There is no longer any question of a dispute that Sia Furler, until recently one of Australia's least appreciated musical artists, can be a bit strange. Look no further than the music videos produced for her songs, and you will find that this singer has developed a style which is, to put it mildly, "very unique".
It maybe, if not quite yet, will very soon be that her name will become a regular household-wide feature.
Image: - Cropped version of Image:Sia Furler in concert with Zero 7.jpg
What the press say
"Now Sia has unveiled a few tracks from her upcoming CD 'We Are Born' which have, so far, met with a very positive response. The album will be released on CD and for download on June 7 to coincide with the end of her global tour taking place this spring."
Most observers and fans say:
"She has gone from strength to strength recording new material and working with fellow singers such as Christina Aguilera, with whom she has penned several songs to be released on Aguilera's upcoming album this summer."
"However, it is precisely Sia's sense of peculiar style, coupled with her catchy pop tunes, thoughtful lyrics and soulful slow songs that makes her so appealing to so many listeners. From the melancholic piano melodies of well known song 'Breathe Me' to the spunkier sounds of her latest single 'Clap Your Hands', there's no mistaking that Sia has a full range of styles at her fingertips and isn't afraid to experiment."
What They are Saying About Sia Furler
Image: Sia and band, July 2011Her Face-shrouding performance ritual:
I first noticed Sia's relatively new face-shrouding performance ritual when she was the musical guest on a recent episode of SNL. During "Elastic Heart," the singer faced off to the side, a tulle shield obscuring most of her face underneath her signature blonde wig. Sia faced the audience for "Chandelier," but she still wore the same black visor, and a mime performed next to her to draw attention away from the singer.http://www.biography.com/people/sia-furler
About that weird platinum blonde bob hairdo:
... Sia, 39, who had settled into writing songs for other pop artists in recent years – with a great deal of success. She wrote anthemic hits for Rihanna (Diamonds), Flo Rida (Wild Ones) and David Guetta (Titanium). She was also contracted by a who's who of stars including: Beyonce, Katy Perry, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Eminem, Jessie J, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Rita Ora and Kylie Minogue.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2397981/
She also turned her platinum blonde bob hairdo into a sort of symbol – those who performed in her videos have worn it. Since the Grammy awards, where she received five nominations, she has taken to wearing an oversized blonde wig which also hides her face. She wore the wig while performing Wolves with Kanye West on Saturday Night Live...
Her inclusion in the top ten of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour Power List
Taylor Swift may have taken on Apple and Spotify and Katy Perry may have earned the most money out of any female pop star last year, but the inclusion of Sia Furler in the top ten of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour Power List recognises her more subtle but none the less radical form of achievement. In an industry that considers women's bodies as part of the product, the 39-year-old Australian singer-songwriter took a cool stance when she opted in 2014 to hide her face behind a choppy blonde wig and remain physically anonymous when she performed, staking her fortune on the power of her songs alone.
Over recent years, Furler has taken a similarly strategic approach to her art, standing back and analysing the trends of the moment to isolate the components of a hit song. Her 2014 album, 1000 Forms of Fear, saw her showcase the formula she’d developed working for others. She’d figured out that you need to take one evocative word – “umbrella,” say, or “firework” – and spin it into a three-minute metaphor, with some added musical whoosh, designed to take the singer on a journey from “victim to victor”. It was a personal narrative with which she identified – having struggled with addiction and mental illness for many years following the death of her boyfriend the late Nineties.
https://instagram.com/sia.furler.lover/%3Fhl%3Den
How her audience has grown exponentially and the backwards-facing interview
Sometimes, Sia Furler writes songs in gibberish. During an August appearance on E!’s since-defunct late-night show Chelsea Lately, the fame-phobic singer-songwriter offered a peek into her creative process: scatting nonsense noises like “squidly-doo” and “blah-blah-blahhh,” wiggling her head, shaking the ends of her bright-blonde bob, and eventually connecting the words “bye-ayy-ayy” to “diamonds in the sky,” all while turned away from the camera.
The studio audience, who could only see the back of Sia’s head, cheered and chortled at her babbling. “If [the song] starts with just ‘scoobidy-boo,’ that means it’s a hit,” Sia explained, still chuckling, clawing the air as if to grab an invisible, floating turn of phrase. Naturally, the talk show’s host was curious as to how Sia crafted “Diamonds,” a mammoth 2012 single she wrote for Rihanna’s seventh LP, Unapologetic. Since then, the prolific Australian’s audience has grown exponentially, resulting in a backwards-facing (and slightly discomfiting) interview about songwriting.
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/sia/
Successful Collaborations and that trademark-severe sunshine-blond bob wig
In the case of the self-protective 39-year-old Australian singer-songwriter Sia, who hasn't shown her face in a magazine or during a live performance since 2013, what remains in the public consciousness is a kind of trademark severe sunshine-blond bob wig—and a sensational voice. For almost two decades, Sia (born Sia Furler) has had success (and performed in public) in her native Down Under, as well as in the U.S. and Europe—recording with the band Zero 7 and, from 1997, as a solo artist. This recent move toward privacy preceded the enormous, and perhaps not entirely unrelated, smash hit of her 2014 album 1000 Forms of Fear. Continuing her past work of laying emotional vocals over electro-pop beats, Fear is loaded with Sia's signature catchy, dancey anthems and animated by her deep, playful, and powerful mezzo-soprano. Working with actors, including Kristen Wiig, who performed "Chandelier" as a Sia-esque character in said wig at the Grammys this past February, as well as Shia LaBeouf and the young dancer Maddie Ziegler, who starred in the music videos for both "Elastic Heart" and "Chandelier," Sia has created a visual accompaniment for her music on stage and screen that confronts our utter devotion to the avatar-industrial complex. Is it a gimmick? "For sure," she says, but it is also an attempt to retain some sense of normalcy in her life. Along with this new burst of popularity have come the offers, and Sia has recently collaborated with Kanye West (on "Wolves") and contributed a song to the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack.
http://www.popsugar.com.au/celebrity/Facts-About-Sia-Furler-34816834
Smash-hit "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart" for humble girl from Adelaide
By now, everyone knows who Sia Furler is. Her smash-hit "Chandelier" threw her onto the music map last year and she's been steadily topping charts around the globe since then. Her latest song, "Elastic Heart," has another film clip that's taken on a life of its own, with Maddie Ziegler and Shia LeBeouf holding starring roles.http://www.theguardian.com/music/sia-furler
For the uninitiated, you might be surprised to learn that Sia's been working in the industry for over 20 years. That she's only becoming mega-star famous now is probably amusing to her long-standing fans, but we're here to give you a crash course on this humble girl from Adelaide, who has just stolen the show at the 2015 Grammys. Keep reading for 33 facts you may not have known about Sia.
Childhood in Adelaide Australia
Childhood: Sia was born in Adelaide, Australia to Phil Colson and Loene Furler and was part of the acid jazz group Crisp. The band released two albums, entitled Word and the Deal and Delirium. Following her work with the band, Sia released her debut solo album, entitled OnlySee. However, it was not until she moved to the UK that she gained any notable recognition for her talents.
Career: Sia signed to the DancePool record label, a subsidiary of Sony, in 2000. Her major label debut album was named Healing Is Difficult. A number of underground club hits came from the album, such as 'Drink To Get Drunk' and 'Little Man'. 'Little Man' was remixed by the UK garage artist Wookie and was a popular club hit. She also sampled Prokofiev's 'Dance of the Knights' for the song 'Taken For Granted'. Following a dispute with her label, Sia left them and signed a new deal with Go! Beat Records, a subsidiary label of UMG.https://www.grammy.com/artist/sia
Sia - The Brains Behind the Hits!
Sia, 39, is one of the biggest musical geniuses in Hollywood. The brains behind many hits from Beyonce, Rihanna, and Britney Spears, Sia is a seasoned pro in the industry. She’s modest, too, as one thing is very apparent — the Australian singer/songwriter hates showing her face, even when she’s nominated for huge awards like a Grammy. Here’s why she hides her visage.
The “Elastic Heart” singer wrote an op-ed for Billboard in October 2013 called “My Anti-Fame Manifesto (By Sia Furler)” where she addressed why she hides her face from the spotlight. Yes, it has everything to do with hating fame.
http://www.idolator.com/5510031/sia-discusses-the-horrors-of-fame-contemplates-career-switch
Almost 20 years of very few live interviews means her art - nothing else - won the day
For nearly twenty years, Sia Furler has been treating music lovers to some of the finest vocals ever, whilst remaining one of the most notoriously reclusive artists in the entire history of music. Even on the heels of her chart topping single “Chandelier,” and her high profile collaborations with artists like Eminem and Kanye West, she continues to rarely give interviews, and hasn’t played a public, live set of her own music since 2011. Thankfully for fans, the last week has brought news that she is considering ending her self-imposed live hiatus, and also has her next album ready for release.http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artists/sia
Though she usually takes two or three years between albums, the singer revealed that 2014’s “1000 Forms Of Fear” was basically only done to get out of her publishing contract. Stating that she “didn’t want to get famous,” she also apparently kept her favorite songs OFF that album, and is planning to release them this year on a record likely called "This Is Acting".
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