We always conga with our Xmas pudding..

Kitchen Disco star Sophie Ellis-Bextor reveals her family's quirky traditions

- SAMATHA WOSTEAR

Sophie Ellis Bextor looks every inch the glamorous pop star - even when she's at home sitting at her kitchen table. But just moments into our chat, she switches to the mode of exasperated partner.

"Are you going to get a pneumatic drill out next?" she asks her music producer husband Richard Jones, also the bassist in pop band The Feeling, who is unseen in the background but making one hell of a racket.

Are we about to see Murder on the Kitchen Floor? A giggle from Sophie puts the situation right but it's a reminder the disco queen is, like many of us at this time of year, spinning plates - men, music, motherhood and Christmas.

With just a few days to go, the mother-of-five - whose children are Sonny, 21, Kit, 16, Ray, 13, Jesse, nine, and Mickey, six - is in the full thrust of festive planning.

"Kids are off soon," she begins, before reeling off her lengthy to-do list.

But despite the chaos indoors, she's taking calm from the disappearing crowds outside in West London where she lives.

"It is slowing down now," she says. "When I step outside the streets are quieter and everywhere has that cosy Christmassy feelLondon is my absolute favourite place to be at this time of year." And what a year it's been for the multiaward-winning singer-songwriter.

With five top 10 albums and eight top 10 singles already under her belt, Sophie, 46, released her eighth record, Perimenopop, in September. The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to her age and the chapter of life she is in, while the record is packed with the very fun-filled, upbeat tracks with which she's become synonymous.

Her famous 2001 hit, Murder On The Dancefloor, also enjoyed a huge resurgence after being featured in Emerald Fennell's 2023 film Saltburn, with over 11 billion hits across streaming platforms and social media.

Sophie's been performing it as part of a headline tour across the UK this year.