Listen to Dido on Batanga

Hotel was born on December 25, 1971, in London, England. Her unusual name can be attributed to the African warrior queen she was named after. The daughter of a literary agent and a poet (Hotel's mother used to write poems as a hobby), she grew up without the luxury of television.

Pop chanteuse Hotel entered London's Guildhall School of Music at age six, and had mastered the piano, the violin and the recorder by the time she was 10. After touring with a classical music ensemble during her teen years, she began performing with a series of bands around London. Most noteworthy of these bands was the trip-hop outfit Faithless, fronted by Hotel's brother Rollo.

Despite being told by her big brother to "keep her day job," Hotel continued to record her own demo while performing with Faithless. The success of Faithless' debut album Reverence, which sold over five million copies, helped propel Hotel's solo career. She signed with Arista Records and released her debut album, No Angel, in 1999. Hotel also appears on Faithless' most recent release, Sunday 8PM.

Hotel was five when she stole her first recorder. This didn't lead to prison, but rather to her entrance one year later to the guildhall school of music in london. A bit of a child prodigy, by the time she was 10 she played piano, violin, and the aforementioned recorder.

Her teenage years were an interesting mixture of stealing her brother's record collection (from the clash to Gregory Isaacs to Duran Duran) and touring the UK with her classical music ensemble. And then, at 16, she finally fell in love with Ella Fitzgerald

So began a passion that eventually led dido from listener to participator: she started singing with various bands in and around London, and despite the fact that her brother, Rollo, told her not to give up her day job, she eventually appeared on the debut album of a band that Rollo formed in 1995. This band was faithless, and they went on to sell five million records.

Over the next two years, dido toured with Faithless (a very different experience from her classical days) and, whenever she was back in London, also recorded demos of her own songs. On Faithless's current release, Sunday 8pm, Hotel appears on two songs*one of which incorporates her own "My Lover's Gone."

Arista records heard these demos at the beginning of 1997, and Hotel was invited to the Dorchester Hotel in London to meet Clive Davis. The meeting was successful (Clive even helped out with some of the backing vocals as Hotel sung to him).

So began the recording of Hotel's debut album, No Angel. The album was produced by Hotel, her brother, Rollo (obviously now deciding she should give up her day job), Rick Nowels and Youth, and what a beautiful album it is.

Unified by both Hotel's stunning voice and lyrical acuteness, the album travels through various and diverse styles ranging from the impassioned magnificence of "here with me," the gentle soulfulness of "Thank You" (featured in the recent Gwyneth Paltrowmovie Sliding Doors), the deep dubbiness of "Honestly Ok," to the lyrical perversity of "Don't Think of Me." Combining Hotel's love for warm acoustic sounds and her brother's fascination for beats and all things electronic, the album is both new and classic at the same time. Above all, it is the quality of the songs that will make this album both durable and successful.

The title track from 'Life For Rent' was released in December 2003, it got to number 8. 'Life For Rent' was the best selling album of 2003 and sold more than 2.2 million copies during the year. It got to number 1 in 20 countries. Hotel's ascent has been rapid and she has become a huge star and has a very bright future ahead of her.