BMG's Alistair Norbury is targeting international success with Dido's first album in six years, Still On My Mind.
The record is at No.3 in the Official Charts midweeks with sales of 11,625, just over 2,000 behind front-runner Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Pt 1 by Foals, and trails the current No.2 Sigrid's Sucker Punch by only 136 units.
Dido, whose last LP was 2013's Girl Who Got Away (90,230 sales), recorded two of the best-selling albums of the 2000s with 2001 debut No Angel (3,097,375 UK sales - OCC) and 2003 follow-up Life For Rent (2,899,808), and Norbury is confident there is a huge fanbase ready to be reactivated.
"There isn’t a country in the world where Dido doesn’t have a big previous sales history so we have a lot of work to do," said Norbury, BMG president, repertoire & marketing for the UK.
"She’s coming back to an audience that needs to be woken up and reminded. As soon as you hear any song on this record you know it’s Dido and there are only a handful of acts who have that instant recognition. The honesty in her lyrics and her songwriting chimes with people throughout the world."
She's coming back to an audience that needs to be woken up and reminded
Alistair Norbury
Still On My Mind is Dido's fifth studio LP and the 47-year-old is gradually making her mark in the streaming world, attaining 3,327,300 monthly listeners on Spotify.
"We’re very confident on the big physical release, but we’ve also got a huge online presence for someone who hasn’t been very active for many years," added Norbury. "Craig [Logan, Dido's manager] and I used the expression that she is a ‘sleeping giant’. There’s a huge audience out there that predates streaming and she hasn’t released a record into this new environment.
"The campaign is going to run for 18 months so we have plans to take us all the way through to spring/early summer 2020. We want to achieve the most success possible, but the most important thing is that we have longevity. Do we want a No.1 album? We’d love a No.1 album. Internationally, we think this is going to be our biggest album of this year."
Dido signed with BMG in 2018 in what was only the second record deal of her career. The singer was previously on BMG during its major label incarnation and merger with Sony.
"I’m just excited for people to hear [Still On My Mind]," Dido told Music Week. "I’ve never been one for expectations anyway, I’m not very good at thinking ahead, but it’s always interesting to see what people think because you’re so insular when you’re making it."
Click here to read the full Music Week cover story on Dido, who talks us through her four previous studio LPs here. To purchase our special Dido issue, email Rachael Hampton at rachael.hampton@futurenet.com.
