On 09/03/2026 at 14:40, Viper* said:

Feel this is likely to be Sophie vs Tatu.

Called it.

02 t.A.T.u. - All The Things She Said

avg: 9.21

👑 Pop Royalty: 11 (Scene, Julian_, Roba., Dobbo, Chapman, blacksquare, Chez Wombat), 10 (gooddelta, Mango, leww, Billy., Tafty, Jade, lewistgreen, Nina West)

❌ Pop Flop: 5 (Brer), 6 (vibe)

An 'All The Things She Said' victory may have been the perfect surprise for some but instead it settles for the runner-up spot, with a strong 9.21 average.

Russian duo Lena Katina and Julia Volkova originally started out as part of a children's group called Neposedy, which also featured Sergey Lazarev, of two bronze medals at Eurovision fame. The t.A.T.u. project was later formed in 1999 by producer Ivan Shapovalov and his business partner Aleksandr Voytinskiy, who held auditions in Moscow for teenage girls. The two eventually successful applicants Lena and Julia had their previous band connection but did not know that the other would be auditioning. They initially released Russian-language music including the original version of 'All The Things She Said', titled 'Ya Soshla s Uma'. This iteration was written by Sergio Galoyan, Martin Kierszenbaum, Valery Polienko and Elena Kiper. Kierszenbaum may not look familiar on the surface, but his alias is Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, which Lady Gaga sings as a producer tag in several tracks on The Fame - including 'Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)'. Elena Kiper found the inspiration for this song when she dreamt of kissing another woman while at the dentist. The original production for the song was handled by the girl's aforementioned manager, Ivan Shapovalov.

The original dates back to 2000 and an English-language launch was eventually planned a couple of years later, with the album 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane. 'Ya Soshla s Uma' was rewritten as 'All The Things She Said' by Trevor Horn, the man behind several innovative, impactful production contributions during the '80s, such as for the controversial 'Relax' by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. On top of writing, he also provided updated production for this English-language version of t.A.T.u.'s song.

'All The Things She Said' was released as the lead single from 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane and caused a lot of controversy, due to its music video. This promo shows the two then-teenage girls behind bars in school uniforms, also sharing multiple kisses. Several corners of the media were outraged, including British television presenting duo Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, who dubbed it sick and paedophilic. Much like the aforementioned 'Relax', this song rose above its controversial status and went on to be an enormous hit. 'All The Things She Said' came close to charting in the top 40 based on imports alone, in the weeks leading up to its official release in February 2003. It then spent four weeks at #1. In the process, it blocked Kelly Rowland's 'Stole', Sinead Quinn's 'I Can't Break Down' and Justin Timberlake's 'Cry Me A River' from the top. The girls achieved a landmark feat as the first Russian act ever to achieve a U.K. #1 hit. It later placed at #6 in that year's EOY chart.

The track remains popular, even recently appearing in the U.K. Spotify top 200 chart due to its use on hit TV show Heated Rivalry. It currently has 856 million+ streams on Spotify and 518 million+ YouTube views.

'All The Things She Said' was the closing track on Pop Princesses and certainly ended the compilation on a high for many. t.A.T.u. received an impressive 7 top scores of 11, more than any other act in the rate. These were awarded by: Scene, Julian_, Roba, Dobbo, Chapman, blacksquare and Chez Wombat. However, the possibility of this winning may have driven Brer mad, as he gave the song its lowest score - a bang average 5.

Yep. Expected MOTB to win here especially when in the Sophie rate, it was over 10 average.

ATTSS is still a tune to this day!

Still an utter classic, even if the faux-lesbian/one of them being a homophobe thing does take the shine off it slightly.

Happy that Sophie made it. "All The Things She Said" is OK, but not among my top 5 for this compilation.

In like All The Things She Said, but I’ve certainly gone off it over the last 23 years. Still a decent song though.

01 Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor

avg: 9.39

👑 Pop Royalty: 11 (Paddington James, Jessie Where, Brer), 10 (gooddelta, Scene, Mango, leww, DaTilt, ...ready for it, Julian_, Padamic_Tension, Roba., Dobbo, blacksquare, Jade, Chez Wombat, JosephStyles, HarryGarfield, Nina West)

❌ Pop Flop: 4 (Viper*), 7.5 (Tafty, vibe)

'Murder On The Dancefloor' has taken Sophie Ellis-Bextor all the way as she is champion of the first Pop Princesses rate, with a 9.39 average!

Read My Lips was released as Ellis-Bextor's debut album in 2001 following the success of Spiller collaboration 'Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)', recorded after the break-up of her band Theaudience. That chart-topper led the way to many opportunities for her, including an offer from Baz Luhrmann to star in the hit film Moulin Rouge!, but she turned it down to focus on a recording career. This debut solo era began with a reworking of Cher song 'Take Me Home', which charted at #2. Sophie then followed this up with the biggest hit of her career...

The foundations of 'Murder On The Dancefloor' were written by New Radicals front-man Gregg Alexander way back in 1994. The hook and melody of the song came to him during a moment of frustration when his Ford Mustang would not start, which prevented him from attending Detroit House clubs that night. His band then faced urgent pressure from their record label to release a debut single. Their ultimatum was putting out either 'You Get What You Give' or 'Murder On The Dancefloor', citing budget and timing reasons for only being able to record one of them at the time. They settled on the former as Alexander said it was "everything I'd always wanted to say inside five minutes". This song became an anthem for the band while a fellow future classic was left to gather dust, until Alexander moved to Notting Hill. Their very own 'Sophie's choice' reject was about to find new life with a certain Sophie...

Gregg Alexander met up with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and provided her with the unfinished demo of 'Murder On The Dancefloor'. The two of them rejigged parts of the song and finished the lyrics together. It finally got its moment in the sun in 2001, when it was released as the sophomore single from Read My Lips that December. 'Murder On The Dancefloor' matched the peak of 'Take Me Home' when it also entered at #2. She was blocked by Daniel Bedingfield's 'Gotta Get Thru This' on two separate occasions, the second time on her fifth week of charting, in January 2002. However, this would not be the end of the road. Black comedy thriller film Saltburn became a phenomenon at the start of 2024 and contained a 2000s-heavy soundtrack. 'Murder On The Dancefloor' plays during a... highly memorable closing scene, which brought a lot of attention to the song once more. It subsequently took off on TikTok and gave the track a second wind. 'Murder On The Dancefloor' once again made #2 in the U.K. chart over two decades on. This time it frustratingly stalled at this position for five separate weeks, behind an even bigger phenomenon in Noah Kahan's 'Stick Season', that year's EOY #1.

The 2024 renaissance also resulted in Sophie achieving her first ever Billboard Hot 100 hit when 'Murder On The Dancefloor' peaked at #51 across the pond. It is now a pop classic for a whole new generation and sits at over 865 million streams on Spotify. The aforementioned New Radicals hit 'You Get What You Give' has also translated to the streaming era, with over 700 million streams itself. The band eventually put out a version of 'Murder On The Dancefloor' in 2024, largely in support of Kamala Harris' presidential campaign.

Another memorable component in Ellis-Bextor's 'Murder On The Dancefloor' package is its accompanying music video, directed by a fellow British Sophie, this time Sophie Muller. She also directed the video for Amy Studt's 'Misfit' from earlier in the countdown. Sophie Ellis-Bextor is no stranger to victory, as the video sees her cheekily taking out opponents to ensure she wins a dancing competition. Her prize is a pair of heels, money and a bouquet of flowers. The green eyeshadow is a particularly standout part of the look in this video.

'Murder On The Dancefloor' could be found as track #19 on Pop Princesses right next to the aforementioned 'Misfit'.

There may be others, but Paddington James, Jessie Where and Brer selected 'Murder On The Dancefloor' as their 11 pick, therefore go home happiest with their favourite winning the rate. Meanwhile, Viper* wanted to kill the groove instead, giving this song its only sub-average score of 4.

Congrats Sophie

FULL RESULTS

1	9.39	Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Murder On The Dancefloor
2	9.21	t.A.T.u. - All The Things She Said
3	9.14	Mis-Teeq - Scandalous
4	8.95	Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle
5	8.82	Avril Lavigne - Complicated
6	8.48	Rachel Stevens - Sweet Dreams My LA Ex
7	8.30	Kylie Minogue - Spinning Around
8	8.09	Anastacia - I'm Outta Love
9	8.02	P!nk - Get The Party Started
10	7.96	Destiny's Child - Survivor
11	7.82	Christina Milian - AM To PM
12	7.77	Emma Bunton - Maybe
13	7.63	Stacie Orrico - (There's Gotta Be) More To Life
14	7.57	Amy Studt - Misfit
15	7.50	Sugababes - In The Middle
16	7.13	Jennifer Lopez - Jenny From The Block
17	7.09	Girls Aloud - Jump
18	6.96	Lumidee - Never Leave You (Uh Oooh!)
19	6.86	Kelly Clarkson - Miss Independent
20	6.75	Delta Goodrem - Born To Try
21	6.66	Holly Valance - Kiss Kiss
22	6.23	Hilary Duff - So Yesterday
23	5.34	Atomic Kitten - Ladies Night

Thank you to everyone who took part and/or followed along this was so much fun to host.

Look out for the Pop Princesses 2 rate later on in the month after some IRL plans are out of the way!

Pretty much totally the correct top 5 there! I wasn't sure Scandalous would make it that high, but it's one of the best girl group songs of the 2000s and is often overlooked in discussions like that so I'm glad to see it.

Thanks for the sparkly hosting, Jade 😎 Not certain how many songs I'll know on the other compilations but let's see!

Sophie was close to getting my 11 but it didn't matter as she won anyway. Incredible top 2.

Thanks for presenting this Jade, shall be interesting to see how the following editions of these shape up!

The right song won for me, no complaints with the results.

Looking forward to the next rate!

MOTD was only that higher than ATTSS then. Still a sizeable amount though.

I also would like to rate Pop Princesses 2, especially for 'What A Girls Wants'!

Edited Wednesday at 21:225 days by AllStarBySmashMouth

The classic of classics! Smash #2 hit twice!

I think I forgot how much I love Murder On The Dancefloor until It went viral thanks to Saltburn in 2024.

3 hours ago, AllStarBySmashMouth said:

MOTD was only that higher than ATTSS then. Still a sizeable amount though.

I also would like to rate Pop Princesses 2, especially for 'What A Girls Wants'!

I just saw the track list and there’s some great songs on there.

Thank you for hosting this @Jade . This was a lot of fun and we have a great winner. Just looked at the tracklist of PP2 and I have a clear favourite to win for this. And I have never heard of Kim-Lian.

Great work with this Jade. I’d have loved the Top 2 the other way round but generally everything wasn’t far off my own ranking.

Phenomenal top 2! (top 3 even!) This really was an A-grade pop compilation.

Thanks Jade for great hosting - really loved the extra touches in the presentation. Looking forward to the PP2 rate!!

6 hours ago, DaTilt said:

Thank you for hosting this @Jade . This was a lot of fun and we have a great winner. Just looked at the tracklist of PP2 and I have a clear favourite to win for this. And I have never heard of Kim-Lian.

Their song was in the previous Bop Idol - in fact I believe that was part of the inspiration for these rates!

I didn't have much time to take part in this rate, but I didn't really have any huge favourites out of the tracklist either - whereas looking at the next one, I have a few songs to root for, so will definitely take part. Nevertheless I've found it very interesting to follow these results and commentaries - thanks Jade!

1 hour ago, jimwatts said:

Their song was in the previous Bop Idol - in fact I believe that was part of the inspiration for these rates!

I didn't have much time to take part in this rate, but I didn't really have any huge favourites out of the tracklist either - whereas looking at the next one, I have a few songs to root for, so will definitely take part. Nevertheless I've found it very interesting to follow these results and commentaries - thanks Jade!

Totally forgot about it - I was part of that contest, but that song seemed not have a big impact on me. But great that it appeared - otherwise we would not have had this nice rating game.