Aussie singer/songwriter Sia has been quiet lately, but only in the most obvious sense of the word: while she hasn't put out a new record since 2010's fun and colorful We Are Born, Sia has been writing or co-writing some of the biggest pop hits of the past few years, including Rihanna's "Diamonds" and Ne-Yo's "Let Me Love You". She has stated publicly how much she hates the idea of being famous, which is one of the leading reasons she's been happy to be more a writer and less a performer. But now, Sia is back with an all new album of original material, entitled 1,000 Forms of Fear.
Though no release date has yet been set, she has unleashed the enormous single, "Chandelier," and an accompanying video featuring a vibrant dance display from 11-year old "Dance Moms" star Maddie Ziegler. The song starts off somewhat innocuously, sounding a bit too akin to Rihanna (even slightly aping that singer's vocal style, albeit in a bit of a mumble). But then, the chorus hits. And it hits hard. Sia's signature singing takes over and launches the song into the stratosphere, with a game-changing vocal. This titanic chorus leads to more than a little speculation that during all those years of writing for bigger pop stars, Sia was keeping some goodies to herself. And thank goodness she did, as no modern pop star comes to mind that could nail this song like Sia does. This is pop music done so, so right, and deserves to be every bit a hit as those other songs she's penned.
Watch the video above and download the single via iTunes.