Sia Kate Isobelle Furler is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaire, 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. She moved to London and provided vocals for the British duo Zero 7. Sia released her second studio album, Healing is Difficult, in 2001, and her third, Colour the Small One, in 2004. The album spawned four singles, including “Don’t Bring Me Down” and “Breathe Me”, the latter of which charted in the United Kingdom.
Sia moved to New York City in 2005 and toured the United States. Her fourth and fifth studio albums, Some People Have Real Problems and We Are Born, were released in 2008 and 2010 respectively, and both were certified gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association and attracted wider notice than her earlier albums. Uncomfortable with her growing fame, Sia took a hiatus from performing and focused on songwriting for other artists, producing successful collaborations “Titanium” (with David Guetta), “Diamonds” (with Rihanna), and “Wild Ones” (with Flo Rida).
In 2014, Sia broke through as a solo recording artist when her sixth studio album, 1000 Forms of Fear, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard and generated the top-ten single “Chandelier” and a trilogy of music videos co-directed by Sia and starring child dancer Maddie Ziegler. Since then, Sia has usually worn a wig that obscures her face to protect her privacy. The “Chandelier” video was ranked as the 10th “greatest music video” of the 2010s by Billboard.
Her seventh studio album, This is Acting (2016), spawned her first Billboard number one single, “Cheap Thrills”. That year she also began her Nostalgic for the Present Tour, which incorporated dancing by Ziegler and others, and other performance art elements. As at Coachella and subsequent live performances, Sia appeared at the back of the stage with her familiar wig covering her face, while her dancers performed Heffington’s choreography synchronised with pre-recorded videos played on big screens. The tour received a warm reaction: “She let her dancers own center stage, carrying out one skit/performance after another as Sia delivered the soundtrack. … It defied all the regular rules of pop concerts, which are usually designed to focus every ounce of the audience’s attention on the star of the show. Yet, Sia’s bold gamble paid off, resulting in one of the most daringly original and wholly satisfying shows of 2016”
Her eighth studio album, Everyday is Christmas, was released in 2017 and reissued in 2018 with three bonus tracks. In 2018, she formed a supergroup with Labrinth and Diplo acronymized as LSD, and they released their self-titled debut album in April 2019. Sia has written many songs for films, and she directed a feature film, titled Music, which was released in early 2021 alongside an album, Music – Songs Inspired by the Motion Picture. She is an advocate for animal rights. Among the accolades received by Sia are nearly a dozen ARIA Awards, nine Grammy Award nominations and an MTV Video Music Award.
