Sophie Ellis-Bextor's ultimate disco divas
Disco Queen and multiplatinum selling artist Sophie Ellis-Bextor has been keeping the nation dancing during lockdown with her hugely popular online kitchen discos.
Packed full of essential dancefloor-ready tunes, you can hear a special two-hour Radio 2 edition, via 大象传媒 Sounds right now.
To celebrate our love of disco belters, we asked Sophie to pick out some of her favourite disco divas; the fabulous stars who've soundtracked recent kitchen boogies.
Debbie Harry
Sophie says: "Obviously not everything of Blondie’s is disco, but songs like ‘Atomic’ and ‘Heart of Glass’ are incredible disco songs. There’s just not really another frontwoman that can parallel Debbie Harry; with her effortless cool, her amazing looks, her Studio-54 outfits, her absolute nonchalance at quite how fabulous she is. And that voice: Her beautiful, beautiful voice."
Diana Ross
Sophie says: "One of the ultimate divas, really. One of my favourite things I’ve heard about Diana Ross is not only does she paint the front of her nails, she paints underneath as well, so that when she does her hand gestures, the red is visible both sides. That’s pretty awesome."
Sister Sledge
Sophie says: "I’ve seen Sister Sledge live, and they were so amazing. So inspiring. So many good songs. And they all dance in formation, which is pretty hypnotic and mesmerising."
Candi Staton
Sophie says: "I saw her performing at Bestival a few years back. She sounded phenomenal. And ‘Young Hearts Run Free’ is one of my all-time favourite disco songs. It’s got that perfect blend: The big drama of a disco song, but at its core, heartbreakingly sad lyrics. It’s a woman saying: ‘I’ve lived my life, I’ve had my love, and it robbed me of the best years of my life and left me heartbroken. Don’t let it happen to you.’ The song is also so sweeping, with its strings and brass, that you know whoever’s listening to it is probably going to fall in love with someone all over again, and the pattern will continue. But that’s disco baby - dance through it."
