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Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor was born on April 10th 1979 in London, United Kingdom to Janet Ellis and Robin Bextor.
Sophie's father is an award-winning film director and her mother is a former Blue Peter presenter, on which Sophie appeared with her
mother at the age of six.
Sophie's parents divorced when she was four years old and they both remarried. Due to her parents' marriages, Sophie's got five siblings: Jack, Martha, Duke and the twins
Maisy and Bertie. Sophie's also said recently that she used to have two imaginary friends, Charlotte and Emily, with whom she used to play, but who weren't
really nice to her.
They were two imaginary friends I used to have. They weren't very nice to me. A psychologist would say I had them because my parents had
just gone through a divorce. I used to play with them and then they'd just walk off together and say horrible things.
Due to her mother's television status, a group at school took to bullying her and formed an Against Sophie Club at the St. Stephen's School,
which is located in Twickenham, London: "I think it was partly due
to the fact that my Mum was doing Blue Peter at the time. I don't know, maybe I was a bit brash about it or something. They would be a bit cruel and would
want to go off and play by themselves and not invite me along". But that didn't affect her, and by the time she was eleven, she moved to the prestigious
Godolphin and Latymer private school for girls in Hammersmith, where she made a lot of friends and who are still her friends now.
Janet and Baby Soph
On 'Blue Peter'
At the age of 8
With her siblings
At the age of thirteen, Sophie appeared on the W11 Opera For Young People, of which she is now a patron. Two years later, she was back to
star as Gaston, the busking grasshopper, in the 1994 production of ANTiphony. In 1997, Sophie started her music career as the lead singer
of the indie band, theaudience. She met the band's founder member, Billy Reeves, in an indie club called Uncle Bob's Wedding Reception.
She gave Billy a tape she had recorded with some Oasis' covers and Billy found it impressive.
One of my boyfriend's friend played guitar and the two of us recorded some Oasis songs together. We put these handclaps in the background and
we sounded really, really young. Anyway, I gave the tape to this DJ and he asked me to sing in a band [theaudience] with him.
After school, Sophie took her A-levels and was set to study English and Drama course at Queen Mary Westfield, but changed her mind because
of theaudience:
I was supposed to go to university in October but I forgot to send the form back to say I'm not coming. Eventually I got a letter saying,
'Where are you? You've already missed two weeks of lectures'!
theaudience, then, released four singles: I Got The Wherewithal, If You Can't Do It When You're Young; When Can You Do It?, A Pessimist Is Never
Disappointed and I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough), they also produced their four videos and Sophie's father, Robin Bextor, directed all of them.
During her time on theaudience, Sophie was elected by Melody Maker readers one of the sexiest person in rock. She also recorded a duet
with Manic Street Preachers, Black Holes For The Young as the b-side for their 1998 single The Everlasting.
theaudience's singles didn't do that well on the charts and the promotion was based on gigs and festivals. They played at the T In The Park as well as the
Virgin Megastore event. The appearances on TV include a performance on This Morning and some other TV shows. Sophie also attended the
Q Awards in 1998.
In late 1998, Billy Reeves left the band, the other members tried to carry it on, but they split later. After the band's split, Sophie took a year off from
singing: she tried modelling and she also started writing a novel, but she just wrote three or four chapters, then she gave it up.
In 2000, she had her big chance: Sophie collaborated with Italian DJ Spiller on Groovejet (If This Ain't Love). The single entered at UK Charts
at No 1, beating former Spice Girls Victoria Beckham to the top spot. The song was a huge summer hit. It was the single of the year in
Melody Maker and finalist in The Record Of The Year in 2000. Furthermore, in the same year, the single won the awards for
Best Single and Best Ibiza Tune at the Ericsson Muzic Awards.
Due to Groovejet's success, Sophie and Victoria have been know as rivals, but Sophie's always denied this rivalry. Groovejet also
received ninth place in the contest for the Greatest No 1 of all time in Metro Newspaper,
beating even Madonna.
theaudience
'Virgin' gig
Modelling
With DJ Spiller
After Groovejet, Sophie finally got a record deal with Polydor (UK). In 2001, Sophie released her debut album Read My Lips. It reached No 2
on the UK charts and had three Top 5 singles. Cher's cover' Take Me Home reached No 2 as well as Murder On The Dancefloor, her biggest
hit to date, which was on charts for 23 weeks. In 2002, Murder On The Dancefloor became Europe's most played song of the year. She mentioned
in an interview that it (Murder On The Dancefloor) is such a big success that it's had a big life outside of her and she kind of feels like she doesn't own
it anymore.
In this same year [2002], she was nominated for British Female Solo Artist at Brit Award. She was nominated again for the same category in 2003 and
2004, but never won. Her next releases were the double A-side Move This Mountain and Get Over You, which reached No 3 on UK charts and
Music Gets The Best of Me was the last single from Read My Lips, reaching No 14 on charts.
After the success of Read My Lips, which sold over 2.5 million copies around the world and was 3x platinum, Sophie toured in Europe
during 2002 and 2003 - she also played in some countries of Asia and South America - and released her first DVD, Watch My Lips, which includes all
of her music videos of Read My Lips album plus theaudience's videos, and her live concert at Shepherd's Bush Empire.
On TOTP
At the Brits 2002
in Australia
On tour
In October 2003, Sophie released her second album Shoot From The Hip and although it wasn't as successful as her debut album, Read My Lips, it held
two top 10 singles. Mixed Up World reached No 7 and I Won't Change You got a No 9. Before its release, Sophie had broken up
with her six-year boyfriend and former manager, Andy Boyd. In an interview, she revealed how sad she was about the situation:
Andy and I were together for six-and-a-half years. We split up two months ago. We had lots of chats over the course of the summer. There were
no arguments. It was very, very peaceful. We're still working together and we speak to each other every day. But we tried really hard to keep that side of things
private. He was very supportive of my career but it just didn't work out. I feel as though I've aged about ten years this year. It's a cliché, but when
you're younger everything is very black and white. Now I realise there are so many grey areas.
Sophie found comfort and support on Richard Jones, the bassist for her Read My Lips tour. They started dating and on December
1st, after three months dating, she announced her pregnancy. The promotion and tour for Shoot From The Hip were, then, cancelled.
Although the pregnancy seemed unexpected by most of people, Sophie said it was planned:
The only part that wasn't planned was how quickly it happened [...] If the baby hadn't been planned we would have taken precautions. What
caught us out was how quickly it happened. I've always wanted to be a mum, but I've got friends who have struggled to conceive. So I thought it might take a
year or so for anything to happen. This sounds like a cliché but every baby is a little bit of a miracle. Ours has just come along quicker than expected.
The Preston gig
Edison Music Awards
At Graham Norton
With Richard
In April 23rd 2004, Sophie rushed to the hospital due to pre-eclampsia and Sonny Jones was born. Sophie then, took two years off from music
to take care of her son. In November 2004, Sophie happily announced she was going to marry Richard:
Howdy guys and gals. Yes, Richard and I are getting married. He proposed while we were on a recent trip to Barcelona. It was very romantic.
I really appreciate your wellwishing and we are planning to have a small wedding early next year. I am busy trying to find an amazing dress! Meanwhile,
I am still hard at work writing album 3. 2005 is set to be a big year for me, in more ways than one.
At Brits 2004
Sonny
Spotted with Richard
At V
Late in 2004, she recorded Want You More for the motion picture Suzie Gold and she also announced that she was working on her third album
and that it'd differ from other two. She was working with Fred Schneider of B52's, Shelly Poole, Cathy Dennis and others to create a disco
pop album, which was expected to be released in Spring 2006.
In 2005, Sophie didn't release a new album, as expected, but collaborated with Busface on Circles (Just My Good Time), and as she didn't
want it to be confused as a single of her new album, she adopted the pseudonym Mademoiselle E.B. On June 25th 2005, she secretly got married
to Richard in Italy. Sophie spoke about the wedding for the first time in August, after the honeymoon. She said:
I'm so happy. The wedding was just perfect - everything I could have wanted and more. We made traditional vows to each other, but took out the
word 'obey'. It was quite funny really because the minister was speaking in Italian and no one could understand him! I sang God Only Knows to Richard
as a surprise with his band The Feeling. It's his favourite song. We also sang Let's Go Fly A Kite as I loved Mary Poppins as kid.
Irvingston gig
Wedding
With the B-52's
Versace party
In May 2006, Popjustice website revealed the title of the third album: Trip The Light Fantastic. Later, Sophie posted on the forum to
inform her fans that the first single of her third album would be Catch You, written by Cathy Dennis and Greg Kurstin. She also confirmed Me and
My Imagination as the second single.
Although Sophie has been away from music scene, in August 2006, she was chosen as the new face of high street fashion chain Monsoon for their new
campaign, Creat a Storm, replacing the model Sophie Dahl and being in the spotlights again.
Besides being very proud of the photos, I am also looking forward to wearing some of the clothes. I especially love the vintage-inspired dresses.
In September 2006, Popjustice, which is a website dedicated to pop music, announced the released of its album: Popjustice: 100% Solid Pop
and a song called Dear Jimmy by Sophie Ellis-Bextor was among the tracks of this album, which was released on October 23rd 2006. Sophie Ellis-Bextor
finally returned to music scene with the amazing Dear Jimmy.
Late in 2006, her husband, Richard, said in an interview to MTV that his band, The Feeling, collaborated with her third album as well. He
said that in a song-writing sense, you'd be able to hear the influence of The Feeling's frontman, Dan, but stylistically, the tracks don't
sound like them at all.
At the ELLE Awards
Wychwood Festival
At 'V' with Sonny
Monsoon ad
On her official website, Sophie mentioned her plans for New Year's Eve: she would be performing on BBC's show. This was her first performance after
almost three years and was Catch You's first performance as well. In the beginning of her performance, a huge BBC's fault: they forgot to turn
Sophie's microphone on and Sophie couldn't listen to herself! Nobody could listen to Sophie singing all the very first verse of Catch You.
[...] I have to share with you the fact that on BBC TV for my new year's eve broadcast I was given the wrong microphone and couldn't hear
myself for the entire song. I had no vocals on stage or for the crowd throughout. With that baptism of fire back to the pop world, the only way is up for
2007!
Catch You's release date was pushed back to February 19th, but Catch You's video was first aired on Popworld on January 13th. The video was
filmed in Venice, Italy, and directed by Sophie Muller, who directed many of Sophie's video: Murder On The Dancefloor, Take Me Home and both
versions of Music Gets The Best Of Me. About the album, Sophie said:
In a lot of ways, it definitely picks up where the last two albums left off. It's slightly more modern sound and it's an album to dance to -
that's why it's called Trip The Light Fantastic.
Her third album was the first release of Polydor's new imprint, Fascination. Five tracks were sent to UK radiostations: Catch You, Me And My
Imagination, New York City Lights, If You Go and Today The Sun's On Us. The album was set to be released in May, after the second single's
release, Me and My Imagination.
Catch You did well at charts, placing at No 8. In March, Sophie announced her support to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity
for their Mother's Day campaign, and trips to promote Catch You in Canada and Australia - she was also in the studio putting the
final touches on Trip The Light Fantastic. Next month saw Sophie filming the follow-up to Catch You - Me and My Imagination.
A cutting-edge video was filmed in West London by Nourizadeh Nima and the release dates for Me and My Imagination and Trip The
Light Fantastic were finally revealed: 14th and 21st of May, respectively
Everything was prepared for Me and My Imagination promotion: Sophie was interviewed and performed in a lot of TV shows to promote her new single, but
an error on iTunes on the week of the release of the new single - which was supposed to be on Monday and was on Wednesday instead - caused the single
to place at No 23 at the charts.
On New Year
With The Feeling
'MAMI' video
At Equus press night
Sophie couldn't hide her disatisfation with it and obviously this delay affected the single sales. A week later, however, the most anticipated album of the
year was released: Trip The Light Fantastic finally arrived at the stores and was well received by her fans and the press, receiving great reviews
from all magazines and newspapers:
"The third album from the super-stylish star is packed with sharp lyrics and sparkly disco beats" (Grazia Magazine)
"Album of the week!" (Metro)
"Step aside Lily and Amy.
The posh bird is back!" (London Lite)
The album charted at No 7 and later that month Sophie was invited to support George Michael tour in the UK. In June, Sophie
also announced her support to Light Out London campaign - to encourage Londoners to switch lights off between the hours of 6pm and 9pm on the year's
longest day, 21st of June; she also announced her tour through UK, which would kick off on August 16th and end up on October 3rd at Oxford Academy -
with 10 dates.
In the end of June, Sophie announced her third single for Trip The Light Fantastic - Today The Sun's On Us. Although the fans wanted the
release of If You Go, Sophie kept it as the third single and If You Go was rumoured to be the fourth. Sophie said she wanted to film the video
in Iceland as she had never been there before - she got it! Sophie, Sophie Muller, the director, and basically the same team that worked on Catch You
went to Iceland between 20th and 23rd of June to film the video, which was inspired by Bonnie & Clyde. The video premiered on TV in July 3rd and
the single was released on August 13th.
Geoger Michael tour
London light out
Wight Festival
the greener schools...
Today The Sun's On Us flopped and didn't even make it to the Top 40, placing at No 63 at charts. Sophie then said that Trip The Light
Fantastic would have a fourth single (maybe even a fifth single), which should be either If I Can't Dance or Love Is Here. The release of
the fourth single was later cancelled when Sophie announced she was releasing a Greatest Hits album in late November of 2007. She said on the official
website that she was working hard to write a new hit single, which should follow the release of the GH.
In September, Sophie announced that she would be touring with Take That on their tour around UK - she will support them on 34 dates and later
the official website announced that her own tour had been postponed to March.
Between October and December 2007, Sophie toured with Take That and worked on her Greatest Hits album, whose release date was also pushed back
to March. In November, Sophie released together with npower a programme called Greener Schools, which aims to make schools more
sustainable. It's a five year initiative that intends to reach 2,500 schools.
