Dorothy Miranda Clark (born 11 April 1995), known mononymously as Dodie (stylised dodie), is an English singer, songwriter, author and
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influe ...
. Dodie began her career uploading original songs and covers to YouTube. She has over 210 videos, over 2 million subscribers and over 415 million views on her main channel (as of October 2022).
On her side channel, she has over 190 videos, over 910k subscribers and over 98 million views.
Dodie has released four independent EPs: ''
Intertwined
''Intertwined'' is the debut extended play by English singer-songwriter Dodie. The EP was self-released by Dodie through her label Doddleoddle on 10 November 2016.
Background
Since 2011, Dodie has been releasing original songs to her YouTube
...
'' (2016), ''
You
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
'' (2017), ''
Human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
'' (2019), and ''Hot Mess'' (2022), the first three of which charted in the top 40 of the official
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
. Her debut studio album, ''
Build a Problem
''Build a Problem'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter dodie. Previously, dodie released three extended plays: ''Intertwined'' (2016), ''You'' (2017), and ''Human'' (2019). She had also been releasing songs on her YouTube ...
'', was released in 2021 and peaked at number 3 on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
.
Early life and education
Dodie was born Dorothy Miranda Clark in
Enfield, London
Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 156,858 in 2018. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield Hig ...
, to Ralph Clark and Astrid Caputa. She is the second child of three, including older brother Iain Clark, and younger sister Heather Penelope "Hedy" Clark. Hedy has appeared in several of dodie's earlier YouTube videos, the majority of which have now been privatised. Hedy has a YouTube channel of her own.
Dodie attended
The Leventhorpe School. After leaving school, she moved to
Bath with Jamie Jo, who is also a YouTuber and a painter.
Career
2007–2016: YouTube beginnings and ''Intertwined''
Dodie's first channel was called "Dodders5", now known as the "Alice and Dodie show!", which was created on 1 August 2007 and shared with her friend Alice Webb.
Dodie's main channel "doddleoddle" was created on 7 February 2011; her first video on that channel, an original song called "Rain", was uploaded on 14 April that year. In addition to her main channel, she has a
VEVO
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...
channel, "dodieVEVO", created on 5 December 2016,
and a side channel, "doddlevloggle", created on 28 January 2012.
On 18 November 2016, she self-released her first EP, ''Intertwined''. Despite its unsigned status, the EP reached number 35 on the official UK album charts during its first week of release.
On 9 December 2016, she released the first video on
Vevo
Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, ...
channel, dodieVEVO, which has over 75 million views. Dodie has collaborated with many other musicians, including
Tessa Violet
Tessa Violet Williams, previously known as Meekakitty, is a singer-songwriter, video blogger, actress, music video director, and former model. Originally a vlogger, over the years Tessa Violet's online content became devoted to her musical care ...
,
Julia Nunes
Julia Nunes (born January 3, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter from Fairport, New York. Her career has progressed online through her videos of pop songs on YouTube, in which she sings harmony with herself and plays acoustic instruments, pr ...
,
Lauren Aquilina
Lauren Amber Aquilina (born 23 June 1995) is a Maltese-English singer and songwriter. Born in Bristol, she gained popularity by independently releasing a trilogy of EPs (''Fools'', ''Sinners'', and ''Liars'') whilst studying at school. Her debu ...
,
Orla Gartland
Orla Joan Gartland (born 3 February 1995) is an Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist from Dublin who gained popularity from posting cover songs on her YouTube account. As of December 2021, her YouTube channel has received over 271k subscribers ...
,
Thomas Sanders,
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reha ...
,
Emma Blackery
Emma Louise Blackery (born 11 November 1991) is an English musician, singer, YouTube vlogger, record producer, and author. Active since 2012, Blackery has released EPs, singles, and Vevo music videos. She has toured with Busted, and headline ...
,
Pomplamoose
Pomplamoose is an American musical duo composed of husband-and-wife multi-instrumentalist Jack Conte and singer-songwriter and bassist Nataly Dawn. The duo formed in 2008 and sold approximately 100,000 songs online in 2009. They are known for ...
and Flashback.
In 2018, she collaborated with singer
Tom Walker on "Human", the lead single from her third EP, also titled ''Human''.
Dodie also co-hosted
Coca-Cola's CokeTV alongside fellow YouTuber Manny Brown, where she took part in various activities.
2017–2019: ''You'', ''Secrets For the Mad'' and ''Human''
Dodie's second EP, ''You'', was released on 11 August 2017. In its opening week of release, the EP debuted at number 6 on the official UK Albums Chart—29 places higher than the peak of ''Intertwined'', a new personal best. It also debuted at number 55 on the US
''Billboard'' 200.
In June 2017, dodie announced that she was writing a book, and the autobiographical ''Secrets for the Mad: Obsessions, Confessions and Life Lessons'' was published on 2 November 2017.
In 2018, she was featured in a collaboration with
Faultline
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tecton ...
, a cover of the song "
All I Do Is Dream of You
"All I Do Is Dream of You" is a popular song. The music was written by Nacio Herb Brown, the lyrics by Arthur Freed. The song was published in 1934. It was originally written for the Joan Crawford film ''Sadie McKee'' (1934) when it was played du ...
" which was featured in an advertising campaign by
Audi
Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide.
Th ...
in the United Kingdom.
On 18 September 2018, dodie announced her third EP, entitled ''
Human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
'', which came out on 18 January 2019, the title track being the lead single released on 21 September. The EP rose to number 5 on the official UK Albums Chart.
2019–present: ''Build a Problem'' and ''Hot Mess''
In 2019, she was a part of the ''
Moominvalley
Moominvalley ( sv, Mumindalen, fi, Muumilaakso) is a fictional place, where the Moomins live in the tales by Finnish author Tove Jansson.
Especially in the early books Moominvalley is depicted as a beautiful place with green slopes, rivers, f ...
'' soundtrack with a song titled Ready Now. Later that year she released a single called Guiltless, as well as a collaboration with
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reha ...
, with a cover of
Here Comes the Sun
"Here Comes the Sun" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. It was written by George Harrison and is one of his best-known compositions. Harrison wrote the song in early 1969 at the country house o ...
. Following the release of her collaboration with
Jacob Collier
Jacob Collier (; né Moriarty; born 2 August 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. His music incorporates a combination of jazz with elements from many other musical genres, and often features extensive use of reha ...
, she announced the release of a new single "
Boys Like You" on 6 September. It was released on 27 September.
On 19 October 2020, Dodie announced she would be releasing her first full-length studio album ''
Build a Problem
''Build a Problem'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter dodie. Previously, dodie released three extended plays: ''Intertwined'' (2016), ''You'' (2017), and ''Human'' (2019). She had also been releasing songs on her YouTube ...
'' on 5 March 2021. The first single, "Cool Girl" was premiered on BBC Radio and released on multiple streaming platforms. On 8 February 2021, it was announced that the album was to be delayed until 26 March 2021 due to complications from the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
and
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
. She later made an announcement on 11 March that it would be further delayed until 7 May 2021. The album received positive reviews from critics upon release, and debuted at number three on the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
, her charting highest position to date.
On 29 July 2022, Dodie released "Got Weird", her first solo single since ''Build a Problem''. On 2 September 2022, she released the follow-up single "Hot Mess", and announced an EP of the same name, which was released on 30 September 2022.
Common musical themes
Romance/Relationships
One of Dodie’s most prominent themes is romance. Her most popular EP, ''You,'' is about love, as is ''Would You Be So Kind''; however, in the official YouTube video she says that the latter song no longer holds its original meaning. Other songs on the theme of romance include ''Intertwined, Absolutely Smitten, You, and Boys Like You''. Her songs often deal with people she has fallen in love with, and sometimes the toxicity of those relationships; in ''You'', the lyrics include the words "''Oh, I have a habit of searching for the damage / To share my love".''
Bisexuality
![Dodie O2 Academy Glasgow 2021](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Dodie_O2_Academy_Glasgow_2021.png)
Many of Dodie's romance songs explore bisexuality: in ''She'', Dodie writes about being attracted to a girl rather than a boy. In the song she explores these feelings, and asks if it is wrong to be attracted to another female: ''"Am I allowed to look at her like that / Could it be wrong when she's just so nice to look at?''
In ''Rainbow'', she specifically sings about the struggles of those who, like herself, identify as LGBTQ+. Here dodie specifically redefines her sexuality, as compared with her 2017 video
I'm bisexual - a coming out song'. In an interview, she says, "I think when I was younger I was so excited too because firstly it like it felt like a very exciting thing. I wanted to rush out and say it." In the same interview, she says that as she grew older she began to realize the difficulties of being bisexual, and the inner biphobia she faced; this led to her writing ''Rainbow''.
Friendship
In addition to themes of romance, dodie often sings about friendships, specifically about growing up with friends and losing them; in her YouTube video
Sick of Losing Soulmates - explanation, tutorial and karaoke!' she says that ''Sick of Losing Soulmates'' describes her feelings about losing friends: "I'm done with losing my best friends like my soulmates" Another song that explores the theme of friendship is Party Tattoos. Dodie writes on Genius Lyrics that as a child she often had strict regulations on what she could and could not do, so as a teenager she made friends with anyone who she connected with.
Self-worth
Other dodie songs consider self-worth and mental health; she discusses her anxiety and depression in YouTube videos such as
depression, anxiety, depersonalization' and
What is derealization / depersonalization?'. ''Burned Out'', from the EP ''Human'', and ''Secret for the Mad'' are about mental illness and healing: "''I've got a secret for the mad / In a little bit of time it wont hurt so bad''". ''Hate Myself'', from dodie's first full-length album ''Build a Problem,'' considers her own self hate and insecurities, and their impact on her relationships.
Personal life
In May 2016, dodie
came out
Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity.
Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...
as
bisexual in a YouTube video, and later, in 2017, she released a song entitled "I'm bisexual—a coming out song!".
Awards and nominations
Discography
Albums
*''
Build a Problem
''Build a Problem'' is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter dodie. Previously, dodie released three extended plays: ''Intertwined'' (2016), ''You'' (2017), and ''Human'' (2019). She had also been releasing songs on her YouTube ...
'' (2021)
Extended plays
*''
Intertwined
''Intertwined'' is the debut extended play by English singer-songwriter Dodie. The EP was self-released by Dodie through her label Doddleoddle on 10 November 2016.
Background
Since 2011, Dodie has been releasing original songs to her YouTube
...
'' (2016)
*''
You
In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers.
History
''You'' comes from the Proto- ...
'' (2017)
*''
Human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, cultu ...
'' (2019)
*''
Hot Mess
''Hot Mess'' is the third studio album by the American musical ensemble Cobra Starship, released through Fueled by Ramen and Decaydance Records on August 11, 2009. The album is the follow-up to 2007's ''¡Viva la Cobra!''. It debuted at #4 on ...
'' (2022)
Tours
Headlining
*Intertwined Tour (2017)
*You Tour (2017–2018) She also had her 3rd UK tour, titled 'The Spring Tour'
*Human Tour (2019)
*Build a Problem Tour (2021-2022)
Notes
References
External links
dodieon
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dodie
1995 births
Bisexual actresses
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Bisexual musicians
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English feminists
English video bloggers
English women singers
English YouTubers
Feminist musicians
Living people
English LGBT musicians
British LGBT singers
LGBT songwriters
LGBT YouTubers
Music YouTubers
Musicians from Essex
Practitioners of autonomous sensory meridian response
Shorty Award winners
20th-century English women singers
20th-century English singers
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century English women singers
21st-century English singers
21st-century LGBT people