Born as Dido Armstrong on Christmas Day in 1971 in London, England, she was involved in music early in her childhood. At the age of six, Dido entered into London’s Guildhall School of Music. By the age of 10, she became quite proficient at the recorder, violin and piano. From there, Dido had spent much of her time performing classical pieces from the renowned composers of our time. And, it wasn’t until she turned 16 that she decided to try something different.

After she completed her schooling, Dido became involved in her second passion – books. They had always been a huge part of her family’s life. Her father worked in publishing, and Dido soon found work as a literary agent, while still continuing to amuse herself in many musical sidelines.

One such project was working with her brother, Rollo, in his band, Faithless. The band emerged in 1997 with their debut album, Reverence, to which Dido provided backing vocals to a few tracks, in addition to lead vocals on the song “Flowerstand Man.” It was working with her brother that made Dido realize how much she missed making music, so, she decided that was exactly what she was going to do.

During her breaks in London while touring with her brother and his band, Dido began making demos of some of her songs. Eventually, these demos caught the attention of Clive Davis at Arista Records. After Dido met Davis at his hotel room in London, she remarked, “The thing that made me think that this guy was really amazing was, I had met a lot of people in the music industry, and this was the only guy who sat and talked with me about my music as opposed to what he could do.”
In June, 1999, Dido’s debut album, No Angel, was released. Immediately, comparisons were made to Sinead O’Connor, Sarah McLachlan and other artists.

That was about what Dido had expected. “I’ve never compared myself,” she observed, “because I feel like my voice is my voice.” ‘Course, it didn’t hurt that the people she was often compared to had already made it big in the music industry.
During the making of No Angel, Dido received lots of input from her brother, who co-wrote and produced a few of her songs. He’s six years older than Dido, so, even though he was her brother, she, naturally, respected his musical creditability

Probably Dido’s most biggest musical influence, to date, has been Sting, whom she opened for in Los Angeles. Following her tour promoting the initial album release, Dido is hard at work writing a follow-up album. Though, obviously, a tough task for any rising young star, Dido has accepted the challenge with her typical “get it done” aggressive mentality. “It’s a great job,” she commented, “It’s hard work, but it’s fun.”