There is a specific kind of performer whose ability to bring the house down at Glastonbury tends to come as a shock to those watching – they tend to be women, they tend to lean towards pop (or at least dabble in it), and they tend to never have achieved the kind of international stardom their litany of recognisable bangers probably deserved. Case in point: Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
A consummate pop machine for more than 20 years, Ellis-Bextor has long perfected a brand of cheery warmth encased in rubbery synths and cyborg metallics. Her Sunday Pyramid Stage set toggles between both extremes, nodding both to the icy cool of her early career and the joyous ease of her modern work, best exemplified by her lockdown-era kitchen discos and her reputation as a star who is just really, really nice.
“This is pretty flipping exciting,” she says at the top of her set, very much embodying your favourite primary school art teacher – who also moonlights as a pop behemoth. “Can you feel my sequinned-leotard, excited-mother energy?” she asks. It’s a question that sums up the following set: one that is cosy and gentle when it’s not bopping.
Her early, more playful hits spark the biggest noise from the crowd. “Murder on the Dancefloor” and “Get Over You” are irresistibly frothy turn-of-the-millennium Brit classics, and in their camp merriment, the best use of Ellis-Bextor’s cut-glass English accent.
Other highlights include the rock-tinged smash “Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer)” and the swooning ballad “Young Blood”, which she devotes to her husband – Richard Jones of The Feeling, who is also on bass guitar here – as today is their 18th wedding anniversary. She spices up her star-making collaboration with Spiller, “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”, with an interpretation of Moloko’s “Sing It Back” and there’s a cover of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” – it’s a crowd-shaker, a powerful testament to the sheer Godzilla-esque size of that song, but Ellis-Bextor also emphasises the inherent vulnerability of its lyrics.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor at Glastonbury 2023— (Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock)
Later, she makes a public apology to Elton John and Cat Stevens, due to perform after her today, for all the sequins she has shed on stage. Sequins or not, though, she more than makes her mark here.
