A little Sophie Ellis-Bextor history lesson, in celebration of her most unexpected U.S. chart victory in 2024.
A year before she was committing murder on the doncefloor, Sophie was stepping out solo from her indie rock band Theaudience with a feature on Italian DJ Spiller’s lush “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” in 2000, shaped around samples of Tom Moulton‘s remix of the Carol Williams disco song “Love Is You” and named after the Miami nightclub (Groovejet) where Spiller first played the instrumental in ‘99 before snagging Sophie to supply vocals.
At the same time, the artist formerly (?) known as Posh Spice was going solo in her own right post-Spice Girls with “Out of Your Mind,” an extremely Y2K-era 2-step garage-pop collab with True Steppers and Dane Bowers which, if nothing else, blessed us with the line “This tune’s gonna punish you.”
The songs came out in the same week. The press had a field day, dubbing the chart battle “Posh Vs. Posher,” with Victoria hustling to promote against “the other song” with David Beckham in tow, and Sophie supplying devastatingly shady, can’t-be-fucked quotes to the media every step of the way.
The more timeless tune ultimately won of the two, leading Sophie to block Victoria from the No. 1 spot. VB would become the only Spice not to have her own solo No. 1, which she absolutely deserved for “Let Your Head Go” years later…but that’s another story.
To add insult to injury, Sophie wore a “Peckham” tee at a Radio 1 show to celebrate the victory, and told Victoria to rest up because she’s “probably knackered.” (?)
The two allegedly kissed and made up a year later backstage at a CD:UK taping, but the battle remains one for the history books.
And if you think that’s interesting, just wait until you hear about the Victoria Beckham solo album that never was.
