Strictly Come Dancing star admits she could have died on show after unseen moment
Life very nearly imitated art for one former Strictly Come Dancing contestant when she decided to unclip a safety feature during a daring performance
Sophie Ellis-Bextor joked she could have died on Strictly after her decision
(Image: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire )
One of Strictly Come Dancing's most dazzling former contestants said they found the prospect of almost dying live on the show "slightly amusing".
In what would have been a strange case of life almost imitating art, Sophie Ellis-Bextor said that a routine she performed during her stint on the show nearly ended as murder on the dancefloor.
The pop star was paired up with dancer Brendan Cole when she appeared in 2013, but finished fourth behind ex-Coronation Street actress Natalie Gumede, Good Morning Britain host Susanna Reid and champion Abbey Clancy.
She went two places better a year later in the Christmas special where she finished second behind Team GB Olympic gymnast Louis Smith.
But it was her exploits on the 2013 season that she dared to share in a podcast. In it, she said the prospect of her dying from doing a stunt would have been ironic given her 2001 smash hit, Murder On The Dancefloor.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed a routine involving a giant disco ball for Strictly
(Image: Joseph Raynor/Reach PLC)
"I began the show dance suspended above the Strictly dance floor in a disco ball. I was supposed to have a little clip, and I decided not to use it," she said on the podcast Where There's A Will, There's A Wake.
"I was slightly amused at the idea that live on telly I might plummet to my death, falling out of a disco ball onto a dance floor."
She burst into hysterics saying that, before concluding: "Anyway, it didn't happen. But I think something similar, I might as well just embrace it."
Mel Giedroyc, who hosted the podcast, then asked: "Did they [Strictly's producers] not know that you haven't put the clip on?"
Sophie, with husband Richard Jones, fears people will mock her when she dies
(Image:)
Sophie, married to The Feeling bassist Richard Jones, replied: "Why would they know? I'm up there. I had it on when they took me up. I just undid it when I was up there because I thought…"
Mel then asked: "Is it because you didn't want to have that fumble moment?"
Sophie answered back: "Yeah, because I had to get out quite quickly to start the routine. I just thought I don't want to be faffing about with a clip. So I just undid it and I felt all right. I was sitting a bit like that, but inside a spherical part of the edge."
The podcast, in which celebrities talk about how they would like to die, also saw Sophie admit that being associated with her most famous single was often "annoying" and she feared being the butt of any jokes if she were to pass away.
She said: "So I have realised not long ago… I used to always say, 'I cannot possibly die in a nightclub because my death would immediately become a joke'. Immediately they'll be like, 'murder on the dance floor, obviously'."
Her new album Perimenopop comes out on September 12
(Image: Lorne Thomson/Redferns)
"I don't want you to be murdered, though, Sophie!" cried out Mel, before Sophie said: "OK. I'm not going to be murdered. No, absolutely not. But then I realised not that long ago, it doesn't matter how I die, that joke will be made. Because someone will say, 'Did you hear how Sophie died? The other person will say, 'Was it murder on the dance floor?'
"I cannot escape that now. It's going to be a joke so quick, like within five minutes. It's so annoying."
The singer was talking weeks before her long-awaited new album Perimenopop will be released on September 12. With music on the agenda, Sophie also revealed one standout song she would love to have played at her funeral.
Article continues below
"Well, you see…" she began. "I've always planned to have Mickey [Toni Basil's 1982 hit] because I loved it so much when I was a kid."
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