I love the sparse sound of this alluring love song as it takes shape. Here With Me becomes like a meditative chant, and the emotional pull is strong here when Dido sings ‘I won’t go..I won’t leave…I can’t hide‘. The lyrics evoke that feeling of being completely absorbed in the presence of a loved one – relishing every moment, with no desire to change a thing. “The little things… there’s nothing bigger, is there?” – emphasising the quiet, often overlooked moments of love’s little idiosyncrasies which carry the most weight. Here With Me is an enchanting love ballad, that I too don’t want to wake up from.
Dido’s effortless talent is matched by her understated, girl-next-door looks and charm. I could’ve sworn I had already posted a song by Dido, but Here With Me marks her debut here. Rest assured, there will be more.
The following was extracted and abridged from the Wikipedia reference below:
The song was the first released on her debut album – No Angel in 1999 and was written about her then boyfriend Bob Page. Bizarrely the song was released in the US 2 years before its release in the UK in 2001. Here with Me peaked at No. 45 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Dido’s second consecutive top-five single, following Stan, a collaboration with Eminem that incorporated, in sample form, the first verse of Thank You. Here with Me also reached No 1 in Australia, after her live performance at the 2001 ARIA Awards. Her album sold 21 million copies. Her next album, Life for Rent (2003), continued her success with the hit singles White Flag and Life for Rent. Dido’s first two albums are among the best-selling albums in UK chart history, and both are in the top 10 best-selling albums of the 2000s in the UK.
Dido was born Florian Cloud de Bounevialle Armstrong in London, on Christmas Day in 1971. As she was born on Christmas Day, she also celebrates an “official birthday” on 25 June, following the example of Paddington Bear. Her older brother Rowland Constantine O’Malley Armstrong, is better known as record producer Rollo, part of the British electronica trio Faithless. Despite their birth names, the pair were known from childhood by the names Dido and Rollo. Dido considers this as her real name, not simply a stage name or nickname.
As a child, she had to deal with her birth name’s ambiguous and unusual nature, which led to her being bullied In a 2001 interview, she said “To be called one thing and christened another is actually very confusing and annoying. It’s one of the most irritating things that my parents did to me. … Florian is a German man’s name. That’s just mean. To give your child a whole lot of odd names. They were all so embarrassing. … I thought it was cruel to call me Dido and then expect me to just deal with it.” The name Dido derives from the legendary Queen of Carthage.
After Dido stole a recorder from school at the age of five, her parents enrolled her at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. At age nine she had toured Yugoslavia with a recorder orchestra. By the time she reached her teens, she had learned to play the piano, recorder, and the violin. She later studied law at Birkbeck, University of London, while working as a literary agent. She never completed the degree, deciding instead to take up music full-time. In 1995, Dido began recording 10 demo tracks which were put together on a collection entitled Odds & Ends. Nettwerk management signed her after she was brought to their attention by her collaborations with her brother Rollo’s band Faithless. The collection was released by Nettwerk on CD-R and acetate disc in 1995 and featured a mixture of finished productions and demo versions which she later considered for release on her 1999 debut album, No Angel. Odds & Ends brought her to the attention of A&R Peter Edge at Arista Records, who signed her in the US in late 1996.
You can read the remainder of her music biography in the reference below.
[Verse 1]
I didn’t hear you leave
I wonder, “How am I still here?”
And I don’t wanna move a thing
It might change my memory
[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, I am what I am
I’ll do what I want
But I can’t hide
[Chorus]
And I won’t go
I won’t sleep
I can’t breathe
Until you’re resting here with me
And I won’t leave
And I can’t hide
I cannot be
Until you’re resting here with me
[Verse 2]
I don’t wanna call my friends
For they might wake me from this dream
And I can’t leave this bed
Risk forgetting all that’s been
Reference:
1. Here with Me (Dido song) – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
Powerful song. Dido’s vocals draw you in. I really dig “White Flag.” Like your pick, it’s a cool moody song!
White Flag’s on the cards too. Nice one. Can I just give you a special mention of her ‘Life for Rent’ unless you’re already familiar with it.
“White Flag” is the only Dido track I could name before I read your post. I haven’t listened to the “Life For Rent” album. I just listened to the title track, which sounds pretty good to me as well.
I think a big part of what attracts me to Dido are her powerful vocals. I could actually picture her singing songs by the Cranberries. I can hear a little bit of a similarity to the late Dolores O’Riordan.
We continuously differ on major points which makes this all the more intriguing. I don’t see at all – how Dido’s vocals are powerful… if anything I find them minuscule with respect to the music unlike Dolores whose vocales are very accentuated in relation to the song. They seem front and centre unlike Dido’s modest voice, at least to my ears.
I guess that’s the beauty of music. Oftentimes, we experience it in different ways. 🙂
I am what I am, I do what I want…perfect
I had never really listened to any of her stuff before you posted about her. She’s really good. Thanks for turning me onto her.
Hi there Polly, you are most welcome. Very kind of you.