Dido tops UK star's rich list
Chart star Dido has rocketed into pop’s rich list little over a year after finding fame, a survey found today.
In just 12 months the singer raked in around Stg£12m to make her Britain’s highest earning female singer, an analysis by Heat magazine shows.
David Gray, who is at number nine on the rich list, has so far sold 10 million copies of his album White Ladder. He is now one of the highest-paid people in pop with a royalty rate higher than Sir Paul McCartney’s.
Pink Floyd, at number four, have leapt up the table because their album Dark Side Of The Moon still sells millions despite the fact it was released in 1973.
At number eight, David Bowie has kept his profile high by working with upcoming artists, and has boosted his wealth with the multi-million-dollar sale of the ‘‘Bowie bonds’’ a couple of years ago.
:: Dido was born in London in 1972 and christened Florian Cloud De Bounevialle Armstrong.
:: Her father, William Armstrong, is the former head of Sidgwick & Jackson, one of the UK’s most respected publishing houses.
:: Her parents nicknamed her Dido after the doomed Queen of Carthage in Virgil’s Aeneid.
:: Neither Dido nor her brother Rollo were allowed to watch television or bring friends home.
:: She learned to play the piano and violin, studied music at Guildhall, then went on to study law by night at Birkbeck College, London. :: Brother Rollo who fronts the band Faithless let her hang around his recording studio and some of her demo tapes found their way to Clive Davis, former head of Arista Records.
:: Her breakthrough came when she wrote a song dedicated to her boyfriend, lawyer Bob Page, who is now her fiance. Rap star Eminem heard it and asked if he could use it on his song Stan.
