Sophie @ NYC, Dave Cromwell's interview and more

Sophie was at NYC with the Freemasons where she performed three of her biggest hits for the gay audience. Surprisingly, they knew the songs. Sophie should definitely perform in the US again. Also, i love how she handles the stage so well. I love her movements.
Here are the videos.
Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
Murder On The Dancefloor
Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer

Here's Dial My Number (click) live from Istanbul (better quality than the youtube video)

Dave Cromwell's exclusive interview with Sophie - Read here
(thank you Dave for doing this for all SEB fans)

And an interview at Club Arena, Vladivostok at One Year Party - http://www.twitvid.com/XWLBT

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - more than just a name in pop

From starting out in an indie band aged 17, Sophie Ellis Bextor's name has swelled beyond that of a successful pop artist to become a high street brand. The value of her name has grown and grown and she even became the face of Rimmel make-up in 2008.

Even though she now enjoys contracts with high street brands, there are drawbacks: "Yucky as it sounds, I feel you sort of lose ownership of your name," she said.

Brand associations - Sophie went on to tell Newsbeat: "Now when I say Sophie Ellis Bextor I feel that's not really me because that's become this entity from doing the gigs and the shows and the make-up contracts and whatever else."

Being associated with big brands is a long way from where she started out: "When I was seventeen, the idea of doing a clothing line for a high street brand would have been totally unthinkable but now it's completely the opposite."

"I'm a little bit allergic to the whole brand thing to be honest but maybe it's just happening around me and I'm not really aware of it."

Even though she has commercial commitments, and there are even more brands knocking on her door, she says she keeps a level head on the decisions she makes. "My rule for the corporate stuff is the same as with my music - I do whatever means I can sleep at night and whatever means I can be dignified."

Sophie Ellis Bextor's fourth album, Straight to the Heart, is due out this autumn.

Quickest song - She's been working with a number of different producers - Calvin Harris, Richard X and others including Greg Kurstin. He produced Lily Allen's album, It's Not You It's Me. Sophie went to Los Angeles to work with him and explained that he doesn't hang about when it comes to song writing.

"He holds the award for the quickest written song on the record. I turned up midday, we wrote, we had a long leisurely lunch and it was done by quarter to four."

"I've never done a song in under four hours before - from start to finish. It's called Revolution and it's probably going to be a single."

After this album she says she's going to change musical direction and she's recently been working with trance legend Armin Van Buuren who's ranked number one DJ in the world. "I must confess I knew very little about the trance scene, I'm more house and commercial dance but it was really interesting and different."

"If you're going to start in trance then you should start with the number one trance DJ in the world I figured. It's going to be really good fun."

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_10430000/newsid_10439900/10439980.stm

bits from here and there

Sophie turns princess for a day
Sophie Ellis-Bextor dressed as a princess today to launch Sky Broadband's 'Happily Ever After Campaign'. The project is aimed at young children, asking them to find new endings to traditional fairy tales. The mum of two said she thought the project was important to help children develop their creativity.
Watch the video here - http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdt37z_sophie-ellis-bextor-turns-princess_news

LOL. They use the term "bex-monster"...i'm glad that caught on. I started that on PJ.

Lady Bex (let's hope this one catches on too) also had some tips about hair and dressing for festivals.

• Tips for your hair - http://www.zimbio.com/Sophie+Ellis-Bextor/articles/sBsmUXWj7Ty/Great+Hair+Day+Sophie+Ellis+Bextor+Sweet+Summer
• How to dress up for a festival - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/7817797/Sophie-Ellis-Bextor-how-to-dress-for-a-festival.html

NGU is (also) a part of Armin's album Mirage

Not Giving Up is on Armin's album "Mirage". The whole confusion about Not Giving Up not being on Sophie's album makes sense now. No wonder she didn't talk about it in that interview with gay mag. Maybe this will end up becoming an Armin feat. Sophie track. I'm not happy with what's going on right now. They have potentially one of the best albums recorded by Sophie and they're just letting it all go down the drain!? What the hell is Fascination doing with Sophie's career!?!?!?

Mirage, which will be released mid-September, contains some special collaborations, just like the previous album. (...) This time he got some international artists to work with him: 'I worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Adam Young

'Armin will tour the world with his new music later this year during the Armin Only 2010: Mirage tour. 'I will be on tour for almost year from this October. A couple of countries have been added to the list.' 'Mirage' will be released in about thirty countries, such as the US.'

ORIGINIAL ARTICLE - http://www.depers.nl/entertainment/489763/Armin-werkte-harder-dan-ooit.html

Sophie to support PSB and more

YES! Sophie is supporting the Pet Shop Boys on their UK Tour.
Read the article here - http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/news/2521

Sophie also has a support tour with Will Young on his UK Tour. Hopefully both support tours help her sell the album. The new single "Not Giving Up" will be out soon. We still have no dates, but Sophie is shooting the video with Armin Van Buuren soon.

In other news, NRJ Radio Lebanon is still playing Bittersweet and it's currently #2 there. I'm really happy that the single is performing well internationally. It's a shame that the single fared so poorly on the UK Charts. Hopefully the next single performs better.
Here's the link to the NRJ Charts - http://www.nrjlebanon.com/music/chart_index.php#middle
thanks to Eden for the heads up

Also, Sophie and Junior's single is still getting some airplay internationally. "Can't Fight this Feeling" peaked at #14 on the Spanish Official Dance Chart?? But after a couple of weeks bouncing up & down, the single currently holds the #21 spot. You can vote for the single (once a day). Let's hope the single climbs higher next week.
Here's the link to vote - http://www.maxima.fm/51Chart/
thanks to Fran for the update

Sophie/Betty Boo collab

The Betty Boo collaboration is called "Is It Love". Not sure if this will ever get released as a b-side or a bonus track.

IS IT LOVE - Written by Betty Boo, SEB and Steve Robson
http://repertoire.bmi.com/title.asp?blnWriter=True&blnPublisher=True&blnArtist=True&keyID=11191381&ShowNbr=0&ShowSeqNbr=0&querytype=WorkID

Thanks to NunyaB for the heads up

Roger Sanchez collab may remain unreleased

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Entertainment/Music/Roger-excited-to-interact-with-fans/articleshow/6068143.cms
British pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor has recorded a track for your album. How was it working with her? I produced a song that the Nervo Girls wrote to and Sophie sang on it. Unfortunately, it didn’t make it on her album and the label won’t allow me to release it on mine. Sophie is a talented artiste and it was great working with her.

thanks to Fran and NunyaB for the heads-up

As if things weren't bad already! I wonder why Fascination are so annoying when it comes to releases. I hope that they're saving it up for an iTunes bonus or an Asian bonus. Sanchez is HUUUGE here I know he's a pretty big name in most parts of the world. They should really let him use the track or at least give us the track as an iTunes bonus or a region specific bonus tracks.

Hopefully the second single comes out soon. They have a good album in their hands and they'll end up screwing it by delaying releases, cancelling collaborations and what not!

new tweets

Sorry for the lack of updates guys (actually nothing much has been happening). I'm holidaying at the moment and i have limited access to the internet here, but i still tried to keep track of what's going on in Sophie world.
There are two new tweets that will get everyone really excited!
(thanks to Makke for the heads up)
1. Off to NYC next weekend to sing at Gay Pride with the fabulous Freemasons.
2. @RenzoMV Video shoot not far away now... Not giving up soon to reach your ears. Whoop whoop!

*jumps around for a little while*

Dial My Number (Live)

Sophie performed 'Dial My Number' in Vladivostok, Russia. Here's the performance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIWsk8U448E
(thanks to Arrs from the PJ Forums)
It sounds fabulous. Pure disco-pop! 5 stars.

I love how she enjoys performing her songs thoroughly. She is all over the stage. I take back everything i've said about Sophie dancing. I don't care if she can't dance. There's very few singers out there who actually have the energy to move around, stomp their feet, jump, interact with the audience and shimmy and still sing perfectly. Bravo Sophie, bravo!

Here are some other album tracks, live
Starlight (full, low quality) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29DFhPH2RU0
Revolution (full, horrible quality) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tXwwp8PVlo
Under Your Touch (full, excellent quality) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcjWeVNQVEA

Tweets and Bittersweet's radio play

Bittersweet may have underperformed in the UK, but the song is still getting some airplay internationally.

Radio Express has some sort of World Chart Show. Bittersweet is currently #29 there, spending 4 weeks on the charts.
2 weeks ago - #37
Last week - #35
This week - #29
http://www.radioexpress.com/public/content.php?loc=chart_worldchart.php

Remember those Lebanese radio charts? Well, Bittersweet is #4 on NRJ Radio spending 6 weeks in the charts.
http://www.nrjlebanon.com/music/chart_index.php#middle
It has gone up by 5 spots.

Bittersweet is currently #18 on the Mix FM (Lebanese) charts. It has dropped by 6 spots.
http://www.mixfm.com.lb/ (check Top 20)

Hopefully the single gets some more airplay. If the song can manage to stick around, even if only on local radio stations, it's pretty good. The second single will be out soon.

The original plan was to have a single in July. Hopefully Sophie will stick to it.

Here's a little twitter conversaion between Sophie and the Nervo Twins
N: @SophieEB Hey babe! Is it true that NGUOL is going to be your second single?? (don't get a girl excited now!!) big kiss /L
S: @nervomusic tis true! Have you got a copy of the latest radio edit or extended mix? X
N: @SophieEB Armin sent me something a few weeks ago - sounding amazing!! Can you send me the latest copies you have plse!! Big kiss!! /L

Not Giving Up is the second single from Sophie's fourth album

I don't know why they didn't go with "Not Giving Up On Love". I'm going to hate the puns.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/news/a223927/ellis-bextor-switches-single-plans.html

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has changed the identity of her next single, Digital Spy can exclusively reveal.

The pop singer originally planned to release 'Off & On' as the third trailer from her upcoming album, Straight To The Heart.

However, she has now decided to release a collaboration with Dutch DJ/producer Armin van Buuren instead.

"It's called 'Not Giving Up' and I'm really excited about doing it. I'm filming a video with him very soon," she confirmed at yesterday's BAFTA TV Awards.

Ellis-Bextor also insisted that she was happy with the performance of her most recent single, 'Bittersweet', which peaked at number 25 on the UK singles chart last month.

"You know what, I'm totally at peace with it. I still love the song. This might sound like something you only say after something hasn't done fantastically, but I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that I've had a long career and I don't get bogged down with that kind of thing," she said.

Sophie @ Jodie's CIRCUS

Sophie performed a couple of songs at the CIRCUS organised by her Jodie Harsh.

Janet & Sophie

This well-known mother and daughter pair talk about their special relationship

TV presenter Janet Ellis lives in west London with her husband John. She has three children, Sophie, Jackson, and Martha.

Sophie’s father and I separated when she was four, but she handled it well. She got on with my second husband, John, straight away and was brilliant when Jack was born.

It’s strange watching Sophie perform. You’re stood in a room with a group of people who think she’s just as amazing as you do, which is overwhelming. I’m proud of how she’s handled her success; she believes family comes first.

She’s always been very confident. On her first day at school she didn’t give a backwards glance.

Sophie fell pregnant early on in her relationship, but I never questioned it. She was ready. The same thing happened with John and me. I think if it’s the right person, you grow up, not apart, over your developing bump.

You love your children, but it’s special when you like them too. Sophie’s fun, thoughtful and spontaneous, although she’s hopeless in the morning. She took me to New York for my 40th birthday and I quickly learnt that we wouldn’t be sharing conversation over breakfast!

Singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor lives in London with her husband, Richard Jones, and sons, Sonny, four, and Kit Valentine, who was born in February. Sophie is currently working on her fourth album.

Mum’s still the first person I turn to for advice. She’s such a calm and reassuring person; she's exactly the kind of mother I want to be. She never tried to be my best friend, just my mother, which sometimes meant she made decisions for me that I didn’t like, but they were always right for me.

I find Mum’s attitude to her career inspiring. When I got pregnant with Sonny at 24 everyone said to me, “Is that it for your career, then?” as though it was inconceivable that I could do both. But Mum experienced most of her success after having me.

Divorce is hard for children. I wouldn’t want my parents to still be together, as they’re both in very happy relationships, but I would never want to put my children through that.

Did Bittersweet leave Sophie with a bitter feeling?

I hope not.

Here's the news article from Conorofficial:

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has reportedly slammed her record label, Polydor for failing to promote her latest single.

'Bittersweet', the lead single of her upcoming album, Straight To The Heart only managed to peak at 25 in the charts, mainly due to lack of promotion.

Ellis-Bextor reportedly said: “I think they could have at least promoted it a bit more, 25th just isn’t very good and it’s down to them.”

Her fourth, and possibly final album, Straight To The Heart is set to be released in the UK this August.

No one is sure if there's any truth, or if this statement was even really made. But Sophie tweeted saying, "it's not true! fascination folk are good people"

No need to panic. But, if there is any truth to this (possibly final album) then i think it is our duty as fans to support Sophie. British fans, please go out and buy the next single (or download from iTunes) and help boost her sales. International fans are buying her singles already. Bittersweet is getting some airplay on international radios. BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 didn't playlist the song because of it's poor sales.

Support Sophie guys, please......