In the 1998 romantic comedy Sliding Doors, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character’s life takes two separate paths depending on whether she catches a train. Dido’s Thank You, which featured on its soundtrack, was later sampled on the Eminem classic Stan in 2000, altering the course of her career and creating a ‘sliding doors’ moment of her own.

“I was on the Lilith Fair [travelling music festival] at that point, doing an all-female tour around America,” Dido tells Music Week. “And I ...