Sophie is about to make a comeback soon

According to my source, Sophie is about to make a comeback soon. Now how fast is "soon" going to approach was not revealed. But it did get me really excited. For those who missed what has been happening...

1. Sophie was at T4 on the beach and she performed Heartbreak there. The crowd responded well to the song. She also performed Groovejet. Strange that they didn't seem to be as interested in the song as they were 10 years ago. Oh well, at least Murder still gets people all excited everytime she performs the song. Both videos are available on youtube.

2. Sophie performed an Acoustic version of Heartbreak, which, according to me, added more emotion to the song. I can see why she favoured this to be a single.

3. Sophie also performed a song called "Starlight" at the iTunes festival which was recorded by a few fans. All recordings are available on youtube. Sadly though, none of them are of a good quality. And according to reviewers her voice was a little dull and strained in this song. I don't blame her, she did 3 songs before this. She performed around 7 songs in total during that gig. All videos should be available on iTunes soon.

4. Starlight was recently confirmed on BlackMelody.com. And Sophie performed it recently. So my guess is that this is going to be the next single (or first single, depends on Fascination and Sophie want to do with Heartbreak).

Whatever happens Sophie, just release your album. All your fans, yes each and every single one of them, are waiting for some material, good or bad... If you album is going to take some time, then please tease us with a few out-takes or a digital EP or something... the wait is killing us!

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Heartbreak (ACOUSTIC) mp3 download

Enjoy...
Heartbreak (Live Acoustic @ Arthur Smith's Balham Bash) - http://www.mediafire.com/?yzmzgodtnyq

The acoustic version is brilliant isn't it. Its got a whole new emotion to the song. When she is performing this song live on her tour (if she tours) she should start the song acoustically just with the guitar, then the drums follow in the first chorus. In the second verse the strings follow. Then the electronic guitars at the bridge and 2nd chorus and then immense breakdown can be the exact same thing from the radio edit and then all instruments start fading out slowly as she does a double chorus, and by the end of the double chorus when she's doing the "oooh oooh"s its just acoustic.... Like what she did with By Chance at Shepards Bush Empire! Sophie are you reading this....

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Starlight (LIVE!!!)

Sophie performed what seems to be her new single live at the iTunes festival. My previous post was about the same song - Starlight, produced by Richard X, co written with him and Hannah Robinson. The song sounds more epic than Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer. If this is the follow up single, then yay!!

Thanks to Dazzle on the PopJustice forums
Here's the link - watch the video for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYt6uomVQOw
She looks amazing as ever, and sounds brilliant. I can imagine how good the track will sound in the CD!!

Sophie's set list for the event was:
1. Take Me Home
2. Catch You
3. Starlight - brand new song from the 4th album
4. Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)
5. Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)
6. Murder On The Dancefloor

EDIT - after watching the performance over 17 times on my computer, i've made up my mind. The song has an amazing chorus!! I'm in love with the middle 8. It sounds very Madonna-esque. And the song is almost 4 minutes! Fulfilling!!! Kudos to Richard X. It sounds like an upbeat ballad, but then again, most of Sophie's songs do. I think she's saying "we beloooooooooong to the starlight starlight starlight". The sound on the recording isn't very clear. I can't wait for an actual HQ recording. It should be aired on the telly soon (maybe tonight), keep your eyes peeled.

EDIT 2 - after watching it again, i think its going to be the New York City Lights of the 4th album. Can't think of a better comparison. Extremely radio friendly, quenches your thirst, gives you everything that you were looking for in the song....

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Starlight (produced by Ricahrd X)

So we have a new song title - Starlight, produced by Richard X.
SOURCE: http://blackmelody.com/track.php?id=63

I'm going to call this album "Powerhouse" for now, cos it seems like its going to be one of those hardcore dance records which no one can tire of. So far we have the following titles:

1. Sophia Loren
2. Off And On
3. Heartbreak Make Me A Dancer
4. Calling It Love
5. I Still Believe In Magic
6. Synchronized
7. Music Took My Man
8. Still Mixed Up
9. Whispers On The Street
10. The Scene
11. Hang Up
12. Supersexy
13. Give Into Love
14. Dial My Number
15. Under Your Touch
16. Starlight

I don't know what the second Freemasons track is called. I don't know which one of these is the Betty Boo song either. I'm not sure if the Groove Armada track is on the album. I think Dial My Number and Hang Up are the same song, considering that both song titles relate to a telephone. I can be wrong, there is no solid information available, its only my assumption.

Sophie said she's done with 15-20 tracks, and 10 of those are definitely going to make it onto the album. But she's going to work a little more before she finalizes it. I wonder what happened to those American collaborations.. There wasn't any further news about it.

New pictures of Sophie

She looks gorgeous. It seems like something either from the Heartbreak cover session or something from Rimmel. I can't make up my mind about it. But she looks gorgeous...













(For more pictures, check Isabella's site)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Take Me With You (Produced by Johnny Douglas) DL

Here's an unreleased track from the Trip The Light Fantastic era. Sophie recorded about 70+ songs for that album but she had written more than 100 songs. Will we ever get to listen to those songs, we'll never know. But here's one priceless jem which leaked recently.

It's a song produced by Johnny Douglas, who has also worked with Kylie on her Light Years and Body Language albums. Apparently, he has also worked with George Michael, Sugababes, Tina Turner, All Saints etc., This is the only song he wrote with Karen Poole and Sophie for her album but it was later rejected.

I played around with the ending a little, because the end was so abrupt on his version. For anyone who wants to know what i did here goes - i cut out the part i wanted to edit, changed the channels, gave it a reverb effect and then tried to add an intermittent sound effect, thats why you have those bit breaks in that part. And i sampled a cymbal crash from eJay, a software people use to make remixes, and reversed it, added a reverb + 3 echos and mixed it with the sample i had cut from the song.. finding the exact position to mix it was a little hard. I used trial and error there to find the exact place to put the cymbal crash, and when it was done, i took the finalized sample and placed it with the rest of the song and gave it a spin. It sounded terrific...

Go ahead, give it a listen:
MEGAUPLOAD - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VYJ2ZQK9
MEDIAFIRE - http://www.mediafire.com/?eito1nkyqiy

Sophie & Freemasons - Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer): Track record of the single

Sophie and Freemasons were labelled as a legendary team by many, and despite predictions that the single would go #1, it only peaked at #13 on the UK Singles chart. But this time, i think it wasn't in their hands. MJ's demise had its effect on the charts, the single may have entered the top 10 if not for that unforeseen event.

Anyway, Heartbreak debuted at #164 on the UK Singles chart when it was wrongly released earlier than its due date on June 14th, '09 (due date was 22nd). The single climbed 149 places to reach a position at #15, only counting the iTunes downloads. In the following week the song climbed to #13.

The single sold 40,000 copies and ended up reaching the #1 spot on the UK Physical Sales chart. The song has continued to be on the charts weeks after its release, and surprsingly now has reached #1 on the MTV Dance Chart! Congratulations to Sophie and Freemasons.

The music video was directed by Chris Sweeney and filmed on 21 April 2009. The video was released May 8th and it features Sophie dancing and singing the song in a futuristic setting surrounded by dancers and special effects. The video version of the song differs from the original edit; the breaks between verses are shorter, and the bridge towards the end of the song is quicker and is mixed differently.
(Click here to watch the video)


Here's the track record:
MTV Dance Chart - #1
UK Singles Chart - #13
UK Physical Singles Chart - #1
Irish Singles Chart - #38
Dutch Singles Chart - #85
Israeli Singles Chart - #7
UK Club Chart - #2
UK Upfront Club Chart - #5
UK Mainstream Club Chart - #2
Moscow Top 100 Airplay Chart - #2
Ultratip Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders) - #5
Ultratip Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia) - #27
Belgian Dance Chart - #4
Russian Top 100 Singles Chart - #3

Sophie and Freemasons have been promoting the song a lot. Here are a bunch of performaces you can watch on youtube. The list of performances follow.

Live @ National Lottery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovOx9m_TSQI
Live @ G-A-Y Heaven
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ayi16gEnu8M&feature=related
Live @ GMTV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c7EzAqb7L4
Live @ G-A-Y (Freemasons Launch Party)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnFrgmIRxkY
Live @ Totally Saturday
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yT-6IYCasQ
Live @ Saturday Night with Miriam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CExDcN8oGM
Live @ T4 on the Beach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7E3VVCkywo

The dates and venues:
01. XXL - April 12, 2009
02. Town Club, Washington DC, USA - May 2, 2009
03. The National Lottery Show - May 20, 2009
04. GMTV - June 16, 2009
05. G-A-Y - June 20, 2009
06. BBC Breakfast - June 23, 2009
07. Totally Saturday - June 27, 2009
08. Summer Festival 2009 - Moscow, Russia - June 28, 2009
09. G-A-Y (Freemasons' album launch party) - July 2, 2009
10. Mantra Garden Bar - Dublin, Ireland - June 4, 2009
11. T4 on the Beach - Weston-super-mare, UK - July 19, 2009
12. Party in the Park - Leeds, UK - July 26, 2009
13. iTunes Festival - London, UK - July 27, 2009

(all screencaps are available on Isabella's site)

P.S. - anyone heard the Gaydar Mix of the single? If you have it, please post a share link in the comments