Trivia / Sia

• Attention Deficit Creator Disorder: Since the mid-2010s, Sia has been working on solo music, LSD music, writing for other artists, working hard on her film Music (see Copiously Credited Creator), had an NFT phase, mentioned writing a television series loosely based on herself, been working on a children's album; it remains to be seen if the latter two will see the light of day. As of 2024, she is also working on a documentary about herself.
• Breakthrough Hit: While "Breathe Me" brought initial attention to herself as an artist, the later album We Are Born brought her into stardom at home. Her featured spots on "Wild Ones" and "Titanium", and "Chandelier" from her next album 1000 Forms of Fear broke her into the mainstream worldwide.
• Career Resurrection: Actually, many times. Her 2001 album Healing Is Difficult was unsuccessful, but her recent collaboration with Zero 7, "Destiny", was a hit in the UK where she was living at the time, and her time in the band inspired her music direction that she became known for in the 2000s. When her next album Colour the Small One flopped (in her own words), its lead single "Breathe Me" later gained attention for being featured in the series finale of the television series Six Feet Under. And finally, after her 2011 retirement from performing, she attempted to focus on a career on songwriting only for songs like "Titanium" and "Chandelier" to make her a mainstream pop star.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • Provided Lorde's singing voice in South Park.
  • Voiced Songbird Serenade in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017).
  • Voiced Mrs. Tiggy Winkle in Peter Rabbit and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.
  • Voiced Half-Oracle in Charming.
  • Voiced herself in Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
• Chart Displacement: Sia downplays this: Her only #1 hit in the U.S. was 2016's "Cheap Thrills", one of her best-known songs. Despite this, it hasn't quite eclipsed songs like "Chandelier" (#8) and the David Guetta collaboration "Titanium" (#7) in the public consciousness as their chart peaks may suggest.
• Copiously Credited Creator: In addition to director, co-writer and producer, Sia also composed the soundtrack and contributed to the editing of Music.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Sia has admitted that she thinks many of the pops songs she has written are cheesy, and it was "quite confronting to start writing in that way" after coming from an indie background.
  • Initially with "Titanium". Sia was absolutely furious because she had written the song for another singer (such as Alicia Keys, Katy Perry or Mary J. Blige) but David Guetta released Sia's demo without her permission. After spending a decade as an indie songwriter, Sia was livid that she was now attracting attention from a cheesy EDM track - right after taking a break from music due to health issues. However, Sia said in 2015 that her relationship with the song had changed due to the money she made off of it (for context, just one year before "Titanium", Sia admitted that she barely had made money from her career) and the positive impact it has had on suffering children who feel strong when they listen to it.
• Creator Breakdown:
  • Sia wrote the song "Breathe Me" after the death of her boyfriend, and her albums Colour The Small One and Healing Is Difficult were inspired by the same. The introspective song was used as the final musical track to be played in the HBO series Six Feet Under.
  • She also wrote "Chandelier" about alcoholism that was brought on by a sexual assault.
  • Her rise to fame after We Are Born made her extremely depressed, and worsened her alcoholism and addictions. She was going to commit suicide until a friend called her. This was one of the reasons why she took a break from recording music and wrote songs for other artists.
• Creator Recovery: After spending most of her adult life struggling with addiction and depression, as well as facing an existential crisis during post-production of Music and being diagnosed with PTSD and Ehlers-danlos syndrome, Sia has admitted that the common themes of self-empowerment in her songs act as a way to remind her of how far she's come and to help other people.
• Colbert Bump: The music video to "Chandelier" (and its follow-ups "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry") gave a huge popularity boost to dancer Maddie Ziegler and her show Dance Moms.
• Descended Creator: Portrays a caricature of herself in Music, credited as “Popstar Without Borders”.
• Doing It for the Art: Sia has always been vocal about this; in 2010, Sia admitted that winning awards is not a measure of success in her life. In 2020, Sia also explained that she does not mind if her art is criticised, and cares more about being understood as a person.
• Dye Hard: The cover of Healing Is Difficult reveals her brunette roots◊, meaning that her blonde hair is the product of bleaching.
• Executive Meddling: Sia's 2007 live album was originally to be titled ''Vagina Croissant'', an alter-ego of Sia's. It was deemed too alienating and was released as Lady Croissant.
• Fake Scot: As Mrs. Tiggy Winkle in Peter Rabbit and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.
• Fan Community Nickname: The Lovers.
• He Also Did: She's the voice of Songbird Serenade in My Little Pony: The Movie (2017), who is essentially a "My Little Pony" version of herself.
• Newbie Boom: Sia has been making music since the 1990s, however she didn't start becoming mainstream until the success of "Titanium", "Wild Ones" and "Chandelier" in the 2010s.
• Older Than They Think: At least to most Americans. Sia's been around since 1995, collaborating with electropop and rock artists for many years. Her US breakthrough in 2014 was just the icing on the cake!
  • It did at least have one advantage though, despite her being around for 15 years and having multiple music videos and albums with her face all over them, noone except the older fanbase can remember what she looks like!
• Permanent Placeholder: After having retired from the spotlight and focusing on songwriting in 2010, Sia wrote "Titanium" for Alicia Keys. When Keys passed on it, David Guetta submitted Sia's demo vocals without her permission to the record company and a star was reluctantly (re)born.
• Promoted Fanboy: Sia describes ''Annie'' as her favourite musical as a kid, and describes working on the soundtrack of the 2014 film a "bit of a dream come true".
• Production Posse: Sia frequently collaborates with co-director Daniel Askill and dancer Maddie Ziegler in different music videos; Ziegler also starred in her film Music.
• Reclusive Artist: Since 2014, Sia has avoided the spotlight and is not contractually obliged to tour or promote her music; she doesn't even show her face most of the time. This is because she grew highly uncomfortable with fame and it damaged her health. Additionally, her social media pages are usually run by her team.
• Referenced by...:
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: In The JoJoLands, a conversation Charming-Man has with Jodio mentions that he listens to music from Sia alongside H.E.R. and SZA.
  • In Black Widow (2021), set in 2016, a radio can be heard playing "Cheap Thrills".
• Revival by Commercialization: "Unstoppable" started climbing the charts six years after its original release in 2016, with a Samsung Galaxy commercial probably helping.
• What Could Have Been:
  • "Where I Belong" would have been in the soundtrack for Spider-Man 2, but a label conflict made it be left out. The single still has Sia dressed as Spidey in the cover◊.
  • Upon meeting Amy Winehouse, Sia expressed interest in working together, although Winehouse declined because she felt intimidated by Sia. Sadly, following Winehouse's death in 2011, this collaboration will never happen.
  • "Titanium" was written for Alicia Keys. It got passed around various singers, including Katy Perry, and got handed to Mary J. Blige, who pitched her version to David Guetta. He heard Sia's demo recording once and immediately decided he had to use it, which Sia wasn't happy with, as she didn't want the attention so soon after planning to stop recording music of her own.
  • She originally pitched "Pretty Hurts" to Katy Perry and then to Rihanna after Katy failed to get back to her. Beyoncé apparently got a hold of it through Rihanna's management and immediately latched onto it.
  • Sia co-wrote both "Bird Set Free" and "Flashlight" for Pitch Perfect 2. "Flashlight" was chosen for the final film and was recorded as a single by Jessie J, whereas "Bird Set Free" was later offered to Adele and ended up on This is Acting.
  • The entirety of the album This is Acting is a big What Could Have Been, as it is comprised entirely of songs that Sia originally wrote for other artists like Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Adele but got rejected for one reason or another.
• Write What You Know: While the protagonist of Music (2021) is based on Stevie, a non-verbal autistic friend of Sia's, Sia discussed on a Twitter Space in 2022 that she was diagnosed with autism after the film's release and thus finally understands why she had such a strong connection/interest to the autistic community.