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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Saffron Otter

Where Dido is now - 'cruel' full name, love life, famous brother and music comeback

Dido is still a firm favourite among music fans after her debut album topped the charts almost 25 years ago.

The popular singer captivated audiences worldwide with her soulful voice and big-hitting tracks including Here With Me and Thank You, which are still played widely to this day.

After No Angel catapulted her to stardom in 1999, the award-winning singer went on to produce three further albums and collaborated with some iconic stars.

Although she disappeared from the limelight in the late 2000s, the 51-year-old continued to make music, with a comeback just four years ago.

She released her fifth album Still On My Mind in 2019, and with it, did her first tour in 15 years. But what has she been up to recently? We take a look at her rise to fame...

Rise to fame

Although we all know the much-lover singer as simply Dido, her full name is actually Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong.

She has hit out at her parents in the past over her unusually long moniker and in 2001, told the Observer: "To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying.

The award-winning singer blew audiences away with No Angel (Getty Images)
She made a comeback in 2019 with her fifth album (Getty Images)

"It's one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me... Florian is a German man's name.

"That's just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing... I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it."

And she isn't the only musically talented child in the family as her brother - Rowland Constantine O'Malley Armstrong, better known as Rollo - is also in the industry.

He is a successful record producer and is a founding member of the electronic music group, Faithless.

Her big brother helped Dido get into the industry, where she ended up collaborating with the trio.

The collaboration that saw her catapult to global fame (NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

After launching No Angel in '99, her popularity with fans skyrocketed when she collaborated with rap icon Eminem for Stan in 2000 - which saw the album go on to sell more than 21 million copies across the world.

She went on to win several top music awards however her live performances dwindled after launching her third studio album, Safe Trip Home, in 2008.

Amid her comeback tour in 2019, she told the Telegraph that, after more than six years of hard work on stage, she wanted to take time off. But it ended up lasting for much longer than she anticipated.

The star admitted: "I really didn't plan on stopping.

"The last big show I did was Live 8 (in 2005) and at that point, I'd been going hard at it for over six years and thought I'd take a little bit of time off. So I was just on a break. For 15 years."

Love life

When Dido released her first album, she called time on her seven-year relationship with entertainment lawyer Bob Page, to whom she was engaged.

The Here With Me singer found love again a decade later with author and screenwriter Rohan Gavin.

Dido on Lorraine ahead of her 2019 tour (S Meddle/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

They married in 2010 and shortly after welcomed their son, Stanley Gavin, in July 2011.

The family still live in North London, not far from where she grew up.

Dido always knew she would call her child Stanley.

Speaking on Lorraine in 2019, she told the host: "'When I was a teenager, I was with my mate, I remember sitting on a wall, and they were like, 'What are you going to call your kid?' and I was like, 'Stanley.'

"'Bizarrely, when I met my husband, that was the name that was his favourite for different reasons.'"

New music

Although Dido had taken a huge break away from the stage, she has said the music has never stopped.

"I have been having a lovely time, being with my family, seeing friends, seeing the world," she told Stuff.

Dido's last big show before her break at Live 8 in 2005 (AFP)

"But the music never stopped. I am always singing, always writing songs. Music is how I make sense of the world. I just stopped playing it to anyone but my family."

In early 2019, Dido signed to BMG and released her fifth album and began her tour in May 2019.

Later on that year in October, Dido was featured on her brother Rollo's The Last Summer album, which was released under the alias "R Plus". The album reached number 96 on the UK Album Sales Chart.

And just two months ago in February, she updated fans to announce she had appeared on American singer-songwriter Caroline Polachek's album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You on the track 'Fly to You' alongside Polachek and singer Grimes, where she is also credited as a co-writer.

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