Sophie Ellis-Bextor joined CHANNEL Q to talk about her Kate Bush-esque resurgence, and how the LGBTQ+ community helped her become a performer.

“It's murder on the dancefloor / But you better not kill the groove / hey-hey, hey-hey” Sophie Ellis-Bextor serenades in her 2002 single, “Murder on the Dancefloor.” The song has seen an incredible resurgence into pop culture due to its movie soundtrack feature and viral TikToks. As the latest guest on Audacy’s CHANNEL Q, Sophie described her song’s delayed sensation as “glorious and pretty magical.”

“I mean, the good news is I was already very good friends with ‘Murder on the Dancefloor.’ I've been singing it very happily for a couple of decades,” she explained to CHANNEL Q's Corey Crockett. “So it's brilliant to have another adventure with it.”

The song’s second "adventure" was propelled by its feature in the movie Saltburn, when Oliver Quick dances to the song in his final, twisted victory. But Bextor knew nearly nothing about the movie when giving permission to use the single. “I just knew it was called 'Saltburn,' written and directed by Emerald Fennell. So I knew it was in safe hands, and that they wanted to use the whole of the song for someone to dance to with no clothes on.” She chuckled and added, “That was enough for me to say, yeah, absolutely. I've gotta see that.”

Though admitting that bringing her teenage son and mother to the premiere was a bit awkward, the 44-year-old musician could not be prouder of the song’s place in the final scene of Saltburn. “I'm part of a really lovely club here. This is a really great film to be part of... And by the time I got to the end and ‘Murder’ played, I'd sort of forgotten that that's why I was there and that's what I was seeing,” she laughed.

The 2001 song is now a sensation all of its own - reaching its peak position in Billboard, UK, and International charts. Despite her viral success, Bextor doesn’t quite identify as the outgoing pop-disco artist that new generations see her as. “I started off quite shy, quite small with myself, a bit more introverted” she explained. To break out of her shell, Bextor would perform in LGBTQ+ spaces, which influenced her greatly. “It's actually quite hard for me to articulate the significance that the LGBTQ+ community has had on me because I actually don't think I would be the kind of performer I am without that,” she said.

It was a specific performance at a gay bar, Bextor told CHANNEL Q, that the “warmth and the support” of the crowd propelled her into the musician she is today. “I really felt like I just shed something. And I think as a performer, it's just so significant to be able to feel that safe on stage. You don't always feel that safe and I really did.”

Thus, Bextor works to infuse that same sense of safety and careless fun into her songs, with "Murder on the Dancefloor" being a perfect example. Its blend of a disco-easy beat with villainous yet easy-to-sing lyrics makes the song hard to resist. And that was exactly what the musician had intended over twenty years ago. “Songs like ‘Murder’ want you to play with it.” she explained. “You know, they're not looking to be on their own in a room. They want to be part of a crowd, they want it to be with everybody dancing and having fun.”

The fun doesn’t stop there - Bextor revealed she has been creating her next album with the same vibe as "Murder." She explained with a smile, “I was already thinking, ‘oh, I'm going to make another dance album like I used to do,’ because that was what I was in the right mood for. So, it kind of felt like a nice bit of serendipity.”

Listen to the full interview via Audacy’s CHANNEL Q above, and be prepared to have "Murder on the Dancefloor" stuck in your head… hey-hey, hey-hey!

Words by Isabella Eaton Interview by Corey Crockett