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Sophie Ellis-Bextor has spoken to NME about the chances of her representing the UK at Eurovision, and what to expect from her “psychedelic, proggy” new album ‘Hana’.
The British pop icon was speaking to NME backstage after her performance at Liverpool’s Eurovision Village on ‘EuroEve’, the night before the Song Contest’s Grand Final in the city (Friday May 12).
Stepping off stage, she told NME: “I really enjoyed myself, the crowd were gorgeous. I was up in Liverpool yesterday so I already had a sense of the atmosphere here and I was really looking forward to tonight.
“I’ve loved Eurovision since I can remember. I love everything that it’s about – I love the warmth of it. You get the impression that there’s a lot of support for one another among the artists, and the whole production of the actual show has been amazing.”
And has she ever been tempted or asked to represent the UK at Eurovision herself?
“Not really,” Ellis-Bextor replied. “I think doing it is an amazing opportunity, and that [2023 UK entry] Mae Muller will smash it, but it was never the right thing at the right time – and I’m a big believer in serendipity like that.”
Muller is currently heading towards a UK Top 10 with ‘I Wrote A Song’, despite finishing second to last in the competition, and the final was the most-watched in the Song Contest’s history according to the BBC. Off the back of the success of recent winner’s Måneskin and last year’s UK entry Sam Ryder, Ellis-Bextor said that the increased popularity and credibility of Eurovision should come as no surprise.
“Eurovision has been running since the mid ‘50s so there have been a lot of shifts since then,” she said. “I’m sure that back when Cliff Richard and Olivia Newton John did it, it was seen as a really great thing to do.
“In the UK, we pride ourselves a lot on our music. We’ve created a lot of globally-dominating bands and artists – so when things don’t go so well for us at Eurovision, I think it’s quite easy to get snooty about what it represents. We weren’t able to unlock how to get on the right side of the leaderboard.”
She continued: “Recent times have seen Eurovision artists release amazing songs outside of it and these amazing careers being launched. Sam Ryder’s approach to it last year where we always just so positive and upbeat just saw him really seize the opportunity a bit. This is Ukraine’s Eurovision but held here, so it has other themes going on. It’s not just literally about who’s got a funny outfit on. It’s about linking people together and supporting each other.”
For her own performance in the village, Ellis-Bextor performed a run of her own singles alongside a ‘greatest hits of greatest hits’ from the likes of Madonna, Moloko and Modjo – telling NME that her recent live sets have been inspired by the pop hedonism of her popular “Kitchen Disco” livestreamed performances from lockdown.
Speaking about choosing her setlist, Ellis-Bextor said: “What makes a good song? Golly. I’m not very good at answering that. All I know is that all my favourite songs work the same magic on me every time I hear them.
“No matter what mood I’m at the beginning, I’m always in a the same certain mood at the end. That’s what makes a good song – if it casts the same magic.”
Asked if that hedonistic pop vibe would be inspiring her upcoming seventh album ‘Hana’, she replied: “Actually, no – it’s quite a different mood now! It’s optimistic and it’s pop-y, but it’s also quite psychedelic, proggy and synthy. It was a nice place to put other feelings. It’s also my third album with Ed Harcourt. We’ve plotted a little course, and I feel like I’ve got a lot more bold with making my records and making them a little bit out there.
“I’m really lucky to be able to go into a studio and say, ‘I had this really weird idea on the way here’ and then get to flesh it out into a song.”
On the over-arching themes of the record, Ellis-Bextor said: “I started writing it in 2020 just before the world tilted. I was going on a trip with my mum and my eldest boy to Tokyo, and I’d never been. It started off with the idea of somewhere I was visiting and what I thought it would be like. That became a really nice landscape to go to in my mind during the times we couldn’t travel anywhere.
“I also lost my step-dad not long after that, so there is grief in there – but it’s also about how grief is the other half of love. It’s about the legacy of wanting to carry on and live your best life in their name. It’s all woven in there. Oh, and there’s also a song about aliens.”
Does she believe in aliens?
“Oh golly, either answer to that question is extraordinary – we’re either alone or we’re not alone,” she replied. “The song is this fantasy of aliens who have been watching us for ages and have seen what a state we’ve gotten ourselves into. They look around and say, ‘We can save some of you, we feel sorry for you so let’s start again’.”
Ellis-Bextor and Mercury-nominated solo star, producer and Libertines collaborator Harcourt have previously worked together on 2014’s ‘Wanderlust’ and 2016’s ‘Familia’. The singer told NME that she was drawn to working with Harcourt because he was “the real deal”.
“We’re quite different on the surface but when we’re in the studio we think very similarly,” she said. “We’re quite impulsive and excitable, we’re quite quick workers, but he’s also one of the most musically gifted people I know. He’s very generous with his talent and will just interpret things in a very different way.
“I love the albums we’ve made together, and we also laugh a lot. He really is criminally underrated, but he has facilitated and supported a lot of artists.”
Sophie Ellis-Bextor releases ‘Hana’ on June 2, before embarking on a run of festival dates before a headline tour in the winter. Visit here for tickets and more information.
