About

"Murder On The Dancefloor" is a song by English singer-songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor released as a single in December 2001. The music resurfaced in January 2024 following its use in the thriller-comedy film Saltburn, particularly the scene in which the protagonist dances naked through a mansion, inspiring parodies, dance trends and a series of memes shared on Twitter / X, TikTok and Instagram.

Origin

Originally released on December 1st, 2001, the song "Murder on the Dancefloor" was written by Gregg Alexander, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor completed the lyrics. The official music video (shown below) was posted on YouTube^[1] on August 8th, 2017, amassing over 95 million views and 648,000 likes in seven years.

Inclusion In Saltburn

"Murder on the Dancefloor" had a surge in virality more than two decades after Sophie Ellis-Bextor's song was originally released due to its use in the closing scene of the movie Saltburn, which was released on November 17th, 2023. The moment from the film (shown below) was posted by YouTube^[2] user @EduardoRozaGayNerdFilmmaker on December 25th, 2023, which shows the main character Oliver (played by Barry Keoghan) dancing naked around the mansion of his friend following the conclusion of the movie's events. The post received roughly 28,000 views and 442 likes in two weeks.

Spread

After Saltburn's release in late 2023, numerous moments from the movie went viral online, including the "Murder on the Dancefloor" scene. TikTok notably aided the song's resurgence as people created a dance trend, parodies and comedy skit content related to the film's final scene.

For instance, on December 31st, 2023, Sophie Ellis-Bextor^[3] recreated the Saltburn scene (shown below, left), amassing over 10 million plays and 723,000 likes in two weeks. On January 6th, 2024, TIkTok^[4] user @louisiiiofficial uploaded a parody of "Murder on the Dancefloor" written from Saltburn's perspective (shown below, right), which garnered more than 2.7 million plays and 369,000 likes in a week.

The music also became a trending topic on X in late 2023 and early 2024, inspiring jokes and memes. For example, on January 7th, 2024, X^[5] user posted the caption "it’s a what on the dancefloor?" accompanied by a clip of a woman saying "murder," which amassed over 316,000 views and 8,000 likes in five days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References