Sophie Michelle Ellis-Bextor (born 10 April 1979) is an English singer and songwriter. She first came to prominence in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the indie rock band Theaudience. After the group disbanded, Ellis-Bextor went solo and achieved success beginning in the early 2000s. Her music is a mixture of mainstream pop, disco, nu-disco, and 1980s electronic music influences.

Ellis-Bextor’s debut solo album, Read My Lips, was released in 2001. It peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and was certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry; it sold 1.5 million copies worldwide. Three of its four singles—the Cher cover “Take Me Home”, “Murder on the Dancefloor”, and the double A-side “Get Over You” / “Move This Mountain”—reached the top three in the UK. In 2003, Read My Lips won the Edison Award for Best Dance Album. Its follow-up Shoot from the Hip (2003) reached number 19 in the UK and spawned two top ten singles, “Mixed Up World” and “I Won’t Change You”.

Ellis-Bextor’s third studio album, Trip the Light Fantastic (2007), peaked at number seven in the UK and its lead single “Catch You” reached the top ten. Her fourth studio album, Make a Scene (2011), and its third single “Bittersweet” achieved top 40 positions in the UK. Her fifth studio album, Wanderlust (2014), peaked at number four becoming her highest-charting album since Read My Lips. She released a Latin-inspired sixth studio album, Familia, in 2016 to critical acclaim.

Ellis-Bextor’s childhood stamp collection at Spring Stampex 2018. Ellis-Bextor was born in London to Janet Ellis, who was a presenter on BBC’s children’s television programmes Blue Peter and Jigsaw, and Robin Bextor, a film producer and director; they separated when she was four. As a child, Ellis-Bextor occasionally appeared on Blue Peter alongside her mother who presented the programme. She attended St. Stephen’s School and later the independent Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith. Among her earliest public performances were some with the W11 Opera children’s opera beginning at the age of thirteen, and she is now a patron of the organisation.

Ellis-Bextor has said, “I didn’t see myself as a good-looking girl and that was good, because I didn’t rely on it.(…) I’ve now found lots of like-minded weirdos, so it’s OK.” Ellis-Bextor began her professional musical career in 1996 while singing lead vocals in indie band Theaudience. The band released four singles, including the UK Top 40 hits “I Know Enough (I Don’t Get Enough)”, and “A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed”, and one self-titled album (theaudience (1999)). Videos for the band’s singles were directed by her father, Robin Bextor. While in Theaudience, readers of Melody Maker voted Ellis-Bextor number one in a poll of ‘most sexy people in rock’.

The band split in 1999 after demos for a planned second album were rejected by their label Mercury Records, who then dropped the band. Ellis-Bextor recorded a duet with Manic Street Preachers — “Black Holes for the Young” — as a B-side for their 1998 single “The Everlasting”, and in 1999, made an appearance on the Departure Lounge album Out of Here. After Theaudience split, Ellis-Bextor collaborated with Italian DJ Spiller, in 2000, adding vocals to his track “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”. It entered the UK charts at number one, just beating former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham on her first solo track. “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. 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.