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December 2019 | REDONLINE.CO.UKred woman
T
o say this year has been eventful for Ellis-Bextor
is an understatement. As well as releasing
her seventh album, The Song Diaries, in
March, she’s spent most of the year on tour,
an onerous enough undertaking even before you factor
in the birth of Mickey, her fifth son, in January. Yup, that’s
right. She has five boys.
Her Red shoot must feel like a piece of cake compared with
parenting five sons. Ellis-Bextor is cheerful and professional
throughout, chatting with the crew and wearing every dress
with grace and aplomb. Afterwards, she changes into a
vintage smock dress, grabs a builder’s tea and settles down
to talk with a frankness that makes her instantly likeable.
‘Mickey is a really sweet, smiley baby,’ she says. It’s just
as well, given that she’s been taking him on tour. ‘It’s been
lovely, a really wholesome tour. Touring is a very happy
place. Richard [Jones, her husband, who she married in
2005] is in my band. I’m friends with the other musicians.
There aren’t any big egos. I enjoy it more than ever.’
It’s 22 years since Ellis-Bextor first signed a record
contract, aged 18. After her first band, Theaudience,
disbanded in the late 1990s, she collaborated with the
Italian DJ Spiller on a track called Groovejet (If This Ain’t
Love) in 2000. The record swiftly went to number one
(famously pipping Victoria Beckham’s first solo outing to
the post) and won a slew of awards. But it’s 2001’s Murder
On The Dancefloor that remains her biggest single, and
reportedly became Europe’s most played song of 2002.
More recently, it earned the further distinction of being
named as one of the Duchess of Sussex’s favourite songs.‘I’ve only met Meghan once, years ago, and she seemed
completely lovely,’ says Ellis-Bextor. ‘I got on with her
really well, but I haven’t seen her since. She gets a horribly
hard time in the press, which I don’t like. I don’t like all
the undertones. People talk about racism, but there are
other things there, too, like, “Oh, you think you’re allowed
to join our royal family?” You know, all the hoops you’re
supposed to jump through.’
Ellis-Bextor herself is no stranger to jumping through hoops
in her career. In 2013, she took part in BBC One’s Strictly
Come Dancing, where she was partnered with Brendan
Cole, and came fourth. ‘It is terrifying,’ she says of the show.
‘But it was good to do something scary. One of my friends
who dances a bit told me that when you’re on the dancefloor,
you can get what’s called a “love explosion”.’ Perhaps that
explains all the alleged affairs? ‘I don’t know about that,’ she
smiles. ‘But I did get that heady boom, like “life’s perfect”.’
Ellis-Bextor had actually turned down the show’s offer
five times before finally acquiescing, so it wasn’t exactly
a calculated career move, but the exposure introduced her
music to a whole new audience. She expresses surprise that
her career has had such longevity: ‘I thought, when I was
in my first band, that I was just going to have a good story
to tell my kids, you know, “Oh, I was once in a band,”’ she
laughs. ‘I never thought I’d be lucky enough [to maintain a
long career], because if I’d learned anything by the time I was
20, it’s that you don’t always have a say in what goes on!’
I wonder whether she’s experienced any failures. ‘Billions,’
she confesses, the most significant being losing her record
deal aged 20, the catalyst to her band splitting. ‘It wasWhen Sophie Ellis -Bextor
finally pulls on her winter
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looks back on 2019, she'll have more
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