Acoustic pop singer Dido shot to fame a decade ago as the soft crooner on US rapper Eminem’s hit song, Stan. After what she calls “disappearing” for a while, she is back with her first album in five years – with a more electronic sound.
The London-based singer, 41, has sold more than 29 million albums since her debut album No Angel in 1999,
She released Girl Who Got Away in the US yesterday.
“It’s a little comment on the fact that I disappeared a bit. That’s what everyone else was pointing out to me that ‘it’s a perfect title for you’,” Dido said.
“The song is about so many things for me. It’s about that restlessness and having a dream of another life that you can’t quite get to,” she added.
Girl Who Got Away features an updated sound from the singer with heavier bassline beats, folk and electronic influences, which Dido attributed to her brother and producer, Rollo Armstrong.
“A great producer is someone that can facilitate the artist and make them the best that they can be,” the singer said.
“That’s where Rollo is so good. He pushes me to the point where I can’t do any better. And then he’ll take over and make it even better.”
Dido found mainstream success in 2000 after rapper Eminem featured a sample of her track Thank You on his hit song Stan.
The exposure helped the singer’s 2003 Life for Rent album to land at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 album chart that year, fuelled by singles White Flag and Life for Rent, and earned her a Grammy nomination.
Her 2008 album Safe Trip Home was less successful albeit critically acclaimed. Her song for the soundtrack of Danny Boyle’s 2010 film 127 Hours earned her an Academy Award nomination.
In 2011, the singer became a mother for the first time with husband Rohan Gavin to son Stanley – not named after the Eminem song, Dido was quick to clarify.
She drew on her pregnancy when she returned to the studio for the new album.
“I loved feeling him kicking around while I was singing and certain songs he’d really kick to. It just felt like I had a little friend in there with me,” the singer said.