Sophie Ellis-Bextor Creates a Disco Party in Seattle

Being a fan of Sophie Ellis-Bextor since 2000 I never thought that I would get to see her perform live in Seattle in 2024. Even though she was very popular on the European side it felt like she wasn’t as big in the States to manage a tour back then. That all changed last year thanks to the success of the Saltburn film, and her track “Murder on the Dancefloor” being played in the last scene. The song picked up steam again and it entered the charts, and a new generation’s ears. Ellis-Bextor gained enough popularity again in the States and a tour was planned for this spring. After the success of that leg the band added the West Coast in the fall which included a stop at the historic Moore Theater.

Ellis-Bextor became popular after collaborating with Italian DJ Spiller on “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)“, in 2000 which was played in every single club that summer in Europe and reached #1 in the UK. Labels use this approach a lot to help propel an artist’s career before the release of their own debut record. A year later when her Read My Lips album was released the voice on the radio was already familiar to us and we welcomed hit after hit. Of course, 2001 brought “Murder on the Dancefloor” to clubs for the first time along with her cover of Cher’s “Take Me Home.”

We headed over to the Moore on the Wednesday and we took our places hearing DJ Not So Good warm up the night. The regular tour opener had to run back home due to an emergency, so the team found a local DJ to kick off the show. We actually really enjoyed all the tunes they played and feel like they did a great job with getting the audience ready to go.

A little after nine the band came out first wearing animal masks and then Sophie Ellis-Bextor took the floor smiling and opening her set with “Crying at the Discoteque.” Her cover of the hit track by Alcazar was released in 2020 to promote her greatest hits album Songs from the Kitchen Disco. We did notice the connection to the original track’s music video directed by Sophie Muller with dancers also wearing animal masks.

After “Catch You,” and “Take Me Home,” Ellis-Bextor stopped to chat with the audience and shared her gratitude for being able to be in Seattle for the first time in her career and to be touring on the side of the pond. She was extremely excited to be in Seattle and she shared some facts about our city that she had learned earlier in the day while playing tourist. In all of this fun fact sharing she brought up Bill Gates and that he lives here and then funny story for her as she played an event once and he was the guest of honor and she showed us one of his dance moves.

After singing “Music Gets the Best of Me” she introduced us to the wheel, something that was introduced during the pandemic when she and her husband Richard, who is also her bassist, began broadcasting from the kitchen along with their 5 kids. This of course brought the era of the Kitchen Disco and the live album tour, that was very successful for them. So, this wheel basically gets spun a couple of times during the show and wherever it lands that decides what happens next. The first spin landed on band’s choice and her drummer who also happens to be her brother Jack, chose to play “Mixed Up World.”

Later on, when Ellis-Bextor spun the wheel again, it again landed on band’s choice and Richard chose “Me and My Imagination” which the audience really loved. The show felt so special, and you could tell that the audience was so thrilled to have her in the city. One fan was even wearing a shirt that said ‘Sophie Ellis-Bextor fan way before Saltburn’ showing that it wasn’t over the last year that he had discovered her music which was very sweet.

During the middle of her set, she sat down in the middle of the stage with her guitarist to perform a song. She introduced it by saying that it was one of the most romantic songs she’s written, and it comes from a conversation she had with her mother who was lucky enough to be married more than 30 years to her lovely stepfather. She has this hypothesis that when two people fall in love that’s the age that they always see themselves as and she believes it to also be true. They went on to play the slow tune, “Young Blood.”

All the tracks that we heard kept bringing us more energy and kept the party going. It was all curated perfectly between covers and he own hits creating the perfect night out. From “Get Over You,” “Not Giving Up on Love,” and “Heartbreak,” to her medley mix we kept moving around and she kept dancing with us keeping the vibe going. After her cover for “Ready for Your Love,” she even ran in the back for a quick wardrobe change, this dress even more disco than the first one.

The main set ended with the track everyone knew and was ready to sing along to. As soon as the intro started for “Murder on the Dancefloor,” the room became a giant nightclub ready for its final moment. This felt like such a high and to be able to see the energy of the room was something very special. We were expecting to have a good time but weren’t expecting to have a really really good time, but Sophie Ellis-Bextor knows exactly how to captivate and how to capture the crowd’s attention and she makes it look easy. This is real charisma and talent a true entertainer can only demonstrate.

Ellis-Bextor and her band returned for an encore with “Bittersweet” which was the first single of her fourth album Make a Scene. After that she went to the balcony area to the left of the stage and played the last song with just her guitarist. She motioned the audience to be silent and went on to play “A Pessimist is Never Disappointed” without a microphone. The track was a cover from her first band theaudience who dismantled in 1999 before she went solo. Even though she hadn’t been here before I’m hoping she will return for another show in the future. This was one of my favorite concerts of the year. We forgot how many tracks she’s been featured on and how all these collaborations have kept her on our radar throughout the years.