Sophie Ellis-Bextor can't believe it's taken her this long to get back here

British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor is frustrated it took her 25 years to get back to New Zealand.

But that doesn't dampen the spirits of the disco queen, who recently re-emerged thanks to her hit bop, 'Murder on the Dance Floor', when it featured in the cult film, Saltburn.

“I'm frustrated it's taken this long, but that doesn't stop me being super happy and excited," she told RNZ's Saturday Morning.

Ellis-Bextor has two upcoming shows in New Zealand - she will play at Hamilton's new Waikato Regional Theatre on 3 February, before heading to the James Hay Theatre in Christchurch the following night. She then shoots across the Tasman for a string of Australia sets.

The singer last visited NZ on the back of her hit debut album Read My Lips.

“I was only in New Zealand for three days. I was in Auckland - and it's going to sound over-effusive, but it's absolutely sincere - I thought it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in my life, and I thought to myself, I have to return."

Ellis-Bextor is busier than ever, she says, with her worldwide 2001 hit ‘Murder on the Dance Floor' reaching a new generation of fans after it was featured in Saltburn and was covered by Royel Otis.

Her career has been marked by such serendipity, she says.

“The longer I've been able to do what I do, the more I realise it's so out of my hands. And you need a little bit of something in the ether, I think.”

Her solo career launched when her first big hit, 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)' fell into her path after her British indie band, Theaudience, disbanded. Her publishing company suggested her as featured vocalist to DJ and record producer Spiller.

The pivot to dance from indie guitar music was unusual in the early 2000s, she says.

“Nowadays, people genre hop all the time. But this was the late 90s, early noughties. And it just wasn't a thing.

“So, for me, doing a dance record, firstly, I had no idea it was going to be as successful as it was. But secondly, I just thought there's something about it I like. It'll give me back my day job for a bit.”

In the end, it changed her life.

“It's definitely been the most significant song of my career, for sure.”

It threw her at the age of 21 into the limelight, an overwhelming experience, she says, but one she realised she had to capitalise on.

“If you're making music, then momentum is your friend. And when things run fast...my thing has always been trying to see a little path through the trees, as it were.

“And I thought, right, come on, do not waste this opportunity. All I wanted to do was sing. I wanted to sing come good or bad weather. So, I was like, this is pretty golden.”

Ellis-Bextor has pursued various side projects over the years, her Kitchen Disco performances on Instagram were a Covid lockdown hit and her podcast Spinning Plates, where she talks to women who combine motherhood with careers, has notched up 170 interviews- former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern among them.

“I'd wanted to speak to her for so long because all my guests are working women who happen to be mothers… I'm a curious little bird anyway. I'm like, how on Earth did it feel to be the youngest ever female world leader and also give birth to your first baby in term? I really had so many questions for her.”

The mother of five sons’ latest album Perimenopop celebrates the passing of time, she says.

“We're all going to get older and we're all going to have to walk in step with ourselves when those days come and those birthdays arrive if we're lucky enough to have them.

So, it helped me step out on stage in my tinsel epaulets and go, well, here we go - this is 46.”