Sophie Ellis-Bextor Concert Review: A Night to Remember

While I’ve always been a fan of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, I didn’t fully appreciate her as an artist until I saw her live in 2024 when she was supporting “The Human League”. Her half-set performance on that tour last year was incredible and made me realise she had many more hit singles than I remembered. The energy of her performance was fun, and I still fully appreciated it despite being at the far end of the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.

Since then, my wife and I have listened to hours of her music, revisiting albums and discovering some new ones. We just had to book tickets for this 2025 tour, and we’ve been listening to her music a lot in the lead-up.

We bought tickets in March (so quite late after sales started) and had a few months to wait to see her perform in Oxford on June 7th. We were joined by our 14-year-old daughter and a family friend, who also love Sophie’s music.

For this review, I’ll share general details, and you can choose if you wish to reveal some extra info such as set-lists by expanding reveal sections. At the time of writing, there are about four more UK dates left on the tour, followed by international dates throughout the rest of the year.

On the day we arrived at the “New Theatre Oxford”, the age group in the audience was quite mixed, unlike the older audiences we had seen at concerts like Culture Club. Many people were dressed up and wearing sparkly outfits.

We searched for the well-publicised “Sophie Ellis-Bextor” Photo Booth and found it in the bar area downstairs. We had expected a long queue, as it had been advertised on Sophie’s social media, but surprisingly, it was quite quick to join as we were there early. Once we had our photos taken, the machine printed a free souvenir passport-sized set of photos of us which are styled in the fashion of the new Sophie Ellis-Bextor “Perimenopop” album promo art.

The Photo Booth also had a few other surprises. If you’re curious, feel free to reveal or pass over.

Photo Booth secrets (press to reveal)

/The Photo Booth will not only print two copies of your pictures, you will also get an email with a digital copy. The email also contains an extra unreleased Sophie song called “Devotion” and a discount code for 10% off pre-orderin the new album “Perimenopop”. A surprise bonus is that during the gig, the photos from the booth are displayed interactively behind Sophie during one track. This was fun and our pictures were displayed for all to see and were really large, so if your photo is used, you will definitely see it and it will cycle a number of times on display. It does appear that any photos used are of audience members from that evenings performance. It was so funny to see ourselves on the visuals behind Sophie!

This event is meticulously planned and well thought out.  The unique touches throughout this gig make it a memorable evening spent with Sophie.

Seat wise, we were at the very back of the theatre but that did not bother us. It was still much closer compared to our previous arena show and we still had an excellent view. One advantage of being at the back is that some had extra room to dance and enjoy the show. We still also managed to get some pretty decent photos as well.

To start the evening proceedings ,there is a support act for 30 minutes followed by a 30 minute intermission before Sophie takes to the stage for somewhere between 90 to 110 minutes.

“Sumner” who supported are an Australian electro pop duo. I had listened to them prior to this gig and they are excellent as I wanted to hear their sound before this gig. I had instantly liked their music which is catchy with excellent lead vocals and electronic accompaniment. A good start to the evening and they went down well with the audience. I will definitely be listening to them again.

Sound and visuals throughout the night are spot on and the stage was all set for when the Sophie and her band appear on stage. The stage has raised sections for the band and a massive screen behind them the size of the stage. As you would expect, audio and visuals play before Sophie appears after huge build up and audience anticipation.

It has to be said that the vocals are amazing. Sophie sounded first class and this is definitely my favourite gig that I can recall in the last year. She is the most consistent artist performing perfectly throughout the performance with a strong vocal sound and range. She is also very entertaining to watch and is dancing a lot. The stage also has constant visuals and graphics to support the music, including video that appears to be specially pre recorded video footage of Sophie performing to enhance the show. She also works through a number of costume changes throughout the evening.

Want to know more about the song choices, setlist and other surprises? (press to reveal)

/ The set-list is available to view at Setlist.fm below, and it should update as time goes on. My personal favourites were “Hypnotised”, “Hearing in Colour”, and the Madonna “Like a Prayer” cover. As you would expect, she does, of course, sing “Murder on the Dancefloor” and I enjoyed the entire set. 

Throughout the night, some of the song choices were random, with Sophie displaying a list of songs on a screen and then a button press decided what she would play. Thus, making the gig unique with opportunities to hear more obscure material as well. For instance, we got to hear a new album track, “Dolce Vita”.

Another bonus was at the very end of the show with the final encore. She performed from the balcony the track “A Pessimist is never disappointed” by The Audience from when she was the lead singer (pre solo career). We could also see her a little but more close up at this time.

Sophie’s set list was an incredible mix of newer tracks, hits, and covers. The show built to a massive climax, with a real party/club sound at times with good lighting. I love the new tracks already.

Throughout her performance, you can tell she is a genuinely nice person who also cares about her fans and appreciates you turning out to see her. It’s actually hard to believe how much time has passed since she first started performing and releasing her music. She’s very chatty and interacts with the crowd a lot, which is a nice touch.

The audience was definitely buzzing by the end of the performance. We’d definitely go see her again and it was well worth the cost of admission. Next time, we’ll book as soon as dates are released to secure better seats as it was the perfect evening out.

Overall, it was an amazingly polished show that we thoroughly enjoyed. We’ll definitely continue to follow Sophie and hopefully see her perform again soon. She’s excellent live, and you just have to see her perform to appreciate how talented she is.

Rating – 5 out of 5

Footnote – As always, do add comments if you wish. Please remember that in the same way I will respect others’ views, please also respect my viewpoint of the event.