Sia 39;s Chandelier Music Video Was Insane
Ortiz Ullery
"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". More broadly, the song speaks to the fleeting feelings of release and abandon that come with intoxication, as well as the pain, guilt and emptiness that accompany addiction, alcoholism and hedonistic excess.
The single received critical acclaim and reached the top 5 on record charts in 20 countries including France, Italy, Poland, Norway, Australia and New Zealand. In the United States, the single peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Sia's first single as a lead artist to appear on the Hot 100, and has sold over 2 million copies in the country. The song received 4 nominations at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, with its video receiving a nomination for Best Music Video.[2]
In 2010, Sia released her fifth studio album We Are Born, which ended up at number two on the Australian Albums Chart.[3] Following the release, Sia took a hiatus from performing and co-wrote songs for other recording artists, including Beyonc, Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Flo Rida and David Guetta.[4] In 2013, Sia recorded the track "Elastic Heart" for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.[5]
In May 2014, Sia announced her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear and released "Chandelier" as its lead single.[6] Sia revealed that she initially wrote the track for Rihanna or Beyonc, but decided to record the song herself.[7][8] The melody and chords were formed following a jam session in the studio featuring Sia on the piano and Jesse Shatkin playing a marimba.[9] In the United States, "Chandelier" was released for digital download onto iTunes Stores on 17 March 2014 through Monkey Puzzle, with distribution by RCA Records.[10] In the United Kingdom, "Chandelier" was released digitally on 29 June 2014.[11] A day later, it was sent by RCA Records to US hot adult contemporary radio.[12]
Lyrically, "Chandelier" has a sad theme talking about "the glitter and fatigue of a party girl's life".[7] John Walker from MTV Buzzworthy opined that the song has a dark theme, "toeing the line between celebration and self-destruction as it becomes increasingly more blurred".[21] The song's opening lyrics, "Party girls don't get hurt, can't feel anything ... I push it down", are sung over a reggae-influenced background.[18] Walker noted that during the chorus, Sia sings, "I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier/ I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist, like it doesn't exist".[21] A few critics, including Jeremy Gordon from Pitchfork Media,[19] and Melinda Newman of HitFix,[22] compared the song's musical style to works done by Rihanna.
Billboard listed "Chandelier" as the best song of 2014.[27] The song received nominations at the 57th Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, with its video receiving a nomination for Best Music Video.[2]
In the United States, "Chandelier" debuted at number 75 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart dated 31 May 2014.[36] It peaked at number eight on the chart, becoming the first top ten single by Sia to appear on the chart as a lead artist.[37] The song reached one million units sold in the US in August 2014,[38] and surpassed the 2 million mark in sales in January 2015.[39] The song also reached number six on the Canadian Hot 100.[40] In June 2014, the single was certified platinum by Music Canada.[41] "Chandelier" was successful in Oceania and Europe, peaking in the top five on 20 national record charts including: France,[42] and Poland[43] (number one); Australia,[44] Italy[45] and Norway[46] (number two); New Zealand[47] and Slovakia[48] (number three); and Norway and Scotland (number five).[46][49] The single was certified quadruple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA),[50] and platinum by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ).[51] In the United Kingdom, "Chandelier" charted at number six on the UK Singles Chart.[52] In France, the single was the third best-selling single of 2014, according to Syndicat National de l'dition Phonographique.[53]
The music video for "Chandelier" was released on 6 May 2014, featuring then-11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler.[54] 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".[55] An alternative one-take version of the clip was released in June 2014.[56] Sia had seen Ziegler on Dance Moms and asked her to appear in the video via Twitter.[57] The video was directed by Sia and Daniel Askill,[55] shot by cinematographer Sebastian Winter and was choreographed by Ryan Heffington.[58] Ziegler shared her thoughts about the choreography with New York magazine:[57]
I like the whole dance. It was really different and weird for me, because I usually don't, you know, be a crazy person every time. It was so fun to do and it was really out of the box and it expanded me a lot, because I'm used to competition dances where you're like, "Point your legs!" But this time it was like, you just need to let go and feel it.
The choreography was praised by media outlets; an editor from The Guardian wrote that Ziegler "dances with such impressive flexibility".[56] Nolan Feenay from Time magazine commented that the dance moves in the video could be the best dance routine of 2014.[59]
"Chandelier" won the ARIA Award for Best Video at the ARIA Music Awards of 2014.[60] "Chandelier" received nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and Best Choreography, and ultimately won the latter.[61][62] It was also nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Music Video.[2] The video went viral on YouTube and became the seventh most-watched video on the video-sharing website of 2014.[63][64] As of May 2022, it has received over 2.5 billion views and was, at one point, the 13th most viewed YouTube video of all time.[65] It has since moved down to being outside the top 40 most viewed YouTube videos of all time.[66] As of January 2015, Billboard ranked the video at number 12 on the list of the 20 best of the 2010s (so far).[67] Both Rolling Stone magazine and Spin magazine named it the Best Music Video of 2014.[68][69] VH1 listed it first among the "most groundbreaking" videos of 2014.[70] In 2016, several items related to the "Chandelier" video were introduced into the "Right Here, Right Now" exhibit of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[71] In 2018, Billboard ranked the video the 18th best music video of the 21st century.[72]
Sia performed "Chandelier" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 19 May 2014,[36] with Ziegler recreating the choreography in the music video.[73] Sia also performed the song on Late Night with Seth Meyers on 9 June 2014, with Girls star Lena Dunham performing new choreography.[74] In July 2014, Sia performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!,[75] and Ziegler taught host Jimmy Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo some of the dance moves from the music video.[76] In July 2014, Sia performed the song on the VH1's show "SoundClash", along with her songs "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry" from the album.[77] Sia sang the song on Dancing with the Stars, with Ziegler dancing a duet with Allison Holker, and at the 2014 We Can Survive Concert at the Hollywood Bowl.[78] In February 2015, Sia sang the song in a cluttered apartment set for the 2015 Grammy Awards telecast, with Ziegler dancing with actress Kristen Wiig.[79] For all of these performances, Sia sang the track with her back to the camera.[80][81] She performed the song on Saturday Night Live in January 2015, veiled, with a sad-looking mime who performed the lyrics in ASL.[82]
In July 2014, Sara Bareilles performed an acoustic version of "Chandelier" during her Little Black Dress Tour.[83] Reut Odinak from the Seattle Weekly lauded Bareilles' vocals on the cover.[84] Likewise, MuchMusic's Evan Desouza wrote that "The song sounds almost [unrecognisable] with the stripped, acoustic cover. Of course no one can match Sia's insane voice, but Sara does a decent job. Her vocals sound amazing".[85]
The song was covered on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge in September 2014 by Irish band The Script; Music and Lyrics praised the group's three-man harmonies.[86] In November 2014, Loc Nottet a Belgian hopeful for the Eurovision Song Contest released a cover of the song on YouTube in November 2014, later praised by Sia on Twitter.[87]
After some misfortunate events in my life, I ended up being a couch potato for a month. Cool times? Not really. Still barely 27 though, I wanted more from life! I had worked like crazy with almost no fun until then so I decided to move near Agia Napa for one summer. With my sister. We had a blast!
Nina is the big sister. She's a marketing professional by day, traveler by heart, tech geek, bookworm, beer lover and an amateur photographer. Her motto is Friedrich Nietzsche's famous quote "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
Sia's Chandelier is a jam. There's no denying that. The song came out in 2014 as the first single of 1,000 Forms of Fear and rose to the top of the charts fairly quickly. Most of us remember the radio playing it way too much, so we got tired of it after a while. Maybe we forgot about it. After all, 2014 was three years ago.
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