The second coming of SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR

The British pop star has a new project - and a new attitude since entering midlife. She tells The Weekly why she's embracing all that lies ahead.

- TIFFANY DUNK

It was the scene that had people talking all around the world. At the culmination of the 2023 black comedy Saltburn, a naked Barry Keoghan boogied through an empty mansion as Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor blared away. As a result of the controversial film, the iconic song found a whole new generation of fans, returning to the Top 10 charts for the first time in 22 years.

"The band and I had just finished a UK tour when everything went properly crazy," Sophie says of the Saltburn effect. "That meant we were all kind of match fit. We could get out and do all the work that came our way, we could keep up with the things we were already committed to. It meant that I could just kind of seize it all really, and go and have some fun."

That included recording a new raft of infectious disco-pop tunes to grace her eighth studio album.

At 46, Sophie is happily leaning into this new stage of her life. She's feeling bolder, she tells us, surer than ever of her decision-making. And as a mum to five boys, ranging in age from six to 21, who she shares with husband and bandmate Richard Jones, she's always been used to a hectic juggle.

Calling in by Zoom from her home in London during a rare break, Sophie fills The Weekly in on how she keeps all her plates spinning.

Where did the album title Perimenopop come from?

I made this album in a really happy mood. I wanted a title that would sum up a celebratory feeling but also bring into the room my age and all the things I've lived through; all the layers that have contributed to the album. For me and my girlfriends, we're all in our mid-forties where the algorithm is pointing towards this next chapter, and aspects of it can sound a little bit gloomy. So I wanted to flip the script really and have a bit of fun as well.

For many women there's something empowering about entering this stage of life as well.