No Angel is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Dido. Originally released on 1 June 1999 in the United States, the album found a mass audience when it was released worldwide in February 2001. By 2003, the album had sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, and was the second best-selling album of the 2000s in the United Kingdom, behind James Blunt's Back to Bedlam.[3]
As of 2015 No Angel is the 27th
ninth best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK.[5] It was also among ten albums nominated for the best British album of the previous 30 years by the Brit Awards in 2010, ultimately losing to (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis.[6]
Background
Recording for the album began when Dido officially signed a record deal with
Odds & Ends, and used them for the album, with "Take My Hand" appearing in its original form, and "Sweet Eyed Baby" being remixed to create "Don't Think of Me". During recording for the album, a deal to release the album in the US was finalised, however, a deal to secure European sales of the album was not completed, thus meaning that when the album was released in June 1999, it was released exclusively in America.[citation needed] Prior to the album's release, a promotional sampler titled The Highbury Fields EP was issued to radio stations, featuring four tracks from the album, and "Worthless", another track from the demo collection Odds & Ends.[citation needed
]
Singles
The album's
television series Roswell. The song reached No. 21 on the Adult Top 40 chart. It became globally available in February 2001, peaking at No. 4 in the UK. In an attempt to boost album sales, a second single, "Don't Think of Me", was released on 7 February 2000,[8] but it did not fare as well as expected, only peaking at No. 35 on the Adult Top 40
chart in the US, spending only seven weeks on the chart.
"
Billboard charts such as Adult Top 40, Adult Contemporary and Dance Club Songs. The album's third European single, "Hunter", was released on 18 June 2001 in the US and on 10 September 2001 in the UK,[10][11] reaching the top 20 in the latter country. It spent fifteen weeks on the Adult Top 40 chart peaking at No. 16, while it became a top-10 hit on the dance charts in America. A fourth single, "All You Want", was released on 10 December 2001,[12]
but it was ineligible to chart due to only being released as a 3-inch mini-single in the UK.
Some of the album tracks were later licensed for use in television programmes, with "My Life" appearing in an episode of the drama series Angel Eyes, as well as alongside "My Life", "Honestly OK" and "Thank You" in several episodes of the Warner Bros. show Popular. "My Lover's Gone" was featured on the soundtrack of Brazilian telenovela "O Clone" and became a smash radio hit in the country.
Following the success of "Stan" in Australia and the UK, where it hit number one, No Angel was finally distributed in other markets outside North America in late 2000. The album made its debut on the UK Albums Chart in October of the same year at number fifty,[30] and entered the top ten for the first time on its 14th week by climbing 11–5.[31] By early February 2001, No Angel finally reached the top of the chart and remained there for six consecutive weeks.[32][33] In early October, it returned to number-one for a seventh and final week at the top.[34] Notably, the album re-entered the top ten on its 126th week on the chart at the end of the busy Christmas shopping period of 2003 due to the massive success of her second studio album Life for Rent.[35]No Angel became the top-selling album of 2001 and the 27th highest-selling of 2002.[36][37] Moreover, it has been recognised as the 26th best-selling album of all time in the country, with sales that exceed 3,088,700 copies,[38] resulting in a tenfold platinum certification by the British Phonographic Industry.[39] Meanwhile, in neighbouring Ireland, the album was listed as the second highest-selling of 2001 by the Irish Recorded Music Association, behind Swing When You're Winning by Robbie Williams.[40]No Angel also experienced success in Germany, selling 750,000 units, which resulted in a triple gold certification by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie.[41]
Furthermore, No Angel entered the Australian albums chart at number twenty-one and quickly rose to the top on its sixth week, dethroning The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem.[42] It remained there for eight consecutive weeks.[43]No Angel finished 2001 as the second highest-selling album of the year, behind the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack,[44] and was also amongst the forty best-selling records of the following year.[45] The album received a sextuple platinum certification by the Australian Recording Industry Association, denoting shipments of over 420,000 units in the country.[46] In New Zealand, No Angel topped the albums chart for nine non-consecutive weeks and spent fifty-nine weeks inside the top forty.[47] By the spring of 2002, the album had sold 75,000 copies and was certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand.[48] In 2001 the album was the number 1 best-selling album, selling 8.6 million copies worldwide.[49]
^Flick, Larry (22 May 2001). "Arista Grooms a Pop 'Angel' in Dido". Billboard. Vol. 111, no. 21. p. 102. 'Here with Me' goes to modern rock and triple-A radio Monday (17).
^"Hot AC: Going for Adds". Radio & Records. No. 1336. 4 February 2000. p. 82.
^"Impact Dates". Gavin Report. No. 2322. 15 September 2000. p. 52.
^"Going for Adds". Radio & Records. No. 1406. 15 June 2001. pp. 120, 155.
^"New Releases – For Week Starting September 10, 2001: Singles". Music Week. 8 September 2001. p. 37.
^"New Releases – For Week Starting December 10, 2000: Singles". Music Week. 8 December 2001. p. 25.
^"Ranking Anual 2001" (in Spanish). Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Archived from the original on 27 November 2002. Retrieved 9 August 2021.