The song closes out Emerald Fennell’s film,soundtracking a climactic final scene that sees Irish actor Barry Keoghan prancing through a stately home,totally naked. The combination of full-frontal nudity and Ellis-Bextor’s much-loved noughties hit gave the scene instant viral potential,and unsurprisingly,the internet did the rest.
Sophie-Ellis Bextor’s 2001 single Murder on the Dancefloor has propelled back to the charts thanks to its part in Emerald Fennell’s hit film Saltburn.Supplied
Murder on the Dance Floor is back on the charts,thanks to the film,peaking at number six in Australia and number eight in the UK,and even charting in the Billboard 100 in the US,marking the first US chart appearance ever for Ellis-Bextor.
All of which is to say,Sophie Ellis-Bextor should be on top of the world right now. Instead,she is hiding in a closet surrounded by extravagant gowns. “I’m sorry,I’ve got all five children home right now,and this is the only place I can find peace and quiet,” laughs Ellis-Bextor,44,while speaking to this masthead.
Peace and quiet have been hard to come by for the singer ever since “theSaltburnEffect” relaunchedMurder on the Dance Floorback into the public arena.
When we talk,Ellis-Bextor is fresh from making her US TV debut onThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and will soon head our way as the headline act at the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras’ 2024 Bondi Beach Party. While some artists struggle to reconcile being known for one huge hit,Ellis-Bextor is embracing her second wind.
“I’ve never had a complicated relationship with the song. I’ve been singing it really happily for 20-odd years,so it feels quite magical and celebratory,” she says. “When I first wrote my first album,it was the one my friends picked out as a single,so it’s always reminded me of my friends,and we love to dance to it.”
The re-emergence of the song has been largely driven by the Gen Z audience,who have embracedSaltburn’sTikTok-ability. The song even inspired aSaltburnTikTok trend,which sees users showcase their lavish homes whileMurder On The Dance Floor plays.
At the time of writing,the #MurderOnTheDanceFloor hashtag had over 200 million views,while the #Saltburn hashtag boasted over six billion.
“The social media popularity has probably been the strangest thing,especially for my teenagers,who have been quite bemused to bump into the song on TikTok,” laughs Ellis-Bextor. “I think that was quite challenging for my 15-year-old,like imagine finding your mum on TikTok.”
While it might seem strange to Ellis-Bextor,Murder on the Dance Flooris the latest in a long line of ‘nostalgia’ hits to return to the charts off the back of well-crafted viral moments.
In 2020,Fleetwood Mac’sDreams soundtracked a viral skateboarding TikTok and promptly hit the charts,and in 2022,Kate Bush’s 1985 hitRunning Up That Hill reached number one in the UK thanks to a spot onStranger Things.
Even Ellis-Bextor’s fellow 2000s pop star Natasha Bedingfield is back in the charts after her 2004 songUnwrittenwas featured in the recent rom-comAnyone But You,starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell.
“You get very clever people like Emerald Fennell to sort of tap into the cyclical nature of things,” says Ellis-Bextor. “In the 1990s,we reminisced about the 1970s,the music came back,the fashion came back,and now it feels like people are repeating that with the 2000s. Either way,it’s very fun for me and Natasha.”
Ahead of her trip to Australia for Mardi Gras,Ellis-Bextor has already been in touch with her newest fans,Sydney duo Royel Otis. The pair recently coveredMurder on the Dance Floor for Triple J’s,their cover exploding online and racking up millions of views.
“It’s very cool;we’ve been chatting online,and they’re so lovely;it’s quite remarkable to see how well their version is doing,” she says. “That,for me,is the real enduring legacy of this song;it was always intended to be a communal moment,and everyone that interacts with it seems to enjoy it,and I think that’s really lovely.”
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