Sophie Ellis-Bextor

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Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Sophie Ellis-Bextor in 2002
Background information
Birth name	Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor
Born	April 10, 1979 (age 27)
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Pop, Dance
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, model
Years active	1997–present
Label(s)	Mercury, Polydor, Fascination
Associated acts	theaudience
Website	sophieellisbextor.net

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, disco and 1980s electronic influences.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was born in Coventry 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 eldest brother Jackson is the drummer in her band. Her sister, Martha-Rose is 16. She recently revealed that her sister wanted to be a stylist on the Jonathan Ross show on Radio 2. She has often spoken about being very close to her family growing up and she often takes her brothers and sisters to work with her. 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. Among her earliest public performances were with the W11 Opera childrens' opera from the age of thirteen.^[1]

An advocate for animal rights, she posed for PETA's anti–fur clothing advertisement^[2].

[edit] theaudience

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.

[edit] 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 to the top spot. 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

[edit] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] In the beginning of 2002, Ellis-Bextor was nominated, three years in a row, for the "British Female Solo Artist" Brit Award.^[7]^[8]^[9]

"I Won't Change You" cover.

[edit] 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 the #3, a higher position in the charts than "I Won't Change You".

[edit] 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 (formerly 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 May 2007 and is entitled Trip the Light Fantastic.^[10]

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 two singles are to be released, Catch You, which is out now and then Me and My Imagination. Catch You charted in the UK through downloads alone at number 28 rising to number 18 the following week. The single then peaked at #8 in the UK Top 75 after a full physical CD release. The video for Me and My Imagination was shot on the 13th of March.

[edit] Discography

For detailed information of every album and single releases, see Sophie Ellis-Bextor discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

This is a list of hit singles released by Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Their chart peak positions are shown, along with peak positions from United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Austria and United World Chart.

Year	Single	UK	IRL	NZL	AUS	SUI	AUT	UWC	Album
2000	"Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)" (Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor)	1	1	1	1			8
2001	"Take Me Home"	2	7	18					Read My Lips
2001	"Murder on the Dancefloor"	2	2	2	3	7	10	17	Read My Lips
2002	"Get Over You" / "Move This Mountain"	3		3	4	15		18	Read My Lips
2002	"Music Gets the Best of Me"	14		25	28				Read My Lips
2003	"Mixed Up World"	7			32		44		Shoot from the Hip
2004	"I Won't Change You"	9							Shoot from the Hip
2007	"Catch You"	8	29		TBR				Trip the Light Fantastic
2007	"Me and My Imagination"	TBR							Trip the Light Fantastic

[edit] 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.
"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.
"Dear Jimmy", is the only Sophie Ellis-Bextor track officially released in 2006. It was released as part of the Popjustice album.

[edit] 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 Me (Both Versions)"¹	Sophie Muller	November 2002
"Mixed Up World"	Rupert Jones	October 2003
"I Won't Change You"	Trudy Bellinger	December 2003
"Catch You"	Sophie Muller	January 2007
"Me and my imagination"	Nourizadeh Nima	May 2007