On Dido's North American tour, which kicks off next week in Vancouver, she'll offer fans a preview of her next album. In addition to performing material from her triple-platinum No Angel (which was propelled by Eminem sampling the track "Thank You" for his song "Stan"), the British chanteuse will introduce three new songs into her set, "See the Sun," "Don't Leave Home" and "Do You Have a Little Time." Although she has most of the new material written for her sophomore effort, fear of having them exposed via the Internet will keep her from debuting any more of the tracks on the stateside jaunt.

"I'm always writing and trying out the new ones live," Dido says. "But I'm not gonna try them [all] 'cause they end up on MP3 too quickly. It doesn't bother me they end up there, but I wouldn't want every new song previewed live for the second album."

She plans to return to Britain later this year to record her next album with hopes of an early 2002 release. "I've got a great little family at home of people I love writing and working with," she says.

Although the songstress has spent a lot of time writing the follow-up, she has also penned a few numbers for other outfits, including British dance act Faithless (which includes her brother Rollo) and reigning pop queen Britney Spears.

Dido has been sworn to secrecy about the latter project, but does say that she enjoyed the experience. "I did some lyrics for a song of hers for a film," Dido says. "I was given a specific brief for the Britney song. She was really sweet, and she called me to say thank you."

JOLIE LASH
(June 6, 2001)