Speed Queen races toward pop stardom

Thanks to Sloane for sending this in!

Speed Queen – British songstress Dido- a cross between Sarah McLachlan and
Sinead O’Connor- races toward pop stardom

From: Elle, March 1999

However famous British singer-songwriter Dido becomes (and, considering the beauty of her forthcoming debut album, No Angel, stardom may be around the bend) she’ll never demand a chauffeur.� “I love driving through London,” the twenty-eight-year-old trills as she guns her red Ford Fiesta, eyes glued to a windshield blurry with reflected street lights.� We�re fast approaching Westway, �an inspiring stretch of urban decay� that connects Dido�s flat to her second home, Swanyard recording studios in Islington.� �I have my bestideas at seventy miles per hour,� she says.� �You zoom past a stranger and imagine a whole life.� And,� she adds with a guilty smirk, the gas pedal floored beneath her New Balance sneaker, �you can see into people�s houses!� Voyeuristic kicks notwithstanding, music offers bigger thrills for the classically trained performer (piano, violin, recorder), whose career began when she entered London�s Guild Hall School of Music and Drama at age six: �Ten years of influence, whether I like it or not,� Dido says.� �That�s the appeal of singing: I haven�t had it taught out of me.�� She found her voice during an audition for a student opera at Westminster (as in Abbey, where she sang in the choir).� �A horribly posh private school.� There were 800 boys and, like, sixty girls,� she recalls.� �It was an amazing boyfest�and the demise of my education.� I thought, Why am I practicing in my
room�alone�for five hours every night when I could be�?� This hormone-induced musical hiatus lasted beyond graduation, as Dido decided to follow in the footsteps of her book publisher father.� �Trashy fiction was my specialty,� she says.� She quit her job three years ago to sing with Faithless, her brother Rollo�s band; the resulting CD, Reverence,
went on to sell five million copies.� Dido�s subtly stunning voice�like her music, it evokes Sarah McLachlan and Sinead O�Connor�caught the ear of Arista Records president Clive Davis, who counts McLachlan, Whitney Houston, and Janis Joplin among his discoveries.� Dido now channels her literary ambitions into crafting lyrics.� (�I�m interested in the human side of love, the mistakes we make in relationships,� she says.� �I write about small moments�that one night, that one look�to get across a universal point.�)She even co-produced the songs on No Angel, some under the guidance of Rollo, others with Madonna collaborator Rick Nowles. Her destiny certainly looks brighter than that of her mythical namesake, a Carthage queen whose broken heart drove her to suicide.� �She threw herself on a fire. A very passionate woman�I relate to that,� Dido acknowledges
while scowling in the rearview mirror at a man who foolishly tried to cut
her off.� �But I wouldn�t kill myself over a bloke.�