After this year’s Grammys, if you haven’t already heard of her, you’re probably wondering what’s the deal with the mysterious, powerhouse vocalist behind the blonde wig? Well, her name is Sia and she is revolutionizing pop music.
Sia, born Sia Furler, is an Australian singer and songwriter who has been writing for nearly 20 years, mostly for other pop artists such as Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Rhianna, Beyoncé, and more. However, her earlier recordings were more in an indie-pop, acid jazz, and alternative rock style than her work for the aforementioned artists, and garnered her much praise in her native Australia. In 2011, Sia came into the spotlight with her first international hit “Titantium”—a collaboration with David Guetta. Sia originally wrote the song for another artist. In an interview with NPR’s Sam Sanders, Sia explains Guetta’s sly work by saying, “I wrote it for Alicia Keys, and then she passed on it. Then Mary J. Blige sang it and he took her vocal off it, and put my vocal back on, my demo vocal, without asking and released it.”
Sia, having no idea she was about to become a pop sensation, was very upset. She had planned on retiring from singing—wanting to focus her career solely on song writing. Without a say in her newfound fame as an artist, Sia decided that she would no longer show her face. On a recent cover of Billboard Magazine, Sia is posed with a brown paper bag over her face. She explains her concealment—“I thought it would be a funny joke that I’m getting away with. And it was, partly, I don’t wanna go out and sell my soul, my body, my peace of mind.”
Sia, in her recent performances on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Saturday Night Live, and the Grammys, has been hidden behind a blonde cropped wing—her new trademark. She rarely faces the audience and allows her mini-me, Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms, to steal the show with her beautiful dancing.
In a business defined by flashy, oversexualized images, Sia’s decision to hand over the spotlight to a kid, Maddie is just twelve, is groundbreaking. In DanceOn’s “Making of Elastic Heart” video, Sia tells how she picked Maddie to be her mini-me—“I cried when I watched something that she did. And I thought if I can cry watching a kid do that kind of choreography that’s highly commercial, then she must have something special.” Sia fought the pop music status quo by portraying the girl simply in a nude leotard and her trademark wig. Her use of contemporary dance pushes Maddie to showcase her incredible talent, but also, her untapped performance potential. Sia does this again and again, shocking us into a state of deep emotional response. She pushes Shia LeBeouf out of his comfort-zone in her video “Elastic Heart.” While the video was criticized for accusations of pedophilia, Shia’s performance is intense and unlike anything the actor has done before.
We saw her ability to stir emotions and push well-known celebrities to their full potential in her Grammy performance—transforming SNL comedy star Kristen Wiig into a capricious contemporary dancer. The performance ended in a standing ovation. Many were impressed by her incredible display of passion in a style so foreign to the persona we know.
Sia’s lyrics even fight to bring deeper meaning to pop music. In her song “Chandelier,” with its intense chorus, she is singing about alcoholism. Fighting with the disease in the past, Sia tells Sam Sanders of NPR, “I wrote the song because there’s so many party-girl anthems in pop. And I thought it would be interesting to do a different take on that.” Sia doesn’t glamorize parties like pop music is wont to do, but through her lyrics and vocal delivery, she provides a grittier, more jarring, and more realistic perspective on substance abuse.
Sia is an unconventional talent, which is evident in her compositional style. She admits in her interview with NPR that she doesn’t read music and has limited knowledge of the piano. Her collaborator, Greg Kurstin, will start playing and Sia will scat until words take shape. Sia says it is normally a matter of minutes until she has written a full song. “Chandelier” took four minutes to write the chords, 12-15 to write the lyrics, and 10-15 to cut the vocals. In about one hour Sia is able to produce a fully-composed hit.
Sia has said that she gets enough money from pop songwriting to allow her more freedom to produce music and art that feels true to her—yet another reason she is one of the coolest artists out there. She is not confined by money or pressure to uphold a certain image.
She is simply making art that speaks for itself and it is beautiful.