Sophie-Ellis Bextor's Murder on the Dancefloor to surge into Top 10 as Saltburn effect continues

*Warning: This article contains spoilers for Saltburn*

Murder is very in right now. Murder on the Dancefloor, in fact. Today, Official Charts can reveal that Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 2001 classic hit is expected to return to the Top 10 of the UK's Official Singles Chart for the first time in 22 years this Friday. 

The killer (sorry) disco-pop tune's return to the upper echelons of the UK chart is thanks to its inclusion in the closing scene of writer-director Emerald Fennell's erotic psychological thriller Saltburn, which has become a surprise Christmas hit following its arrival on Amazon Prime Video in the festive period. 

Prior to Saltburn's release, Official Charts Company data confirms that Murder on the Dancefloor was enjoying average weekly streams of 292,000. However, in the first five days of this week, Murder on the Dancefloor has surged to 1.5 million streams already, placing it in line for a tremendous return to the Top 10 on Friday.

Upon original release in 2001, Murder on the Dancefloor (which was co-written by Ellis-Bextor and the song's producer, Gregg Alexander) debuted and peaked at Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart. It's one of six UK Top 10 hits for the singer, who also reached Number 1 as an uncredited vocalist on Spiller's Groovejet (If This Ain't Love).

Starring Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Rosamund Pike, Saltburn follows the exploits of Oxford student Oliver Quick (Keoghan) who becomes enamored with popular posho Felix Catton (Elordi), who invites Oliver to spend the summer at his family's ancestral home (the titular Saltburn) and...hijinks ensue. 

Murder on the Dancefloor takes centre stage during the closing moments of the film, where Keoghan's character takes part in an extended nude dance sequence to the song, following the completion of his murderous machinations against the Catton family.

Speaking to Official Charts, Sophie Ellis-Bextor says of Murder's surprising resurgence: "Emerald is a director who uses music like another character [in her scripts]. Obviously, it takes people back to a certain era. There's a nostalgia and a mood. But there's layers [to the song] and what it evokes in you. Some people have come up to me and said 'Oh my God, I didn't realise the song was literal! It's about a murder!'

"I don't think I would quite take it that far, but it's a got a little twist. It's not wholly pure [like the characters in Saltburn]."

Saltburn is a film that's bursting to the seams with a cornucopia of recogniseable classic hits (only natural given its 2006 setting) but Murder on the Dancefloor's inclusion in the soundtrack is especially inspired, if only for the fact that the tracks evocative music video, directed by Ellis-Bextor's frequent collaborator Sophie Muller, sees her on a very similar Saltburn-esque mission to win a dance competition by any means necessary. 

"I knew instinctively that I didn't want it to be a cheesy video," Sophie says. "I didn't want to have loads of models pretending to be my friends on a night out. I said to Sophie [Muller], I want it to be a dance competition...but I'm being really evil. We just wrote a list of the ways I could get rid of people. It's the most fun I've ever had filming."

Lauren Kreisler, director of Brand & Digital at Official Charts says: "We love to see the British public rediscovering chart classics, or young audiences discovering them for the first time, even, as happened with Kate Bush topping the Official Chart thanks to Stranger Things.

“The Official Chart has always reflected British popular culture, 10 years ago we introduced streaming data into the Official Singles Chart, and in the streaming era we’ve seen that a memorable song paired with a ‘memorable’ scene can be dynamite for chart success.”

Murder on the Dancefloor is out now via Polydor. Watch Saltburn now on Amazon Prime Video.