Sophie Ellis Bextor admits the pandemic has been “great” as it got in the way of her having to leave her family to head out on a world tour.
The Music Gets The Best of Me hitmaker was due to tour Europe, Australia and New Zealand before Covid hit, but found a happy medium when she started performing her iconic Instagram Kitchen Discos during the pandemic.
Speaking to HELLO! magazine, the star muses over her surprisingly successful 2020, admitting she relished spending more time than ever with her five kids over the last year.
“The Kitchen Disco has turned into a big part of our story as a family,” says Sophie. “I felt daunted that my world tour would have taken me away from my boys for the longest time ever.
“I always struggle to leave them for work anyway, so being here for them every morning before sending them off to school and putting them to bed every night has been great.”
While the Kitchen Discos were perfect Friday night entertainment for fans of the Bittersweet hitmaker, Sophie laughs that they’re nothing out of the ordinary at her house, because her family find “amazing catharsis” in turning up the volume and dancing their worries away,
“This is how we’ve always coped with stress as a family,” explains the star. “Nothing we use in our Kitchen Disco, from the smoke machine to the lasers, has been put in specially; it’s been there for years. We all enjoy putting on the music and lights, jumping around and having fun.
“Music is an amazing catharsis. It releases the tension and stress of not being able to see people and having to adhere to restrictions.
“I would recommend anybody to just play your favourite songs to get it out of your system,” continues Sophie. “I thought it was pretty bonkers at first, but one thing that’s been in short supply for the past year is a bit of daftness, and if I can give that, I’m happy to do so.”
And the Kitchen Discos didn’t just boost her family’s mental health – Sophie suggests they even helped her youngest son, Mickey, learn to walk.
“The boys love dancing around in the background. Mickey walks into the playroom and cries: ‘It’s disco time!’,” she laughs. “He was crawling when lockdown started, now he’s full-on grooving.
The original run of Kitchen Discos ran from March to May, 2020, with special shows through the latter half of the year. The shows spawned Sophie’s first Greatest Hits album, ‘Songs from the Kitchen Disco’, released last year.
The LP features the star’s biggest hits, along with cover versions performed during the Instagram Live gigs.
In our review of ‘Songs from the Kitchen Disco’, Retro Pop called Sophie a “brilliant pop star and one of Britain’s premier songwriters,” noting that “20 years into her career, her music is as wonderful as ever”.
Its turning into a packed year for Sophie, who will see her first three albums – ‘Read My Lips’, ‘Shoot From The Hip’ and ‘Trip The Light Fantastic’ – pressed on vinyl for the first time in Summer 2021.
In addition to hosting the third season of her hit podcast, ‘Spinning Plates’, the Take Me Home (A Girl Like Me) star is working on her seventh album, which is due for release soon.
A memoir, ‘Spinning Plates: Thoughts on Men, Music and Motherhood’, is also due for release on October 7 and available to pre-order now.
