She’s our new favorite singer, and we highly recommend Sia becomes your it girl as well. Despite years in the business, today marks the launch of singer Sia Furler’s first debut album, 1000 Forms of Fear through RCA/Monkey Puzzle Records.
Sia, now 38, is a sort of anomaly among the music community. Following the path of her estranged musician father, Sia’s career begun at the age of 17 when she sparked the interest of several Hollywood supervisors. Those supervisors would help her air her single “Breathe Me” at the conclusion of HBO’s hit series “Six Feet Under.” The song was followed by routine live performances.
However, the young musician’s sudden fame became overwhelming, and she began relying on both alcohol and drugs to overcome her inherent stage fears. After a failed suicide attempt and a deepening addiction to both drugs and alcohol, a friend fortunately intervened, and Sia enrolled in a 12-step program.
At this time, she also hired a new manager Jonathan Daniel, who suggested that Sia write songs for pop artists instead of focusing on a solo career. Although skeptical, Sia embraced the songwriter’s easy divide from fame. She wrote her first pop single, “Titanium” for David Guetta, which reached No. seven on the Billboard Hot 100 and sold 3.6 million copies. An impressive fact: She wrote the song in only 40 minutes. The first song was followed by hit, after hit, after hit. Her clientele grew more famous, as she began writing hits for Flo Rida (She wrote the song “Wild Ones” in 15 minutes.), Lea Michele, Beyonce, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Eminem.
Although her reputation as the go-to writer has gained her fame amongst fellow artists, her voice, self-deprecating humor, honest fear and hatred of publicity have created her own ‘army’ of blond bob wig wearing fans. “It’s horrible. … 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,” said Sia, in an interview with The New York Times.
Her adamant resistance to media has recently led to several public antics. In an interview with Billboard, the singer posed for a photo with a bag over her head. Her most recent stints were during two interviews. In an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Sia performed her hit single “Chandeliers” with her back facing the crowd. On The David Letterman Show, Sia performed the same song while lying face down on a bed and having actress Lena Dunham traipse around her in a parody of the song’s music video.
In contrast to these strange public appearances, Sia’s music is otherwise worldly. She describes the songs she writes for other artists as “victim to victory” and “…one strong concept in the metaphor.”
“I was too fearful, scared that I would be judged or somehow unlovable if people saw who I truly was. After 14 years of songwriting, I feel less vulnerable about telling the truth about what’s really mine,” Sia said in an interview with Billboard.
