Life for Rent

Life for Rent is the second album by Dido, released in 2003.

Song backgrounds
"White Flag" – about a past relationship. Dido "regretted writing it" to begin with because of the further problems it caused with that person, but now enjoys performing the song.
"Life for Rent" – written to reflect how she saw her life at the time.
"Mary's in India" – a joke for childhood best friend Mary who now lives in India, originally not intended to be on the album.
"See You When You're 40" – about a past boyfriend who "wanted to be different more than anything in the world."
"Don't Leave Home" – written about the difficulties of drug addiction and made as a demo during the creation of her previous album.

Reception

Critical
Life for Rent was nominated for "Best British Album" at the 2004 BRIT Awards along with Daniel Bedingfield's Gotta Get Thru This, Blur's Think Tank and The Coral's Magic and Medicine, but they were all beaten by The Darkness's Permission to Land. "White Flag" was awarded the 2004 Ivor Novello Award in the category "International Hit of the Year".

Commercial
Life for Rent spent ten weeks at the top of the UK albums chart. It remained in the chart for 52 weeks. The Life for Rent Tour was taken around the world in 2004.

In Australia the album debuted at number one on the ARIA albums chart, was one of the biggest selling albums of 2003 and went on to be certified six times platinum for sales of over 420,000. With this, Dido was able to match the huge success of her previous effort, No Angel.

It is the fastest selling album by a female artist and passed the five million mark worldwide. It sold one million in 5 days, on the way there it sold 102,500 on day one and 400,351 in the first week on its way to the record.

Track listing
"White Flag" (Dido Armstrong, Rollo Armstrong, Rick Nowels) – 4:01
"Stoned" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong, Lester Mendez) – 5:55
"Life for Rent" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong) – 3:41
"Mary's in India" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong) – 3:42
"See You When You're 40" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong, Aubrey Nunn) – 5:20
"Don't Leave Home" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong) – 3:46
"Who Makes You Feel" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong, John Harrison) – 4:21
"Sand in My Shoes" (D. Armstrong, Nowels) – 5:00
"Do You Have a Little Time" (D. Armstrong, Bates, Nowels) – 3:55
"This Land Is Mine" (D. Armstrong, R. Armstrong, Nowels) – 3:46
"See the Sun" (D. Armstrong) – 10:36
"See the Sun" runs for 5:04, it is followed by 2:01 of silence and then the hidden track "Closer" - 3:29

Singles
"White Flag": 1 September 2003
"Stoned": October 2003
"Life For Rent": 1 December 2003
"Don't Leave Home": 12 April 2004
"Sand In My Shoes": 13 September 2004

Charts and certification
Chart Peak
position Certification Sales/
shipments
U.S. Billboard 200 4 2× platinum 2.1 million
U.S. Billboard Top Internet Albums 12
European Top 100 Albums 1 5× platinum 5 million
Argentina — 3× platinum 120,000
Australia ARIA Charts 1 6× platinum 420,000
Austria 2 Platinum 30,000
Belgium 1 2× platinum 100,000
Brazil — Gold 50,000
Canadian Albums Chart 2 3× platinum 300,000
Denmark 1 Platinum 30,000
Finland 3 Gold 17,485
France 1 2× platinum 645,000
Germany Media Control Charts 1 3× platinum 600,000
Hungary MAHASZ 7 Gold 15,000+
Mexico 4 Gold 50,000
Netherlands Megacharts 1 Platinum 80,000
New Zealand RIANZ 1 4× platinum 60,000
Norway 2 2× platinum 80,000
Russia 1 Platinum 20,000+
Sweden 1 Platinum 60,000
Switzerland 1 3× platinum 120,000
UK Albums Chart 1 9× platinum 2,833,783