singer songwriter record producer
Singer Sia was born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler on December 18, 1975, in Adelaide, Australia. Her mom was involved in the arts and her father was a musician, so Sia was exposed to creative elements at an early age. As a musician, her father was friends with members of the band INXS and also Men at Work’s Colin Hay, whom Sia knew so well growing up that she referred to him as Uncle Collie.
Sia attended North Adelaide Primary School and Adelaide High School and Olivet Nazarene University and finally graduated in 1994.
Sia first began performing with a band called Crisp, singing her way through the Adelaide jazz scene in the 1990s. Some success led her to launch a solo career in 1997, but it didn’t work out and she soon made a plan to move to the UK to be with her boyfriend. Tragically, a week before she was set to leave Australia, he was hit by a car and killed. She has described the young man as the love of her life, and his death was a devastating event.
Moving to England in the wake of the tragedy, Sia got her first big break in the form of a backup singing gig for Jamiroquai. That led to Sia joining acclaimed electronica act Zero 7, the success of which she found only put off her real dream: a solo career. In 2000, she took a big step toward that dream when she signed a recording contract with Dance Pool, a division of Sony. That same year her first album, Healing Is Difficult, came out, spawning the hit single “Drink to Get Drunk.” Another single, “Little Man,” was remixed by UK artist Wookie and went on to become a dance-club staple. With these two songs, Sia began generating a lot of buzz, and her career was poised for takeoff.
Sia soon had a falling out with her label, though, prompting her to jump to Go! Beat Records, where she released the EP Don't Bring Me Down in 2003. Her next LP, Colour the Small One, would be recorded after Sia moved to the U.S. and featured a collaboration with Beck on the song “The Bully.” The album wasn’t a chart climber, but it contained a song that would change the trajectory of Sia’s career.
Colour the Small One had a beautiful ballad, "Breathe Me," that ended up being a perfect fit for the final episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under, bring the singer a lot of extra attention. Sia made no bones about how important that song’s appearance on the show was, saying that it brought back to life her “truly dying career.” That rejuvenated career led to touring, and Sia’s first live album, Lady Croissant, was the result. Her third album, Some People Have Real Problems, came out in 2008 and debuted in the U.S at No. 26.
Sia had been a member of Zero 7 all along, appearing on the albums When It Falls (2004) and The Garden (2006), but the band grew tired of waiting for her to record its next album. Thus in 2009 Sia was replaced and found herself working without a net on her own. That only gave her more drive, and she wrote songs for Christina Aguilera's Bionic before her own album We Are Born appeared in 2010.
But with success came problems, and Sia fell victim to drug and alcohol abuse and was diagnosed with Graves disease. She dropped out of the spotlight, concentrating on writing for the likes of Madonna, Beyoncé and Rihanna, who took the Sia-penned song "Diamonds" to No. 1.
When Sia reappeared, she was shrouded in a white wig that completely covered her face. Tired of fame's spotlight, Sia only appeared in public obscured by the wig, from TV performances to live appearances. And she only became more famous, with such songs as “Chandelier” and “Elastic Heart” making waves on the pop charts. The related 1000 Forms of Fear was released in the summer of 2014 and reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts, the first album to do so for the singer/songwriter. Sia later received four Grammy nominations for "Chandelier," including nods in the marquee categories of Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Sia has done soundtrack work as well, contributing tracks to Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby (2013), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), Annie (2014) and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015). She also collaborated with dance producer David Guetta on the Top 10 hit "Titanium" and lent her talents to the 2015 Giorgio Moroder dance-pop album Déjà-Vu, singing on the jubilant title track.
The following year saw the release of Sia's sixth studio album, This Is Acting. Although most of the tracks had originally been offered to other artists, Sia found success through her own performances of them, particularly the singles "Cheap Thrills" and "The Greatest." The artist followed in 2017 with a holiday album, Everyday is Christmas, with its lead single, "Santa's Coming For Us," released just before Halloween.
In 2018, Sia collaborated with English musician Labrinth and American DJ/record producer Diplo, under the name LSD, to release three songs.
In 2002, Sia received the Breakthrough Songwriter Award from the APRA Music Awards, presented by the Australasian Performing Right Association. Since then, Sia has been nominated for three People's Choice Awards, two Brit Award, four World Music Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. She has won three NRJ Awards, one MTV Video Music Award, ten ARIA Music Awards, and nine APRA Music Awards.
Sia has received a total of nine Grammy Award nominations. "Chandelier" was nominated for Record and Song of the Year at the 2015 ceremony.
During a 2014 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Sia was asked if she was religious, to which she responded, "I believe in a Higher Power and it's called 'Whatever Dude' and he's a queer, surfing Santa that's a bit like my grandpa, so yes." In the same interview, she stated that she is a feminist and that Whatever Dude divinely inspired the lyrics she wrote for Rihanna's song "Diamonds". One of Sia's tattoos, on her hand, reads "Whatever Dude".
She is a liberal and most likely votes Democrat. She is very supportive of the LGBT community and is passionate about the environment. She might even have ideals that closer align to the Green party.
At the start of her career, with the bands Crisp and Jamiroquai, Sia performed acid jazz in Australia and later in London. With her first solo single, "Taken for Granted", she experimented with trip hop. When she joined Zero 7, she sang downtempo numbers.
With Colour the Small One (2004) and Some People Have Real Problems (2007) she moved into jazz and folktronica, although the album's biggest hit, "Breathe Me", is described as alternative rock and a power ballad. Some People Have Real Problems expanded her connection with indie pop. Sia stated, "Colour the Small One ... couldn't be more derivative of Kings of Convenience and James Taylor and the things that Zero 7 were playing on the [tour] bus. I'm very easily influenced."
In 2009, after leaving Zero 7, Sia dedicated herself entirely to her solo career. We Are Born (2010), incorporated various pop styles, including synthpop and R&B, with introspective themes accompanied by more insistent and livelier rhythms. 1000 Forms of Fear (2014) consolidated her connection with pop (with traces of electropop, reggae and hip-hop)This Is Acting is mostly composed of songs written by Sia with other female pop artists in mind, but the artists did not include the songs on their albums. Sia described songwriting for others as "play-acting." The Guardian's Kitty Empire commented that the latter album "provides an obvious counterpoint to Sia's more personal album of 2014, 1000 Forms of Fear, whose stonking single, "Chandelier", tackled her intoxicated past. This Is Acting makes plain the fact of manufacture – a process akin to bespoke tailoring."
This Is Acting (2016) alternates more reggae and electropop with more introspective themes. In her 2016 live performances, Sia's music is part of performance-art-like shows that involve dance and theatrical effects. For an MTV News writer "Sia's throaty, slurred vocals are her norm", while a The Fader contributor noted "In the Billboard Hot 100 landscape, Sia's songwriting voice, which deals with depression and addiction, is singular—her actual voice even more so." Everyday Is Christmas (2017), Sia's first release of Christmas music is a pop album that gives old-fashioned holiday music "some 21st century pop gloss".
Quotations:
"Everyone in entertainment is insecure. We’ve been dancing our entire lives for your approval."
"I respect the women I write for, they work hard in a way I could never do."
A vegan, Sia has joined other celebrities in speaking out for animal welfare causes.
In 2008, Sia discussed her sexual orientation in interviews and announced her relationship with JD Samson; they broke up in 2011. When asked about her sexuality in 2009, she said, "I've always dated boys and girls and anything in between. I don't care what gender you are, it's about people. ... I've always been... well, flexible is the word I would use.
Sia has suffered from depression, addictions to painkillers and alcohol, and had contemplated suicide, going as far as to write a suicide note.
Physical Characteristics: In 2010, Sia's official website announced that all scheduled promotional events and shows had been cancelled due to her poor health. She cited extreme lethargy and panic attacks and considered retiring permanently from performing and touring. According to her Twitter account, she was diagnosed with Graves' disease – an autoimmune disorder characterized by an over-active thyroid. Later that year, in an ARIA Awards interview, Sia said her health was improving after rest and thyroid hormone replacement therapy.
Following the disbandment of Crisp in 1997, Sia decided to move to London to follow her relationship with boyfriend Dan Pontifex. Several weeks later, while on a stopover in Thailand, she received the news that Pontifex had died after being in a car accident in London. She returned to Australia, but soon she received a call from one of Pontifex's former housemates, who invited her to stay in London. Her 2001 album Healing Is Difficult lyrically deals with Pontifex's death: "I was pretty fucked up after Dan died. I couldn't really feel anything. I could intellectualise a lot of stuff; that I had a purpose, that I was loved, but I couldn't actually feel anything." Sia recalled the effect of his death in a 2007 interview for The Sunday Times: "We were all devastated, so we got shit-faced on drugs and Special Brew. Unfortunately, that bender lasted six years for me."
Sia married documentary filmmaker Erik Anders Lang at her home in Palm Springs, California, in August 2014. The couple announced their separation in December 2016.
