Name: Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor Date of Birth: April 10th, 1979 Place of Birth: London, UK Raised in: London, UK Family: Parents Janet Ellis and Robin Bextor, five siblings Marital Status: Married to Richard Jones (since 2005) Children: Sonny (born in 2004) and Kit (born in 2009)
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 in an interview 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.
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.
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.
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 included a performance on This Morning and some other TV shows. Sophie also attended the
Q Awards in 1998.
• THE SONG THAT CHANGED IT ALL
Sophie and DJ Spiller: No.1 song
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 Muzik
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.
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.
• LIFE IS NOT JUST BLACK AND WHITE
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.
Happy family
"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."
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.
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 already 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 she was really happy and that the wedding was just perfect, everything she could have wanted and more. They made traditional vows, but took out
the word 'obey'. She said it was funny because the minister was speaking in Italian and no one could understand him! She sang God Only Knows to Richard
as a surprise with his band The Feeling - it's his favourite song.
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.
• A FANTASTIC RETURN
Sophie: creating a storm
Although Sophie had 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.
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. About it, Sophie
said on her official website:
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.
According to Sophie, the album would pick up where the last two albums had left off. It'd be slightly more modern sound and 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. 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.
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.
• A TOUR, A GREATEST HITS, THE DJS AND... A FORTH ALBUM?
Me & Mrs Jones in action
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 supported 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 launched 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.
2008 began with Sophie performing in Bucharest during the New Year's Eve - Richard played once again as her bassist. Sophie would then fly to Chile and
perform there. However, due to unknown reasons the gig was postponed and even Sophie herself didn't know why.
Meanwhile, Sophie took part in the campaign Hundreds and Thousands, which aims to capture the childhood memories from people all over all the country.
The goal is to collect these memories as part of The Good Childhood Inquiry – the UK's first Independent national inquiry into childhood. Pictures for
the campaign were takin by Rankin, who funnily enough, was the photographer for Sophie's 1st photoshoot, during theaudience.
Sophie also kept working on her Greatest Hits, but then in January 2008, rumours said that Sophie would postpone all her gigs to October. That was
confirmed in the end of January by her official website. Sophie had to cancel her own tour because of recording commitments. As a way of apologising for
this, Sophie and her management decided to make available for download a previously unreleased track called Love Is The Law.
This song was a massive success among the fans and was even chosen the Track Of The Day at Popjustice website. They said about it: "it is a million times
better than the usual old tat people give away for free". Later in February, Sophie agreed to take part in a brand televisual experience: Guilty
Pleasures. She would be performing a guilty pleasure out of their record collection. Sophie, obviously, performed the disco classic Yes Sir, I Can Boogie.
The show was aired on March 8th.
Sophie and Richard also began to DJ together in 2008. They did lots of special performances as Mr & Mrs Jones. Later Sophie revealed her will to open
a gay 80s club. During February, Sophie talked to the team behind Rebel Rebel club band and they started to discuss ideas. Sophie also did some special
TV appearances, such as on Project Catwalk. During the show, she performed a bit of Love Is Here.
Dermot O'Leary interviewed Sophie in March. She talked a little bit about the Greatest Hits. She said that she had a good body of work now and loads of
unreleased stuff. Apparently, she was intending to "do a sort of rarity disc and that kind of thing". Sophie also worked with Calvin Harris on two songs;
one is already known Off & On, originally recorded by Roisin Murphy and the other one is called Calling It Love.
Her postponed gig in Chile was re-scheduled to April 12th - confirmed by her official website. She would be performing at Santiago's Caupolican Theatre
at 10pm. Sophie had even planned to celebrate her 29th birthday in Santiago. On April 11th, SEB.net brought the news that the gig had been cancelled
(again) and that Sophie was hoping that it could be re-scheduled. On the very same day, Sophie announced that she had pushed on her Greatest Hits to
release a 4th studio album instead.
• LIVING THE LONDON LOOK
Sophie as the new face of Rimmel London
She said that she had already four/five songs finished and that the album was most likely to be released in the middle of September. She also said that
she was working with Dimitri Tikovoi (who collabored on "If I Can't Dance" and "New Flame") and Liam from Sneaker Pimps. And she also mentioned the
possibility of working with Gregg Alexander again!
In May other great news: Sophie had been chosen the new facel of Rimmel London. A source said to Sunday Mirror: "Sophie was the obvious choice. She is
sexy and savvy with flawless skin and bags of attitude. She's admired by young girls, she's also a yummy mummy and men think she's gorgeous".
During June, Mr & Mrs Jones released their first material: a remix of The Feeling's Turn It Up. And Sophie's fans got all excited again as she uploaded
two new songs to her MySpace: Off & On and Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer - both songs soon became available for download and fans absolutely loved them
both.
Meanwhile, Sophie kept doing some gigs and public appearances as well as TV appearances. Richard revealed in July that they both were planning to open a
night club that month in London and were just putting together the final details. And that month just got more exciting for Sophie. She filmed two ads
for Rimmel and the official website also revealed about Sophie's cinematic debut.
Sophie starred her very first film, which was exclusively shown on MySpace, called The Town That Boars Me. The film is a short film/musical by Ben Charles
Edwards and Sophie co-starred alongside Kelly Osbourne, Sadie Frost, Jodie Harsh, Nat Weller and Sandra Rhodes. The film premiered in August.
In the end of July, Sophie performed at G-A-Y's last night. There, apart from performing Video Killed The Radio Star alongside The Feeling, she also
performed for the first time Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer. And on July 31st, Sophie and Richard launched their own night club at Soho Revue Bar called
Modern Love - they also changed their DJ names to Me & Mrs Jones. Their night club soon became a massive success.
In August, Sophie performed during the Visa 2012 Party - a celebration for the Olympics, which are taking place in London in 2012. Sophie sang Nobody Does
It Better originally recorded by Carly Simon. Her performance was amazing and soon this song became a fan favourite. Sophie did another cover called
Jolene for BBC's sitcom called Beautiful People.
Finally in October, Sophie's first Rimmel ad - about the Moisture Lipstick - was shown on TV. And that wasn't the only Sophie's appearance on TV for that
month, she would be also on Twiggy's Frock Exchange with Janet Ellis, and The Fashion Show. In the end of that month, Sophie's second Rimmel ad premiered
- Sexy Mascara - with a surprise for fans: the song played on the ad was a brand new song by Sophie called Sophia Loren!
• TWO RELEASES IN 2009
Sophie, Richard and baby Kit
Sophie confirmed in early November that Sophia Loren would be the first single of the upcoming album and would be released early in 2009. Sophie also
happily announced that she was expecting her second baby. Her baby was due to the beginning of April, so she'd be taking a break until the baby is born and
after that she'd be back to release her fourth album!
Sophie also kept DJing with Richard and attending some events in the end of 2008, such as World Music Awards and British Fashion Awards. In the end
of November, it was said that Sophie was filming the video for Sophia Loren and that it'd premiere in December. However, rumours soon began that the
release of Sophia Loren would be postponed and that it might not even be a single. It was said that the first single would be an unknown song and it'd
be released in September 2009 - so the album would probably be released in the end of 2009/beginning of 2010.
In December, the official website confirmed that Sophie'd be returning to the pop scene with an all new album and the odd single or two in 2009. The
possible name of the album also leaked: Split Second Love and so did the title of another song, Carnival, which didn't make it into the album because
the song didn't turn out to be a good one.
Meanwhile, DJs from ProDub voted for their favourites dancefloor fillers and declared their Top 40. Murder On The Dancefloor ended up at 34. In January,
photographer Rankin recreated seven of his favourites images. Sophie was chosen to recreate Cecil Beaton's 1934 "Hat Box". Also that month, Sophie
and Richard attended the premiere of "Revolutionary Road" in London and in an interview, Sophie said that they didn't want to know the sex of the baby
because it didn't matter.
In the end of January, Sophie attended South Bank Show Awards 2009, in which she presented an award. She also started writing a blog for Shloer, in
which she would share pregnancy tips, feelings and experiences every month. She also mentioned that although she was already six months pregnant,
she still had lots of energy.
Then in February 10, the news said that Sophie had given birth to another baby boy Kit Valentine on February 7, nine weeks premature after being struck
down by pre-eclampsia. Janet Ellis said that Kit was doing very well. From home, Richard also said that it was stressful and dramatic, but they were
really happy. Later, Sophie posted a message to her fans on The Sun saying that everything was ok now.
While Sophie was busy taking care of her new baby, rumours said that Freemasons would release "Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer" featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor
on vocals, and another song title was revealed on Fascination website: Synchronized. Plus, the original version of Junior Caldera's song "Can't Fight This
Feeling" featuring Sophie also leaked on the web and so far, Junior Caldera hasn't confirmed it as a future single.
Freemasons then confirmed that they would release "Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer" as a single during Mardi Gras Party on March 7th, but the song would
differ from the one Sophie had uploaded onto her MySpace. They were still working on the final version. In March, the song was released and was
even chosen "The Track Of The Day" at Popjustice website.
News also said that Sophie was back at work nine days after son Kit Valentine was delivered. She was back at studio working on a single with her husband's
band The Feeling. Dan Gillespie said that she was there with them to pen a duet, she had recovered from the operation and looked great.
Finally, in the middle of March, baby Kit went home and the first pictures of him were published. Sophie said on her Twitter that he's also got
red hair just like Sonny and that he feeds all the time. Also on her Twitter, Sophie confirmed that she'd be filming the video for Freemasons new single.
During her private times, Sophie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, hosting dinners, shopping and DJing. She lives in Notting Hill,
London with her husband, Richard Jones, her two sons, Sonny and Kit, and her cats, Kenickie and Rizzo.
There is definitely something very special about Sophie Ellis-Bextor. She's a versatile talent and her approach to singing is natural and fresh. She's
absolutely gorgeous and smart - she simply sparkles! Perhaps, a source from Coty Inc. says it better: "She is sexy and savvy with flawless skin and
bags of attitude. She's admired by young girls, she's also a yummy mummy and men think she's gorgeous".
Note: This is not an official biography. All information has been gathered from various interviews and articles and is accurate according to
our best knowledge. For more details regarding Sophie's discography, please see their individual information pages.
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