Where Are They Now?

If you grew up in the 00's then you have definitely wondered where these artists went.

(For UK Buzz Fellowship)

The music industry can be such a fickle business. One day your songs are number 1 in the charts and then the next you've tumbled into obscurity.

Dido

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If you have never heard of Dido then you must have spent the majority of the 00's under a rock. After releasing her debut album No Angel in 1999, the starlet seemed to reach superstardom overnight. At the height of her career, she was dueting with the likes of Santana and Annie Lennox, even releasing the little-known duet Stan with Eminem. Her music has been featured everywhere including Smallville, Love Actually, The Sopranos, E.R., The Inbetweeners and Sex in the City 2. In fact, Here With Me was the theme song for the TV show Roswell. Her third album Safe Trip Home failed to match the success of her previous albums and she seemed to disappear from everyone's radar.

So where is she now?

Well, believe it or not, Dido actually released the album Girl Who Got Away in 2013, which reached the Top 5 in the UK and even featured a duet with Kendrick Lamar. The same year, she was also an advisor to Danny O'Donoghue on The Voice UK. In 2016, she revealed that she was back in the studio, but to date, no album has dropped. It seems like we'll just have to make do with listening to Stan on repeat.

Uncle Kracker

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Kid Rock's childhood best friend Matthew Shafer, took on the name Uncle Kracker in 2001 and released one of the catchiest songs to ever come out of Michigan. I think. I don't really know much about Michigan's musical history. Anyways, Follow Me was a huge hit and went to number 3 in the charts. Since it's release, it has been featured in the movies Coyote Ugly, 3000 Miles to Graceland, The Animal and The Blind Side, as well as the TV show Roswell High. Although the album Double Wide performed well in the States, over here it just about reached number 40 on the album charts and Uncle Kracker became known as a one-hit wonder.

So where is he now?

Uncle Kracker continued to release music up until 2012 but none of them seemed to make a dent in UK market. In 2010 he released a song with Kid Rock called Good to Be Me, but even a duet with Kid Rock didn't live up to Follow Me. In 2007, he was arrested for a second-degree sex offence against a woman he met in a bar. He pled guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanour assault and was sentenced to a year of probation. Despite all this, Uncle Kracker is still touring and even has an annual 'Thanksgiving Hangover Bash' at the Royal Oak Music Theatre in Michigan.

Daniel Bedingfield

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Oh Daniel Bedingfield, the first but less famous of the Bedingfield siblings. In 2001, Bedingfield released the absolute banger Gotta Get Thru This which was a huge hit on the UK Garage scene and became his first number 1. His album of the same name reached number 2 in the charts and spawned the number 1 hits Never Gonna Leave Your Side and If You're Not The One. Unfortunately, his second album Second First Impression failed to make much of an impression (hahaha get it?) and Daniel Bedingfield seemed to disappear.

So where is he now?

Bedingfield actually announced in 2007 that he had three albums worth of material recorded and ready to be released. In 2012, he released the EP Rocks Off - Secret Fear and a new single called Rocks Off for his parents charity Stop the Traffik. He was also the winning judge on the first season of the New Zealand version of The X Factor in 2013. In 2016, he appeared as the Artilleryman on the West End version of War of the Worlds for a bit. Over the last few years though he has mainly focused on writing for other artists. In fact, he actually co-wrote and provided backing vocals for the recent UK number 1 I Wanna Feel by SecondCity.

Natasha Bedingfield

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Daniel Bedingfield's little sister burst on the scene in 2004 by declaring she was an independent woman and needed no man Goddamn it! Bedingfield proved she wasn't a one-hit wonder by following up Single with her number 1 hit These Words and the catchy as hell Unwritten. Her album was a number one hit and her second album N.B. kept her in the public eye. In 2008, she cancelled her UK concert tour twice and kind of drifted away from the British music scene.

So where is she now?

Bedingfield shifted her focus towards North America and continued to release a string of songs and albums. Unfortunately, with the exception of Pocketful of Sunshine which was featured on the soundtrack to Easy A, they didn't perform as well as their previous hits. In 2010, she featured on Nicki Minaj's song Last Chance from the album Pink Friday and in 2013 joined her brother on the New Zealand The X Factor as an advisor. She toured Europe as part of Night of the Proms and supported Train on their 2017 Summer concert tour. In 2012, she announced she was working on her fourth album The Last Chapter and despite the album not materialising, her latest song Let Go was released just last year, but the only place it managed to chart was in Canada at number 66. On New Years Eve 2017, she gave birth to a baby boy. Looks like that idea she had in I Wanna Have Your Babies floated hey?

Cascada

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You may not know this, but Cascada is actually a band, not a singer. Consisting of lead singer Natalie Horler and Dj's Manian and Yanou, the guy who co-made that little known song Heaven, dominated the UK charts in 2005 with the song Everytime We Touch. Their album of the same name charted at number 2 and spawned the hit songs Miracle and their cover of Savage Garden's Truly, Madly, Deeply. in 2007, the trio released their follow up Perfect Day which performed fairly well as an album, but it's single's failed to live up to the standards set by it's predecessors. Despite this, the band seemed to make a comeback with the release of their single Evacuate the Dancefloor in 2009. The song reached number 1 in the UK, beating out Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror the week after his death. But it would be the last of their singles to chart within the Top 40 and Cascada appeared to drop off of the face of the Earth.

So where are they now?

Cascada have continued to make music, releasing The Best of Cascada in 2013. In 2012, they represented Germany in Eurovison with the song Glorious, finishing in 21st place. The UK that year was represented by Bonnie Tyler and finished in 19th place. in 2015, Hoeler announced she was pregnant and the band took a two year hiatus from releasing music. In 2017, they released the single Playground, the official song of the 2017 Ice Hockey World Championship. Horler stated that the band planned to release singles for the time being rather than albums, so who knows, maybe we'll have another Evacuate the Dancefloor soon.