Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Main Stage
★★★★☆
A posh house in the distance, a field full of bright young things bopping in the dusk, the odd Barry Keoghan doppelganger milling about. The Saltburn-like qualities of Electric Picnic are surely not lost on Sophie Ellis-Bextor as the Murder on the Dancefloor singer anoints day one of the festival with a riotously enjoyable set.
Saltburn has given a new lease of relevancy to Ellis-Bextor and to her biggest hit, which famously plays over the closing credits of Emerald Fennell’s eat-the-rich blockbuster. This is the tune everyone wants to hear as dusk settles over Stradbally, and her performance draws an enthusiastic crowd to the main stage.
Just like Saltburn, however, this is a gig with a few tricks up its sleeve. First, Ellis-Bextor treats her audience to a blitzing cover of Alcazar’s Crying at the Discotheque. It’s a dance-floor dust devil that makes for the perfect soundtrack to the opening night of the festival and is elevated by Ellis-Bextor’s mischievous stage presence (and by a drummer in a pigeon mask).
Wearing a Taylor Swift-style sequinned bodysuit with a slashed matador cape, Ellis-Bextor radiates naughty-older-sister vibes. In addition to her solid fashion choices, the performance highlights her ability to make other people’s smashes feel written specially for her. That point is brought home early on as she breezes through a stomping revamp of Cher’s Take Me Home.
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Ellis-Bextor attracted a huge following during the pandemic with her weekly Kitchen Discos. These were grandiose karaoke evenings during which she covered New Order and Lady Gaga while trying not to trip over her children or set the dishwasher off by accident.
Live-streamed to grateful fans around the world, the shows served up some much-needed silliness in dark times. She conjures that spirit again as she sprints through a medley of her early techno belters, including Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), her sun-splashed chart-topper from the summer of 2000.
This is followed by a cover of Madonna’s Like a Prayer that gives Madge’s sepulchral bopper a frothy makeover. Then comes the song we’ve been waiting for – an epic finale lapped up by the audience, who join in on the chorus. Gleeful, giddy and glammy, Stradbally’s Murder on the Dancefloor moment makes for the perfect end to a killer gig.
