Sia came out with another music video! We have to be
excited. You should be excited. This artist conceptualizes videos like it’s a
canvas full of possibilities. That does not go on to say that the videos are
packed with supernatural, intricate, and extraterrestrial effects. That’s just
it, they don’t have those. They just have persons doing extraordinary gestures.
Okay, the Elastic Heart video was strange or deep at so many levels but then
again, it was just two people moving around a cage all throughout the song.
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| Shia Labeouf and Maddie Ziegler elasticizing in Sia's Elastic Heart music video. |
All this fuss about Sia just hit me recently after I finally
fed my curiosity about her. I mean I’ve heard of Titanium before. I love David
Guetta. I loved the lyrics and the vocals of that song. Who wouldn’t have an
LSS over it especially after Anna Kendrick belted its first few lines in the
musical Pitch Perfect? I just never bothered to think about the actual singer
or better yet the brain behind Titanium. Did you know that Titanium was written
by Sia and she actually wrote it for other aritists like Alicia Keys and Mary
J. Blidge but then it somehow landed in the hands of David Guetta who made it
such a hit song?
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| Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, famously known as Sia, in one of her decent, front-faced photos. |
Sia writes songs for other artists despite being a performer
herself. Right before Titanium reaped success, she was actually about to retire
from performing. We should be lucky that she actually decided to pursue her
career! Truth be told, what’s striking about her songs is that she often
provokes images to come to mind like “I am Titanium” and “I'm gonna fly
like a bird through the night”. I’m having a few reservations though regarding
the messages of some of her songs because Chandelier, when sang casually,
sounds like something a girl who’s about to YOLO at a party would sing.
The distinct raspy sharp voice is also worth-swooning over.
Even then, Titanium required such vocal chords which I could barely keep up
with. Anne Curtis gave her own rendition of Chandelier but of course, we know
where this story would end. Sia has got impressive vocals. A run through of her
previous songs in Youtube, before her album 1000 Forms of Fear was released,
may surprise you of how soulful and indie she could be. Listen to Breathe Me!
Let’s leap into her quirky side because talking about Sia
just isn’t complete without talking about her backward performance-as in back
facing audience. From her interviews, the artist plainly reveals that she shuns
fame. Getting cues from her own celebrity clients, she doesn’t like the
attention at all. Her opinion-editorial article for Billboard in October 2013
aptly explains it, “Imagine the stereotypical highly opinionated, completely
uninformed mother-in-law character and apply it to every teenager with a
computer in the entire world. Then add in all bored people, as well as people
whose job it is to report on celebrities. Then, picture that creature, that
force, criticizing you for an hour straight once a day, every day, day after
day.”
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| Sia performs and talks in interviews facing backward. |
Lastly, let’s talk about her videos because that’s what this
article is supposed to be for in the first place. I have two words: Maddie
Ziegler. She’s the 12-year-old who’s been flexing about in the video with such
other-worldly grace. The moment I saw the Chandelier video was like a
revelation. I wasn’t sure if I envied the girl dancing in it or if I liked
Sia’s vocals even more or if I liked the message of the song or if I liked Sia
more because she conceptualized the video. Maybe it was all of those, but
Maddie is really talented. In the recent video, she’ll even blow you away. It’s
also partly because of Sia’s magic. J
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| Sia with her muse 12-year-old Maddie Ziegler at the red carpet. |
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