“Playing live to crowds has always been my favourite,” Sophie Ellis-Bextor tells me while travelling between festivals. The Murder On The Dancefloor singer is currently playing summer festivals before going on tour and is loving every second of it. “I’m so lucky to be doing this.”

As Ellis-Bextor became famous for hosting her ‘kitchen discos’ during lockdown, she knows all too well how much people love to dance in her kitchen. And the kitchen is now beginning to rival the living room as the heart of the home for hosting and socialising. “For me, the kitchen is the communal space of the home. It’s where everybody heads to when they wake up. It’s where we start and end our days – catching up with each other and checking in with each other. It’s the heart of the home,” says the singer.

She also shares that during the Covid-19 lockdown, the kitchen became even more important as there was nowhere else to go to dance and let off steam – so the kitchen became that place. Ellis-Bextor’s kitchen discos exploded in popularity over the pandemic, which she said was “pretty bonkers”. She explains that the whole thing is hard for her to get her head around and it was a strange chapter of her life. “It felt like everyone was coming round to my house when I couldn’t even go to my mum’s house. I’m so glad we had that community because I don’t know how I would’ve gotten through that period without it.”

For the singer, it wasn’t just joyful; it was also cathartic – a way to let go of the stress and tension of an uncertain world. “Music has always been that tonic for me.”

Ellis-Bextor is now working with LG to help launch its new MoodUP refrigerator. This home appliance is made to any kitchen style and mood with LED panels that can create over 1,800 colour combinations and built-in speakers that can be connected to play music via Bluetooth.

“The kitchen is the heart of my home”: Sophie Ellis-Bextor on the joy and catharsis of her kitchen discos