Sophie Ellis-Bextor has stopped “diminishing” her work.
The ‘Murder on the Dancefloor’ hitmaker admitted the COVID-19 pandemic has helped her to “reframe” her work and she no longer feels she has to let her career take a back seat to family life.
Sophie – whose online ‘kitchen disco’ livestreams were a huge success during the pandemic – told Big Issue magazine: “Before lockdown, I think I’ve always diminished my work.
“When I was talking about it to my kids, or friends, I’d be like, ‘I’ve got this little thing I’ve got to go do.’
“But now it’s helped me reframe that.
“I really love what I do. But also, it’s important and I don’t want to diminish it.
“So now with the kids, if they’re saying, ‘Oh I wish you were around for this, that, and the other’, I’ll be like, ‘Look, I’ve worked really hard to get these opportunities.’
“It’s just reframing, actually understanding that I do have a job and I really love it. And it’s important to me.”
The 44-year-old star – who has five sons with husband Richard Jones - is currently feeling “quite nicely adrenalized” because her work is busier than ever and it’s all doing things she enjoys.
She said: “I haven’t really been this busy before, but it’s all things I really care about.
“So I feel quite nicely adrenalized, which is lovely.
“I think if you’re a creative person, your best friend is momentum.”
Sophie’s kitchen discos allowed her to take some time away from the “mundane domestic stuff” that dominated during lockdown.
She said: “What you saw was literally what was happening here. I don’t think I coud have orchestrated that if I tried.
“But also, it felt like a kind of caricature, because obviously most of the time, like lots of families, it was all about the mundane domestic stuff.
“Keeping on top of the house, making sure you’ve got the next meal sorted, trying to think about how to support them with schoolwork or emotionally worrying about your family – all the things everybody was going through.
“And actually, no disrespect to my kids, but I didn’t even really mind how they felt about what I was doing.
“It was like, look, I need half an hour that’s mine, and so did Richard.
“I think for both of us, it was something we could distract ourselves with and feel upbeat.”
