Sia: The Hits Written in Minutes and the Face She Keeps Out of the Light
Sia was born in Adelaide, Australia. She released her debut album, OnlySee, in 1997 and soon moved to London to sing backing vocals for Jamiroquai. For years her voice was everywhere while her name was not.
In 2011 her voice carried “Titanium,” a hit with David Guetta. She also wrote songs for other artists, among them “Diamonds” for Rihanna, which by Sia’s own account took about 14 minutes (a producer who was in the room says closer to 12).
“Chandelier” came out of a jam in the studio in under 20 minutes, according to one account, and was first meant as a song for someone else, Rihanna or Beyoncé. Sia kept it. It became one of her biggest songs, and the writer who wrote it for others ended up singing it herself.
She also decided that her face would stay out of it. In a 2015 interview she said she made the album 1000 Forms of Fear mostly to fulfil a publishing deal and hid her face while promoting it so that she would not become famous. The trick became one of the most famous in pop.
For the “Chandelier” video she had spotted a young dancer, Maddie Ziegler, on television and asked her on Twitter to be in it. The video came out on 6 May 2014. At the Grammys, Sia stood with her back to the crowd while Ziegler and Kristen Wiig performed the song.
Behind the jokes there is serious craft: a voice that cracks on purpose, a chorus that reaches the sky, and an artist who decided that the song should matter more than the face.
Sia has her own station in the Exclusive collection of Kalisha. Open the radio and press play.
— Kalisha 🎧
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