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Sia
Australian singer and songwriter (born 1975)
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s.
When Crisp disbanded in 1997, she released her debut studio album, OnlySee, in Australia. Sia moved to London and provided vocals for the English duo Zero 7.
She released her second studio album, Healing Is Difficult, in 2001 and her third, Colour the Small One, in 2004.
awards: NRJ Music Award for International Female Artist of the Year, NRJ Music Award for International Song of the Year, NRJ Music Award for International Female Artist of the Year
Sia Kate Isobelle Furler was born on 18 December 1975 in Adelaide, South Australia. Her father, Phil Colson, is a guitarist, and her mother, Loene Furler, is an art lecturer. She is the niece of actor Kevin Colson. At age 12, Sia stayed with family friend Colin Hay in New York City for a month, during which Hay attended the Grammy Awards. She cites watching the ceremony from his limousine as inspiration to pursue a music career. As a child, Sia imitated the performing style of Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Sting, and has cited them, in addition to Hay, as early influences. She attended Adelaide High School.
In the mid-1990s, Sia started a career as a singer in the local acid jazz band Crisp. Sia collaborated with the band and contributed vocals to their album Word and the Deal (1996) and EP Delirium (1997).
2010–2013: Songwriting career and mainstream recognition
Following the success of We Are Born, Sia became uncomfortable with her growing fame. She later told The New York Times: "I just wanted to have a private life. Once, as my friend was telling me they had cancer, someone came up and asked, in the middle of the conversation, if they could take a photograph with me. You get me? That's enough, right?" She refused to do promos for her tours, began to wear a mask on stage and became increasingly dependent on drugs and alcohol on the road; she considered suicide. Sia fired Enthoven and hired Jonathan Daniel, who suggested that she write songs for other artists.
At the start of her career, with the band Crisp, Sia performed acid jazz in Australia and later in London. With her first solo single, "Taken for Granted", she experimented with trip hop. When she joined Zero 7, she sang downtempo numbers. With Colour the Small One (2004) and Some People Have Real Problems (2007) she moved into jazz and folktronica, although the album's biggest hit, "Breathe Me", is described as alternative rock and a power ballad. Some People Have Real Problems expanded her connection with indie pop. Sia stated, "Colour the Small One ... couldn't be more derivative of Kings of Convenience and James Taylor and the things that Zero 7 were playing on the [tour] bus. I'm very easily influenced."
Australian singer and songwriter, born 18 December 1975 in Adelaide, Australia. Mezzo-soprano; vocal range: 3 octaves and a semitone B2–B5. For full-name credits, please see Sia Furler.
In the early 1990s, Furler started gigging in the Adelaide acid jazz scene and at the age of 17, she joined the jazz-funk band Crisp. By 1997, Furler had left Crisp and debuted as a solo artist with "5058458", a trip-hop album released under her full name and which sold 1200 copies, mostly in Adelaide. In 2000, Furler (now only releasing under the mononym Sia) scored a top 10 hit with her debut single "Taken For Granted", pairing her unique Australian drawl with the strident strings from Prokofiev's "Romeo & Juliet".
Three more mostly downtempo solo albums followed, but most of her international recognition as an alternative pop artist came from her jazzy vocal contributions to several Zero 7 albums, as well as in early 2006 when the track "Breathe Me" became popular on alternative radio, following its feature as the closing song in the series finale of the HBO drama Six Feet Under.
Her fifth album, "We Are Born" (2010), moved into a more upbeat pop direc
Also known as: .Sia, S, S.I.A, S.I.A., S.i.A
From Discogs (free to use). Their entry
Liner notes
Sia, the records, oldest first
OnlySee
1997 album
Healing Is Difficult
2001 album
Colour the Small One
2004 album
wanted
Don’t Bring Me Down E.P
2004 ep
Rhapsody Originals
2008 ep
Some People Have Real Problems
2008 album
We Are Born
2010 album
1000 Forms of Fear
2014 album
wanted
This Is Acting
2016 album
wanted
Everyday Is Christmas
2017 album
Reasonable Woman
2024 album
Records from MusicBrainz; covers from the Cover Art Archive.
"Chandelier" is a song by Australian singer and songwriter Sia, from her sixth studio album, 1000 Forms of Fear (2014). Written by Sia and Jesse Shatkin and produced by Shatkin and Greg Kurstin, the song was released on 17 March 2014 as the lead single from the album.
It is an electropop song, featuring electronica, R&B and reggae influences. Lyrically, the song has a melancholic theme, detailing the demoralisation and rationalisation of alcoholism through the thought process of a "party girl".
Background
In 2010, Sia released her fifth studio album We Are Born, which ended up at number two on the Australian Albums Chart. Following the release, Sia took a hiatus from performing and co-wrote songs for other recording artists, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Flo Rida and David Guetta. In 2013, Sia recorded the track "Elastic Heart" for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.
Composition
"Chandelier" was written by Sia and Shatkin and was produced by Kurstin and Shatkin. It was described as an electropop ballad, featuring "soaring" synthesisers, "militant" drums, and hip hop beats with electronica, R&B, and reggae influences. The song features Sia's "jaw-dropping" vocal performance. The song is written in the key of B♭ minor and it follows the chord progression of B♭m–G♭maj7–A♭–Fm in the verses, G♭maj7–B♭m-A♭ in the pre-chorus, and G♭maj7–A♭–D♭/F–G♭maj7 in the chorus. The acoustic version is recorded in G minor. The song's BPM is 90.
Critical reception
"Chandelier" has received critical acclaim. Andrew Trendall from Gigwise wrote that the song "springboards Sia from a behind-the-scenes genius into a superstar in her own right". Gordon from Pitchfork praised Sia's vocal performance on the track and commented that the track "is enough to make you want to swing from a chandelier". Bradley Stern from the website MuuMuse labelled "Chandelier" the best pop single of 2014, complimenting Sia's songwriting credits and her voice on the song. In a VH1 article, Emily Exton shared that thought, deeming it the best song Sia had ever written. Writing for Time magazine, Jamieson Cox deemed "Chandelier" a "disarming, unforgettable listen that'll make you glad Sia kept this one for herself." Maura...
Music video
The music video for "Chandelier" was released on 6 May 2014, featuring then-11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler. In the video, Ziegler wears a medium-length blonde wig matching the one that Sia used to promote the album. Throughout the video, Ziegler performs an interpretive dance in a deserted, dirty apartment "while spinning, kicking, leaping, crawling, falling, twirling and hiding herself behind window drapes". An alternative one-take version of the clip was released in June 2014. Sia had seen Ziegler on Dance Moms and asked her to appear in the video via Twitter. The video was directed by Sia and Daniel Askill, shot by cinematographer Sebastian Winterø and was choreographed by Ryan Heffington. Ziegler shared her thoughts about the...
"The Greatest" is a song recorded by Australian singer and songwriter Sia for the deluxe edition of her seventh studio album, This Is Acting (2016). Being made available for digital download as the lead single of the album's deluxe edition on 6 September 2016 through Monkey Puzzle and RCA Records, the single version of "The Greatest" features a verse from American rapper Kendrick Lamar.
The electropop song was written by Sia, Greg Kurstin, Blair MacKichan and Lamar, with production handled by Kurstin. The solo version was written by the former three only.
Composition
Billboard editor Gil Kaufman described "The Greatest" as an "uplifting, poppy song with a subtle island vibe."
Critical reception
The Greatest was highly praised by music critics and its commemoration too. Jessica Goodman from Entertainment Weekly explained the chorus "massive and catchy." Once the critics had picked up on the song's connection with the Orlando nightclub shooting, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic wrote:
Music video
The music video was directed by Sia and Daniel Askill and choreographed by Ryan Heffington. The director of photography was Mathieu Plainfosse. It was released on 5 September 2016 and has been viewed on YouTube more than 790 million times as of August 2023.
"Breathe Me" is a song by Australian singer Sia. Released on 19 April 2004, it is featured on her third studio album, Colour the Small One.
The song became popular on alternative radio and has been used in many different forms of media, most notably in the series finale of Six Feet Under in 2005 and the television film Cyberbully in 2011.
Critical reception
Rolling Stone called the song "delicate and haunting". The song has received increasingly positive reviews in years since its release, being described as "beautiful and moving."
Music video
The official music video was directed by Daniel Askill. It was shot over three days in a themed hotel in London and it is constructed with over 2,500 individual polaroid stills.
"Thunderclouds" is a song by pop music supergroup LSD. It was released on August 9, 2018, by Columbia Records as the third single from LSD's eponymously named debut studio album, following "Genius" and "Audio".
The song was written by Labrinth, Sia, Diplo, King Henry and Jr Blender, and produced by Labrinth, Diplo, and Jr Blender.
Music video
The official music video for the song, directed by Ernest Desumbila, was released on 30 August 2018. Billboard's review called the video "super trippy" and described it as follows: "The group travels across pink and purple skies inside a flying red car piloted by Diplo and housing a living Sia puppet. Labrinth flies on his own personal cloud - a very common theme taken from Chinese mythology - while a mysterious candy-haired girl, played by Maddie Ziegler, dances on top of the car with a Sia-inspired hair-do. The party encounters thunderstorms along the way. … With the power of love, the group eventually finds their way out of the storm and returns to the dazzling pink-clouded skies."
