Congratulations are in order for British singer/songwriter Dido, who announced today via her official website the big news that she's pregnant! Such wonderful news! Dido also officially confirmed that she will NOT be appearing at this year's Oscars ceremony, where her song with A.R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire), "If I Rise" is nominated for 'Best Original Song' for it's appearance in the Danny Boyle film 127 Hours. Check out a bit of the song in a movie trailer for the film BELOW. While it's sad that Dido won't be performing the song live, she did have some exciting news about who will be singing it in her place.
"Obviously I’m really gutted about not being there – going to the Oscars has literally been a dream of mine since I was about 9 - but I’m absolutely thrilled that the wonderful Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine) has agreed to step in and sing the song. I can’t wait to hear her sing it as I’m a huge fan of hers and she’ll sound amazing. I will definitely be watching the whole thing live on TV and texting Rollo (Dido's brother and frequent producer) who is going to be at the ceremony." {SOURCE}Um...did she just say Florence Welsh would be at the Oscars this year? SOLD! I'm already looking forward to seeing what Welsh will wear for the performance. As if this wasn't exciting enough, Dido also mentioned in her blog that she and A.R. Rahman would be filming a video for "If I Rise" next week, so it appears that the song might be an official single at some point? Make sure you watch the Oscar ceremony on February 27th to catch Florence Welsh performing "If I Rise" and to see if Dido's song takes the prize. Download "If I Rise" on U.S. iTunes HERE.
While the Oscar-nod is exciting at all, I was hoping Dido would shed some light on her fourth album and follow up to 2008's Safe Trip Home. The last new music we heard from Dido was her Sex and The City 2 contribution, "Everything To Lose," which came out back in September. Back at the end of January, Dido updated fans on her blog regarding the status of the new record, and there's good news!
"The new album should be finished soon. Very excited about it. We've had a lot of fun doing it. I've done a lot of stuff with Rollo here in the UK and then I spent some time in California over the summer and wrote a load of songs there with a different flavour that I love. Driving round California is about the most inspiring thing for me I think. I got to work with some great people there too - Jeff Bhasker, Greg Kurstin, Rick Nowels again. Happy days." {SOURCE}Greg Kurstin? Awesome! Looking forward to this. I'm also hoping that Dido's continuing to experiment more with an electronic sound, as she previously hinted back in 2009. I'd love to have a record as amazing as No Angel, which is still one of my Top Ten pop records of all time. So, to wrap up...again, a hearty congratulations to Dido. May 2011 bring you (and your fans) lots of joy.
Check out Dido on the web: