Sophie Ellis-Bextor knows how to bring the disco to any venue, even one as classic as London’s Royal Albert Hall. The pop star’s resurgence started small in her kitchen during the COVID-19 pandemic and was given a further boost by the use of Murder on the Dancefloor in the 2023 movie Saltburn. In 2025, she’s just undertaken her biggest UK headline tour to date. Not bad for a 46-year-old mother of five who may have thought she’d peaked 20 years ago.
The atmosphere at the Royal Albert Hall, one of London’s most iconic venues, was fun and sparkly. Sophie Ellis-Bextor brings the glitz to her disco and plenty of her fans dressed accordingly. Sequins and sparkles were the order of the night, along with some pretty impressive shoes. Not least on Sophie Ellis-Bextor herself, it’s a mystery to me how she jumps and high kicks around the stage in her silver heels.
Her effervescence on stage and apparent lack of formal choreography is one of the most appealing aspects of a Sophie Ellis-Bextor gig. She just looks like she’s out there having fun. She engages with the audience with a charm that makes everyone want to be her friend and get up and dance with her.
And the music is great too. The perfect mix of older Sophie Ellis-Bextor classics like Take Me Home and Murder on the Dancefloor; singles from her forthcoming album Perimenopop, including Taste, Relentless Love and Freedom of the Night; plus some great covers, including a fab renditions of Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, Madonna’s Like a Prayer and Abba’s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, which came at the end of a mix that also included another classic, Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love).
Sophie Ellis Bextor’s band is also excellent. It includes her husband, Richard Jones, who puts his band, The Feeling, aside to play bass, and her brother, Jackson Ellis Leach, a great drummer. Mum Janice Ellis (of Blue Peter fame) was in the audience, and Sophie dedicated her song Young Blood to stepdad John, who passed away in 2020.
She said the song is about how when you fall in love with someone, no matter how many years go by, a part of you always sees the other person as they were when you first met them. Particularly poignant as she and Richard approach their 20th wedding anniversary. This is a performer to whom family is everything. And I think her performance is all the better for it.
This gig was the last night of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s current UK tour, but she’s playing at a variety of outdoor venues across the country over the summer and then dates in Europe in the autumn. The new album Perimenopop is out on 12 September. For details, check her website. And for more reviews of theatre, art, comedy and music, check the Arts section of my blog.