Ellis-Bextor was born in London on 10 April 1979 to mother Janet Ellis, who was later a presenter on BBC's children's television programmes Blue Peter and Jigsaw, and father Robin Bextor, a film producer and director: they separated when she was four. As a young girl, she appeared on several Blue Peter items, with no indication given on-screen that she was Ellis's daughter. She attended St. Stephen's School and later Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith.

According to Ellis-Bextor in April 2008, recording sessions for her scrapped greatest hits collection proved fruitful, so she decided to release a fourth studio album. In October 2008, Ellis-Bextor covered the Dolly Parton song "Jolene"; the track was released on the soundtrack to the BBC2 sitcom Beautiful People. In November 2008, Ellis-Bextor recorded a track with the French DJ Junior Caldera, "Can't Fight This Feeling", for his 2009 album Debut. Released as a single in February 2010, it reached the top 20 in France.  In August 2009, she released a five-track live EP from the 2009 iTunes Festival, during which she performed previous singles of hers and a new track, "Starlight" (not included on the EP). Freemasons worked with Ellis-Bextor for their album Shakedown 2 on "Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer)", which was released as a single in June 2009 and peaked at 13 in the UK.  Ellis-Bextor's fourth album, Make a Scene, was released in June 2011. She described it as "very much [a dance album]--more so than any of my other albums."  Looking to her next effort, Ellis-Bextor said she was planning an "album that's really different. I think I need to do something different now and move on from the dance stuff. I might come back to it, but I think this album is a good way to bow out of the dance sound for now. I think it's finishing on a high." She worked with Calvin Harris, Armin van Buuren, Richard X, Dimitri Tikovoi, Hannah Robinson, Metronomy, and Liam Howe from the Sneaker Pimps. The first single from the album, "Bittersweet" (co-written by Freemasons and Hannah Robinson), was released in May 2010 and reached 25 on the UK Singles Chart. "Not Giving Up on Love" was released as the second single from the album, in August 2010 in Europe, followed by "Starlight" as the third single in May 2011. "Off & On" was the fourth and final single.

How did it do on the charts?