The miserable Dido

[Splendid*]

Dildo (oops I meant Dido, obviously) produces music that should only have to be endured by the deaf and Westlife fans. To put it charitably it is cack.

Those of you who share my loathing of the personality void queen of blandness, please direct your insults, disregard, bad jokes and general comments here please.

Thank you.

[Devil In Your Car]

To be fair, Dido was just a bored receptionist who fancied writing a few songzzzzz... and was probably more surprised than anyone when she struck a chord with the great record-buying public (ie over two million other bored receptionists).

Her music may not be your cup of tea (it certainly isn't mine) but she hasn't exactly gone around whoring herself to appeal to the masses and it seems a little stupid to expect her to develop a new, more interesting personality to justify her popularity.

There's also something admirable in the way that she's raking in the cash but is far too sensible to develop a crack habit, instead spending it on highlights, fancy shoes and Chardonnay. She's out there keeping it real for all her homegirls down the Slug and Lettuce, and I quite like that.

[Mike]

I'm a bit sick of her at the moment, but I think she's done some great songs. I appreciate she's a bit bland for some tastes, but like Devil said she's managed to strike a chord with a huge section of the public, just by writing simple songs with memorable tunes. She isn't the least bit starry either, which probably explains why some people hate her.

The Dildo joke, by the way, is so over it needs a new word for 'over'.

[flufff]

Devil said:

There's also something admirable in the way that she's raking in the cash but is far too sensible to develop a crack habit, instead spending it on highlights, fancy shoes and Chardonnay. She's out there keeping it real for all her homegirls down the Slug and Lettuce, and I quite like that.

i think it's funny too, except I find it a whole lot less funny when her boring songs are played all the time on the radio and people rave about their marvellousness. She doesn't whore herself everywhere, but she definitely has the media on her side. She who must not be named did several features on her and her album to coincide with the launch and there were features in lots of grown-up papers too.

I liked Hunter *hides*

[Dudie]

She's also done wonders for the razor blade industry. They thought that the old style blades were obsolete but she's worked an economic miracle where they're concerned.

I wouldn't mind her songs so much if she didn't insist on singing them herself in that dirgy flat tone that makes you lose the will to live. And yes it's complete overkill on airplay.

There's definitely a morbid theme to this post is there not?

[MilkMonitor]

I quite like Dido. Hey! Wait! Come back! I agree her songs are as miserable as a wet Sunday and I too wish she'd do some upbeat, camp choon with the Scissor Sisters or something but you can't have everything. I like the melancholy in her songs. I don't know why.

[allanc]

Sorry but I do not believe half the people who own Dido's albums actually listen to them, just like Katie Melua and Norah Jones, the CDs just sit on the coffee table to look good.

[PushTheBuena]

In theory, I love the fact that, for the first album at least, she became a massive sales success less because of hype or obligation than because people actually liked the music. However, I honestly can't stand most of her stuff. I listened to her last album once and I swear it was just the same song I repeat. It's a shame because she seemed quite interesting at first, to my naive eyes at least. And Hunter was a good song. Her problem is there's absolutely nothing to get excited about; I can never imagine raving over a Dido song. I guess that's the point though- modest music with modest ambitions.

PS The Dildo joke sucks.

[audrey potnoodlehorne]

She is not very good at singing.

Not that you have to be to be a pop star, but many Cold Feet fans seem to be under the collective delusion that she is some kind of Great Voice.

Shall we say "flat" with a touch of Kermit?

[gabbygoo]

allanc said:

Sorry but I do not believe half the people who own Dido's albums actually listen to them, just like Katie Melua and Norah Jones, the CDs just sit on the coffee table to look good.

I bought Katie Melua and Norah Jone's two albums have listened to them once and are now in the cd rack. I won't make the mistake of buying Dido unless I am so depressed and decide to end it all. Great music to die with

I also agree she is overplayed. I wish radio stations would play more variety

[elmsyrup]

gabbygoo said:

Norah Jone's

[gabbygoo]

Thank you for spotting my deliberate mistake. Jones's or Jones' seen as am talking about plural albums?

[Greg]

thisisnotatest said:

The Dildo joke, by the way, is so over it needs a new word for 'over'.

That is such a cool phrase. I must use it sometime soon.

On the topic of Dido, I loved her first album (and I mean loved)*. I thought 'Hunter', 'Thank You', 'No Angel' and 'Here With Me' were all wonderful. So obviously I can't really comment on her singing voice - as I did actually used to like it. I don't think it's that bad, just horrifically misused for evil instead of good.

My hatred for her started with 'White Flag'. It was the new Dido material - woohoo this could be promising - then that came on. I was as if she'd actually came and broke into my house and shat on my copy of her first album (which some may say may not be a bad thing). It was basically Dido, with all the good bits taken out. To make it even worse, it was overplayed to absolute death and suddenly everyone loved Dido (when that happens I normally get really bitter).

And then 'White Flag mark 2', sorry, 'Life For Rent' came out and I grabbed for the sick bucket. Granted Dido had never been particularly high-spirited or particularly rebellious but these songs, and the rest of the bits of the album I've heard are all pretty much the same song, all whining with a slight change of lyrics that made you realise how depressing life is etc etc. whereas 'Thank You', 'Hunter' and the first album stuff had all been a lot happier (on Dido standards) and had varying emotions rather than just sadness.

Sorry if I trailed off and made no sense at times, but that's how angry Dido makes me!!!!111

{EDIT:- And what Yizzo said about there being no hype for the first album was true. In fact all of that post is true. Listen to Yizzo]

^{*I'm also a fan of Melua and Cullum and have both of their albums. And I have the intention of buying Ms Jones' albums too at some point in time. Don't kill me.}

[Splendid*]

Devil said:

Her music may not be your cup of tea (it certainly isn't mine) but she hasn't exactly gone around whoring herself to appeal to the masses and it seems a little stupid to expect her to develop a new, more interesting personality to justify her popularity.

What?!. Where in my post do I say or even imply that I expect Dido to be anything other then what she intrinsically is, a dullard. It's the quality of her music that I would like to justify her popularity not herself.

Coldplay's last LP also sold millions of copies, penned by the equally morose Chris Martin. But the difference between him and Dido is that he is capable of writing consistantly great peices of music, whereas the she-hag can barely manage one or if your lucky two an album, and even thats more by chance then design.

As for her favourable media coverage, we all know that the only reason why Dido is a media darling is because she's popular, the music industry and media in general feed of popularity. How many of them would give a toss about Dido if she wasn't the biggest female artist in the UK, presumably the same number who cared when 'No Angel' was first released to overwhelming indifference. It could be argued that if it wasn't for the collaboration she did with Eminem (git) which gave her the platform to peddle her coffee table shite, she would've simply crawled into the dumper where she so richly deserves to be.

And I get the impression that a lot of you didn't appreciate my Dildo joke, well I'm shattered.

[elmsyrup]

gabbygoo said:

Thank you for spotting my deliberate mistake. Jones's or Jones' seen as am talking about plural albums?

I would say Jones's.

[Noosh]

I have quite a lot of respect for dido, but only because she has managed to sell millions of reords with dire, souless songs and not an ounce of discernable talent. If you want good, miserable, 'chick' music, listen to tori amos.

[MilkMonitor]

Hold your horses, ladies and gentlemen, and join me in the Realm Of The Shallow for a minute.



Can we really dislike someone who is as fit as that?


Ignore the excruciatingly awful quality of the picture please.

[Benny]

Er sorry nope. Does nothing for me.
I don't like her music either. I'm with the ones who find her music irritating and dreary.

[Storm]

I've got both of her albums- I feel like I've been cheated twice. I got the first album free, and thought it was really dreary. Then I really liked 'White Flag' so thought I should get the second album, which was also unbearably dreary.

No matter how good the first single form the third album is, she might trick me once, but I won't let her tick me thrice!

[audrey potnoodlehorne]

gabbygoo said:

Great music to die with

To remind you how shit life is? (Because shite like Dido exists, not because of the existential depth of her warblings).

[Mushroom]

I must admit, I own both of her albums and loved them both...then I realised I actually can only listen to them if I just want something in the background. I can't put them on and listen to them intently. It's kind of like whale music, soothing in a way.

My mum hates her. Maybe I should get her to post a message...

[Twixy]

I couldn't listen to a whole albums worth of Didoness, but I like Hunter, Life For Rent and White Flag.

[ScissorSister]

I've always thought that her songs was just one song with the lyrics changed a bit. She's incredably boring.

[JessieG]

cremeEGG said:

I've always thought that her songs was just one song with the lyrics changed a bit. She's incredably boring.

She is dull but very beautiful, I think.
It's the mystery about her that sells the records.
Nice voice but she needs to change her tunes a bit.

[Bellefirecrazy]

I really like Dido. There's just something about her music that is really captivating imo. I love White Flag, Don't leave home and Sand in my shoes. Sick of Life for rent. See the sun and Mary's in India are great too.
Don't have the 1st album.

[max]

JessieG said:

She is dull but very beautiful, I think.

i'd agree that she is very pretty, but despite the best efforts of Mr Fuller and Mr Cowell, that still isnt enough.
Songs are dull and samey. It all sounds a bit like "Stan" to me.

[rollo71]

To quote the amazing Amy Winehouse - "Dido's music is background music - the background to death. She's shit."
It couldn't have been put better if she'd tried.

[veryjammy]

I'm no huge fan of hers but I think we're all being a little harsh here. Her albums are incredibly dreary soul-sapping affairs but she's had some good singles - Here With Me, Hunter, White Flag, Life For Rent. It's not really her fault that Bland FM radio stations play her stuff a hundred times a day.

She may not have made it big without Eminem, and she doesn't deserve to have sold all those millions of albums, but there are plenty of artists out there who go multi-platinum on the basis of one or two decent songs so it's not fair to villify Dido in particular, she's just an easy target.

[toby3000]

Am I the only one who thinks that, despite being mega-rich, she seems to dress like some person-less-rich-and-brilliant-than-me ? It all seems to be big gold hoop earrings and addidas. And now someone's gonna post pictures of her looking amazingly sophistocated and I'll look a fool. Oh well.

[Molly]

She's atrocious.
Her songs are boring.
She's very plain. Not ugly, but certainly no 'stunna'.
She literally cannot sing. Live, her voice is abysmal.
Worst of all, she gets all pissy when anyone says they don't like her 'It really pisses me off when people say my music is boring. It couldn't be further from boring!' she said, or something very similar. How desperate for approval must you be when you're one of the most successful artists in the country (and indeed do very well in the world as a whole), selling millions and millions of albums and you still get in a strop when someone calls you a mean name?

PS The intro to White Flag is pretty.