Sia – Chandelier
2014 · Directed by Sia & Daniel Askill
14M Likes
Best comments
1.“When parents aren't at home...”
More comments
- 2.“This video feels like what would happen if you left a 12-year-old girl home alone with a pack of Red Bull and a radio playing...”
The story
Sia didn't want to be the face of her own hit, so she found a stand-in. She spotted 11-year-old Maddie Ziegler on Dance Moms, invited her over Twitter, put her in a blonde wig that matched the one Sia was hiding behind to promote the album, and turned her loose in a deserted, dirty apartment. Sia co-directed with Daniel Askill, Ryan Heffington handled the choreography, and the kid carries the whole thing.
People could not look away. The video passed 2.7 billion YouTube views by February 2025 and was the seventh most-watched video on the site in 2014. It won the MTV VMA for Best Choreography and the ARIA for Best Video, picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, and Rolling Stone and Spin both called it the best video of 2014. A one-take cut came out that June, and some of its items later landed in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame exhibit.
The song was the lead single from 1000 Forms of Fear, written by Sia with Jesse Shatkin, and it became her first top-10 hit as a lead artist, peaking at number 8 on the Hot 100. Then the bit kept going. Ziegler redid the dance on Ellen, Lena Dunham did her own version on Seth Meyers, and Ziegler danced with Kristen Wiig at the 2015 Grammys. On most of those shows Sia sang with her back to the camera. A pop star as a wig with a voice. Worked like a charm.
