La Roux is Elly Jackson alone, and she returns on 6 November 2026 with a fourth album, Old Flames. Her last record, Supervision, came out in February 2020, making this her first new album in six years. She has said she lost her voice and had a nervous breakdown.
The “Ten Years” Claim, and What Her Records Show
Her own figure describes an earlier disappearance, not the whole gap in her catalogue.
In a video posted in September 2026, set to a remix of “Bulletproof”, Jackson wrote: “I literally wrote and sung this song, lost my voice, had a nervous breakdown and disappeared for 10 years.” She added that she was back now. Headlines carried the ten-year figure, but her release history records two separate absences rather than one continuous one.
- La Roux, 26 June 2009: The debut reached No. 2 in the UK, produced the No. 1 single “Bulletproof”, and won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album in February 2011.
- Trouble in Paradise, 21 July 2014: The second album peaked at No. 6 in the UK and was the last release before her longest silence.
- Supervision, 7 February 2020: The third album, self-released on her own Supercolour Records.
- Old Flames, 6 November 2026: The fourth album, on Vertigo Records.
Measured album to album, one gap runs from 2014 to 2020 and a second from 2020 to 2026. Vice reported in September 2026 that the ten-year description fits the earlier stretch, when she was largely out of public view, rather than the years since Supervision.
La Roux Became One Person in 2012
The act began as a duo and lost half of itself before its second album was finished.
It was formed in London in 2008 by Jackson, born Eleanor Kate Jackson in March 1988, and the producer Ben Langmaid. Langmaid left in 2012, during work on Trouble in Paradise, though the split was not publicly confirmed until 2014.
Coverage at the time attributed his exit to creative differences, and Langmaid said he was “truly saddened” by it. He still holds co-writing credits on several tracks of the album he walked away from.
Jackson kept the name. Everything since has appeared as La Roux with her as the only member, and Supervision was the first album she made entirely alone.
What She Says Caused the First Disappearance
By her own account, her voice failed and her mental health gave way.
Jackson has described losing her voice and having a nervous breakdown in the years after her debut made her famous at 21. She has not given a clinical account of either, and no medical detail has been made public.
Talking in May 2025 about the songs that became Old Flames, she described a retreat that hardened into a trap. “Your safe space becomes your cage,” she said, and “suddenly becomes very boring and very trapping.”
In comments reported in September 2026, she also said the public read her wrongly in that era. “I think people think I’m really harsh. But I was actually just really nervous and quite shy.”
Losing a voice has pushed other singers off the road for years at a stretch, a pattern visible in what happened to Jon Bon Jovi.
How the Pandemic Erased Her 2020 Comeback
Supervision landed weeks before the world shut down, and the tour meant to carry it never ran.
The album arrived on 7 February 2020. Its international tour was pushed back to November 2020, then cancelled outright.
Jackson has said the collapse left her unsure whether to carry on at all. “It took a couple of years to know if I even wanted to make another record or if there was any point,” she told AnOther Magazine in August 2026, while defending the delay as useful: “You need a gap before you make new work.”
She has described the end of that period as a state of stasis, with her mental health, in her words, “possibly not the best”.
She Was Never Completely Gone
Jackson kept appearing on other artists’ records and went back on stage in 2025.
She featured on CASisDEAD’s “Park Assist” in 2021, Baby Tate’s “Feedback” in October 2022 and Chromeo’s “Discoproof” in 2023. In 2022 her voice reached the UK top ten again without any new La Roux release, when Tion Wayne’s “IFTK”, built on a sample of “In for the Kill”, peaked at No. 6.
Live work resumed before the album was announced. She played shows in the United States, Paris and London between March and May 2025, then spent June to October 2026 supporting Hilary Duff’s Lucky Me Tour.
That record of activity is why “disappeared” overstates the case for the most recent years. Readers after a longer and more total withdrawal can see what happened to Duffy.
What Old Flames Is, and When It Arrives
Old Flames is due on 6 November 2026 through Vertigo Records, her first major-label album since 2014.
Three singles have trailed it. “Cabin Fever” came first, in May 2026, followed by “Babyline” in June and “Lose Myself” over the summer.
Jackson has framed the record as a farewell to an earlier self. “Old Flames is essentially me processing why I’ve behaved the way that I have and saying goodbye to it,” she has said, calling it “a farewell to that way of behaving in love and life”, and describing the title as partly about “letting go of the previous version of La Roux”.
Its subjects include the end of a long relationship, loneliness tied to addiction, and reconciling her sexuality and identity in public, according to NME’s report of 17 September 2026. She has been plain that the weight is optional: “You don’t have to know the deep undertones,” she said. “It’s pop, not emo.”
As of 17 October 2026 the album has not yet been released, and nothing has been announced about what follows it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is La Roux a Band or One Person?
One person. It started as a duo in 2008 and has been Elly Jackson alone since Ben Langmaid left in 2012.
How Long Was La Roux Actually Away?
Six years and nine months separate Supervision in February 2020 from Old Flames in November 2026. The widely quoted ten years refers to an earlier spell out of the public eye.
Why Did La Roux Stop Singing?
She has said she lost her voice and had a nervous breakdown after her early success, and that the cancellation of her 2020 tour later left her unsure whether to make another record.
When Is Old Flames Released?
On 6 November 2026, through Vertigo Records.
What Was La Roux’s Biggest Hit?
“Bulletproof”, which reached No. 1 in the UK in 2009 and No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
