Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Ellis-Bextor | |
|---|---|
| Sophie Ellis-Bextor (Promo pic for the luxury-fashion chain "Monsoon" 2006) | |
| Background information | |
| Years active | 1997–1999 (band) 2000–present (solo) |
Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is a Multi-Platinum Selling-English pop singer and songwriter. Her music is a mixture of mainstream pop, indie, disco and 1980s electronic influences.
Biography
Sophie Ellis Bextor was born in London to Janet Ellis, then an actress, but later better known as a presenter on the TV series Blue Peter (on which Sophie appeared with her mother at the age of six, modelling snoods), and Robin Bextor, an award-winning film director. Ellis and Bextor divorced when Sophie was four years old. She has three sisters and two brothers. Her official website hyphenates her surname, which is the joining of her parents' surnames; some other sources separate the names with a space. She went to school at Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.
An advocate for animal rights, she posed for PETA's anti–fur clothing advertisement[1].
theaudience
Ellis-Bextor began her career in 1997, with an indie band called theaudience. She sang the lead vocal in the band. While she was a band member, readers of Melody Maker elected her to the Number 1 position among the 'most sexy people in rock'. She recorded a duet with Manic Street Preachers—"Black Holes for the Young"—as a B-side for their 1998 single "The Everlasting". Some songs released by theaudience are "I Got the Wherewithal", "If You Can't Do It When You're Young; When Can You Do It?" , "I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough)", and "A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed" (perhaps their best-known single). The band split in December 1998.
Rise to stardom
After theaudience split, Sophie took a year off from singing; she tried modelling, but didn't like it and soon gave it up. She also started writing a novel. In 2000, Sophie collaborated with Italian DJ Spiller on the song "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)", her first recorded work since that with theaudience. "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" entered the U.K. charts at No. 1, just beating former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. Since then, the two have been known as rivals to each other. "Groovejet" won several awards: No. 1, Pop Top 20; No. 1, ILR; No. 1, Radio 1; No. 8, top dance track of 2000 and single of the year in Melody Maker. In the Metro Newspaper, it received ninth place in the contest for the Greatest No. 1 of all time, beating the likes of Madonna.[2] In 2000, it was a finalist in The Record of the Year. In that same year, it won the awards for Best Single and Best Ibiza Tune at the Ericsson Muzik Awards.[3]
Read My Lips
In 2001, Sophie released her debut album, Read My Lips. It reached No. 2 on the UK charts and spawned four top-20 hit singles. Her part cover of Cher's "Take Me Home" reached No. 2, as did "Murder on the Dancefloor", which became Sophie's biggest single to date and was on charts for 23 weeks.[4] In 2002, "Murder on the Dancefloor" became Europe's most played song of the year. Her third single, "Get Over You" / "Move This Mountain" was released in June 2002 and reached No. 3. The fourth single, "Music Gets the Best of Me", rose to No. 14 in December. In 2002, Read My Lips was re-released and Ellis-Bextor won the Recording Artist Award, at that year's Showbusiness Awards.[5]
Beginning in 2002, Ellis-Bextor was nominated, three years in a row, for the "British Female Solo Artist" Brit Award.[6][7][8]
Shoot from the Hip
Her second album, Shoot from the Hip, was released in October 2003. Although it was not as commercially successful as her previous material, it held two further top-10 singles. The album reached no higher than No. 19 on the UK charts; its two singles were "Mixed Up World", which reached No. 7, and "I Won't Change You" (No. 9). Around this time, rivalry against Victoria Beckham was suggested again; Victoria's single "This Groove"/"Let Your Head Go" reached a higher position in the charts than "I Won't Change You".
Trip the Light Fantastic
After that, Sophie paused her musical career to take care of her first child, a boy named Sonny, with her husband, Richard Jones, who is bass guitarist for The Feeling. In early 2005, she performed on a track by the duo Busface, entitled "Circles (Just My Good Time)"; she is credited under the temporary pseudonym "Mademoiselle E.B." because she didn't want the track to be mistaken as a single from her next album. In 2004, she announced that she was working on a third album. It is known that she worked with Fred Schneider of The B-52s and Richard Barone of The Bongos, Shelly Poole (formerly of Alisha's Attic), Cathy Dennis and Kerin Smith (formerly of theaudience) among others to create a fun dance/party, disco-pop album which is expected to be released in spring 2007 and is entitled Trip the Light Fantastic.[9]
In August 2006 it was announced that she was the new 'face' of high street fashion chain Monsoon replacing the model Sophie Dahl. She was also first choice for the controversial Agent Provocateur luxury underwear commercial which she turned down. (The role instead went to the second choice - Kylie Minogue).
Before the album, her next single called "Catch You" and her second single "Me and My Imagination" are planned to be released in the new year. In September a song title "Dear Jimmy" appeared on the Popjustice website on the "Chart of Truth" and was then released in a continuous-compilation album in October. During the initial stages of the album, Sophie had also recorded a cover of Kraftwerk's "The Model" (or possibly part of it was just used as a sample) which is rumoured to be a part of the new album. So far many different titles have been spotted on the internet.
Discography
Albums and their singles
| Album | Information |
|---|---|
Read My Lips
| |
 |
Shoot from the Hip
|
 |
Trip the Light Fantastic |
Other works
- "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (August 2000); (Spiller, featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor): No. 1, UK; No. 1, Australia; No. 1, New Zealand; No. 8, United World Chart.
- Watch My Lips, a DVD of her first album, includes all of her music videos, three theaudience videos and footage from a concert at Shepherds Bush Empire and has sold over 3,000,000 copies.
- "One Way or Another", for the The Guru soundtrack.
- "Want You More", for the Suzie Gold soundtrack.
- "Circles (Just My Good Time)" (March 2005); (Busface, featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor (as Madamoiselle E.B.)): No. 1, Music Week Commercial Club Chart; No. 10, Australia Top 20 Dance chart; No. 63, Australia.
Solo Videography
| Song | Director | First Aired |
|---|---|---|
| Take me Home (A Girl Like Me) | Sophie Muller | August 2001 |
| Murder on the Dancefloor | Sophie Muller | December 2001 |
| Move This Mountain | Sophie Muller | March 2002 |
| Get Over You | Max & Dania (as "MAD") | June 2002 |
| Music Gets The Best Of Me1 | Sophie Muller | September 2002 |
| Mixed Up World | Rupert Jones | October 2003 |
| I Won't Change You | Trudy Bellinger | December 2004 |
| Catch You | Sophie Muller | - |
1 There is also an alternate version of "Music Gets The Best Of Me" which can be found on Sophie's DVD Watch My Lips.