This week’s earworm is a song from songwriting extraordinaire Sia. The video for the song, featuring 11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler from the show Dance Moms, pretty much went viral, and features Ziegler performing an intricate – and very creepy – dance routine. Sia went on to perform on the TV talk-show circuit, including Ellen Degeneres and Jimmy Fallon — but each time she performed with her back to the audience, her face hidden and her head covered in a bright blonde wig.
The song itself is a veritable pop masterpiece. Sia’s voice is phenomenal, commanding a range of sounds (from a mid-range huskiness that literally crackles with electricity to a breathy falsetto that effortlessly rides above the dramatic chorus). The pre-chorus is catchy, the chorus explosive; the manic-depressive lyrics swing wildly between YOLO-type declarations (‘I’m gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier / I’m gonna live like tomorrow doesn’t exist’) and mortified realisation (‘Sun is up, I’m a mess / Gotta get out now, gotta run from this / Here comes the shame, here comes the shame’). I’ve had the song in my head for a good three days now, and also currently have an inability to stop singing it.
Here is Sia performing the song with the NYC Gay Chorus. The goofy mustachioed man dancing solo is a delight to watch, and it is worth noting that he is in fact the choreographer of the routine performed by Ziegler in the official music video. Absolutely dazzling.
METAKOUSTIK 