent, is expected to be just as popular.