Songfacts®:

• The title track of Dido's sophomore album, this was released as its second single with some success reaching the Top 10 in the UK, Ireland and Italy.
• According to Dido, the meaning of "Life For Rent" is "that my life isn't really my own, I only rented it for a while, but if I don't manage to buy it, to own it, then nothing of what I think is mine is really mine."
• The song was used to soundtrack pivotal moments in US TV series Smallville ("Unsafe" - 2005) and Nikita ("Free" - 2011).
• Life For Rent was the top selling album in 2003 in the UK with over 2 million sales.
• Dido recalled the story of the song to Canada.com: "I wrote 'Life For Rent' in America," she said. "I had basically run away from England at that point, for various reasons — I was being chased around a lot by the press and also I had just ended this relationship and stuff — and wrote pretty much the whole album while I was in America. This song was one of the first songs I wrote there and it still resonates with me. There's a line in there that says I want to live by the sea — well I still do and I still don't."
• Sophie Muller, who would also direct Pink's "Trouble" video the same year, helmed the clip which follows Dido singing throughout a house.