Is this the new recipe for reaching the top of the charts? Release a song, have some success, and then let it simmer for a few decades to achieve greater success when it stars in a key scene in a popular work of fiction?
• Also read: Saltburn: Manipulation, Murder and Eroticism
After Kate Bush, whose track “Running Up That Hill” experienced an even more glorious second life in 2022 than when it was released in 1985 thanks to its inclusion in the series “Stranger Things,” it is now the turn of the pop singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor Succeed with a song made of mothballs.
The disco-pop track “Murder on the Dancefloor” from the 2001 album “Read My Lips” has been a hit on digital platforms ever since moviegoers heard it in the film “Saltburn,” which Amazon Prime has been releasing since December. Listen online and on TikTok.
It has just reached number two on the UK charts for the second time in 22 years and entered Billboard magazine's Hot 100 for the first time.
And all because it accompanies an already almost iconic scene at the very end of Emerald Fennell's film, in which the main character dances naked in a mansion.
Open to the unexpected
The popularity of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, a 44-year-old British artist who had a successful career without being an international star on the same level as other female pop singers, suffered the same fate as the song.
A simple Google search brings up several recent articles covering the history of his song's revival.
“It’s a good example of what I love about my job. You always have to be open to the unexpected,” the singer said in an interview with Forbes magazine.
She makes the best of it. She even recorded her own video on TikTok of herself dancing to her song in a hotel, as several other TikTokers have done since Saltburn's release.
“I wanted to have fun,” she told Le Parisien. “I brought a headband with reindeer horns like we see in Saltburn to my New Year's party and the idea was to dance in the hallway like in the movies.” But dressed on the other hand! I'm not the type of person who dances naked. It was a way to respond to what was happening around the piece. You present a song to the world and it becomes known to everyone. The way people are interested in this piece now, it comes back to me and tells me new things about my music. This new love is reflected in me.”
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor has seven albums to her credit, including the most recent, Hannahwas released in June 2023.
- We can also hear Ellis-Bextor's voice in the Quebec film Solo, released in 2023. She participates in the song Groovejet (If This Ain'tlove)which appears on the soundtrack.