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| Birth Name(s) : Sophie Ellis-Bextor |
Date of Birth: April 10, 1979 |
| Status:
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| Profession:
Musician |
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Full Sophie Ellis-Bextor Biography
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is the daughter of Janet Ellis, known as the presenter of the English program Blue Peter, and Robin Bextor, an wel appreciated TV- and video director. As a child she wanted to be a singer, but not an ordinary one. She was sincerely interested in music and especially in the origin. For example as soon as an old classic song was being polished by a marketing driven childband to score an easy hit with it, young Sophie wanted to know who wrote the original.
In London, the city where she grew up, she meet the musician Billy Reeves at the age of 16. One year later they formed the indie-band Theaudience. A band who distinguished themselves by long songtitles, spiky guitars and a strong selfconvident attitude.The presence of Ellis-Bextor on the stage complemented the whole thing. “I think whoever's on stage should look like they're supposed to be on stage,” she said. “I think performers should be a bit larger than life.”
After a handfull of nice and good singles and one average album they decided to call it a day in 1998. Reason: Internal arguments which were for the dictator-in-small Reeves too tiresome. The creative brain walks out what will cause the break-up of Theaudience.
After a year of rest she received a tape from the Italian DJ Spiller with the question if she “could do something with it”. At first she dismissed it but then she started playing around with verses and choruses, eventually writing the final verse and co-writing that famous chorus. “I thought, 'I'll have a nice time doing something, it'll be a real breath of fresh air to do a dance track.' It was still going to be a song-based thing.” The outcome is wellknown. Groovejet (If this ain't love) became a big artistic and commercial success.
In 2001 she released her first soloalbum Read My Lips, a poppy album with quite a few dancetunes. The record was not received in happy terms by the press. But the general (English) public did not agree. She had two hitsingles in that same year, Take me home and Murder on the dancefloor and is nominated for a Brit Award 2002.
My personal highlight in relation with Sophie Ellis-Bextor was her presence at the European MTV Awards 2001 where she handed an award to the Gorillaz. Her comment after the show: “I think they (Gorillaz) were actually quite rude. They did not even have the courtesy to greet me.” Marvellous, a beautiful woman with decency. |
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Additional Sophie Ellis-Bextor Biography
Sophie Ellis-Bextor was born in West Middlesex, England to Janet Ellis, then an actress, but later better known as a presenter on the TV series Blue Peter (on which Sophie appeared with her mother at the age of six, modelling snoods), and Robin Bextor, an award-winning film director. Ellis and Bextor divorced when Sophie was four years old. She has three sisters and two brothers. She has often spoken about being very close to her family growing up and she often takes her brothers and sisters to work with her. Her official website hyphenates her surname, which is the joining of her parents' surnames; some other sources separate the names with a space. She went to school at St. Stephen's School and later Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith. Among her earliest public performances were with the W11 Opera children's opera from the age of thirteen.
Ellis-Bextor began her career in 1997, with an indie band called theaudience. She sang the lead vocal in the band. While she was a band member, readers of Melody Maker elected her to the Number 1 position among the 'most sexy people in rock'. She recorded a duet with Manic Street Preachers—Black Holes for the Young—as a B-side for their 1998 single The Everlasting. Some songs released by theaudience are I Got the Wherewithal, If You Can't Do It When You're Young; When Can You Do It?, I Know Enough (I Don't Get Enough), and A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed (perhaps their best-known single). The band split in December 1998.
After theaudience split, Sophie took a year off from singing; she tried modelling, but didn't like it and soon gave it up. She also started writing a novel. In 2000, Sophie collaborated with Italian DJ Spiller on adding vocals to his then-instrumental club track Groovejet, her first recorded work since that with theaudience. Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) entered the U.K. charts at No. 1, just beating former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham to the top spot. Since then, the two have been known as rivals. Groovejet won several awards: No. 1, Pop Top 20; No. 1, ILR; No. 1, Radio 1; No. 8, top dance track of 2000 and single of the year in Melody Maker. In the Metro Newspaper, it received ninth place in the contest for the Greatest No. 1 of all time, beating even Madonna. In 2000, it was a finalist in The Record of the Year. In that same year, it won the awards for Best Single and Best Ibiza Tune at the Ericsson Muzik Awards.
Her second album, Shoot from the Hip, was released in October 2003. Although it was not as commercially successful as her previous material, it held two further top-10 singles. The album reached no higher than No. 19 on the UK charts; its two singles were "Mixed Up World", which reached No. 7, and "I Won't Change You", reaching No. 9. Around this time, rivalry against Victoria Beckham was suggested again; Victoria's single "This Groove" / "Let Your Head Go" reached the #3, a higher position in the charts than "I Won't Change You". During this time Sophie became pregnant and plans for a 3rd & 4th single as well as the Shoot From The Hip Tour were scrapped.
In August 2006 it was announced that she was the new 'face' of high street fashion chain Monsoon replacing the model Sophie Dahl. She was also first choice for the controversial Agent Provocateur luxury underwear commercial which she turned down. (The role instead went to the second choice - Kylie Minogue).
Before the album two singles were released, Catch You, which charted in the UK through downloads alone at #18 and peaked at #8 after a physical release and Me and My Imagination which was released on May 14th and charted at #23. Her album Trip the Light Fantastic debuted at #7 on the UK albums chart and just missed the top 20 the following week, falling to #21.
Sophie supported George Michael on his UK tour leg in June 2007. Her own UK tour was due to start on the 14th August 2007, entitled Trip The Light Fantastic Tour, but, on September 8, 2007, on her official website, Sophie said that she had postponed it because she has been invited to be the "special guest" on the forthcoming Take That European Tour, which kicks off on October 11, 2007 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sophie confirmed that her tour will be re-scheduled for March next year as it had proven difficult, if not impossible to do both. All tickets purchased will be valid for next year. 1.
On the first of September 2007, Sophie will contest in Sopot Festival 2007 in Poland, representing the UK, and her rivals will be music stars like: September, Thierry Amiel, The Cloud Room and Monrose.
Sophie has started working on a greatest hits album. According to her, the album should be out sometime in March 2008. She's worked with Calvin Harris and Cathy Dennis as well as Richard X on new tracks for the album, with one of them eventually released as a single. The compilation will, according to Sophie, feature only two new tracks in addition to the single releases from her first three studio albums. She also stated that she desires to include at the very least, one track from her days as the lead vocalist in theaudience.
The Greatest hits will also feature a second disc which accompanies the singles, however Sophie is unsure as to what material will feature on the disc. It will either be a collection of b-sides and studio cover versions, or the videos which accompany her single releases. |
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| For every person that says I'm the new Audrey Hepburn, someone else says that I look like an alien. |
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