Chandelier (song)

Background

In 2010, Sia released her fifth studio album We Are Born, which ended up at number two on the Australian Albums Chart. Following the release, Sia took a hiatus from performing and co-wrote songs for other recording artists, including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Christina Aguilera, Flo Rida and David Guetta. In 2013, Sia recorded the track "Elastic Heart" for The Hunger Games: Catching Fire soundtrack.

In May 2014, Sia announced her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear and released "Chandelier" as its lead single. Sia revealed that she initially wrote the track for Rihanna or Beyoncé, but decided to record the song herself. The melody was formed after Sia played the piano, while Greg Kurstin and Jesse Shatkin played the marimba in the studio. In the United States, "Chandelier" was released for digital download onto iTunes Stores on 17 March 2014 through Monkey Puzzle, with distribution by RCA Records. In the United Kingdom, "Chandelier" was released digitally on 29 June 2014. A day later, it was sent by RCA Records to US hot adult contemporary radio.

Composition

"Chandelier" was written by Sia and Shatkin and was produced by Kurstin and Shatkin. It was described as an electropop ballad, featuring "soaring" synthesisers, "militant" drums, and hip hop beats with electronica, R&B, and reggae influences. The song features Sia's "jaw-dropping" vocal performance. The song is written in the key of B ♭ minor and it follows the chord progression of Bbm–Gbmaj7–Ab–Fm in the verses, Gbmaj7–Bbm-Ab in the pre-chorus, and Gbmaj7–Ab–Db/F–Gbmaj7 in the chorus.

Lyrically, "Chandelier" has a sad theme talking about "the glitter and fatigue of a party girl's life". John Walker from MTV Buzzworthy opined that the song has a dark theme, "toeing the line between celebration and self-destruction as it becomes increasingly more blurred". The song's opening lyrics, "Party girls don't get hurt, can't feel anything ... I push it down", are sung over a reggae-influenced background. Walker noted that during the chorus, Sia sings, "I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier/ I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist, like it doesn't exist". A few critics compared the song's musical style to works done by Rihanna, including Jeremy Gordon from Pitchfork Media, and Melinda Newman of HitFix.

Critical reception

Andrew Trendall from Gigwise wrote that the song "springboards Sia from a behind-the-scenes genius into a superstar in her own right". Gordon from Pitchfork Media praised Sia's vocal performance on the track and commented that the track "is enough to make you want to swing from a chandelier". Bradley Stern from the website MuuMuse labelled "Chandelier" the best pop single of 2014, complimenting Sia's songwriting credits and her voice on the song. In a VH1 article, Emily Exton shared that thought, deeming it the best song Sia had ever written. Writing for Time magazine, Jamieson Cox deemed "Chandelier" a "disarming, unforgettable listen that'll make you glad Sia kept this one for herself." In a less enthusiastic review, Melinda Newman from HitFix thought that Sia "can do a lot better than this".

Billboard listed "Chandelier" as the best song of 2014. The song received nominations at the 57th Grammy Awards for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance, with its video receiving a nomination for Best Music Video.

Commercial performance

In the United States, "Chandelier" debuted at number 75 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart dated 31 May 2014. It peaked at number eight on the chart, becoming the first top ten single by Sia to appear on the chart as a lead artist. The song reached one million units sold in the US in August 2014, and surpassed the 2 million mark in sales in January 2015. The song also reached number six on the Canadian Hot 100. In June 2014, the single was certified platinum by Music Canada.

"Chandelier" was successful in Oceania and Europe, peaking in the top five on 20 national record charts including: France, and Poland (number one); Australia, Italy and Norway (number two); New Zealand and Slovakia (number three); and Norway and Scotland (number five). The single was certified quadruple platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), and platinum by the Recorded Music NZ (RMNZ). In the United Kingdom, "Chandelier" charted at number six on the UK Singles Chart. In France, the single was the third best-selling single of 2014, according to Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique.

Music video

The music video for "Chandelier" was released on 6 May 2014, featuring then-11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler. In the video, Ziegler wears a medium-length blonde wig matching the one that Sia used to promote the album. Throughout the video, Ziegler performs an interpretive dance in a deserted, dirty apartment "while spinning, kicking, leaping, crawling, falling, twirling and hiding herself behind window drapes". An alternative one-take version of the clip was released in June 2014. Sia had seen Ziegler on Dance Moms and asked her to appear in the video via Twitter. The video was directed by Sia and Daniel Askill, shot by cinematographer Sebastian Wintero and was choreographed by Ryan Heffington. Ziegler shared her thoughts about the choreography with New York magazine:

I like the whole dance. It was really different and weird for me, because I usually don't, you know, be a crazy person every time. It was so fun to do and it was really out of the box and it expanded me a lot, because I'm used to competition dances where you're like, "Point your toes!" But this time it was like, you just need to let go and feel it.

The choreography was praised by media outlets; an editor from The Guardian wrote that Ziegler "dances with such impressive flexibility". Nolan Feenay from Time magazine commented that the dance moves in the video could be the best dance routine of 2014. "Chandelier" received nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and Best Choreography, and ultimately won the latter. It was also nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for Best Music Video. The video went viral on YouTube and became the seventh most-watched video on the video-sharing website of 2014. As of March 2017, it has received over 1.54 billion views and was, at one point, the 13th most viewed YouTube video of all time. It has since moved down to 18th on the list of YouTube's Most Viewed Videos of All Time. As of January 2015, Billboard ranked the video at number 12 on the list of the 20 best of the 2010s (so far). Both Rolling Stone magazine and Spin magazine named it the Best Music Video of 2014. VH1 listed it first among the "most groundbreaking" videos of 2014. In 2016, several items related to the "Chandelier" video were introduced into the "Right Here, Right Now" exhibit of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Live performances

Sia performed "Chandelier" on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on 19 May 2014, with Ziegler recreating the choreography in the music video. Sia also performed the song on Late Night with Seth Meyers on 9 June 2014, with Girls star Lena Dunham performing new choreography. In July 2014, Sia performed the song on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and Ziegler taught host Jimmy Kimmel and his sidekick Guillermo some of the dance moves from the music video. In July 2014, Sia performed the song on the VH1's show "SoundClash", along with her songs "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry" from the album. Sia and Ziegler also performed the song on Dancing with the Stars and at the 2014 We Can Survive Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. In February 2015, Sia and Ziegler, together with actress Kristen Wiig, performed the song in a cluttered apartment set on the 2015 Grammy Awards telecast. For all of these performances, Sia sang the track with her back to the camera. She performed the song on Saturday Night Live in January 2015, veiled, with a sad-looking mime who performed the lyrics in American sign language.

Covers and parodies

In May 2014, Puddles, the "sad clown with the golden voice" performed a version with Postmodern Jukebox that by January 2017 has had over 5 million views on YouTube. In July 2014, Sara Bareilles performed an acoustic version of "Chandelier" during her Little Black Dress Tour. Reut Odinak from the Seattle Weekly lauded Bareilles' vocals on the cover. Likewise, MuchMusic's Evan Desouza wrote that "The song sounds almost [unrecognisable] with the stripped, acoustic cover. Of course no one can match Sia's insane voice, but Sara does a decent job. Her vocals sound amazing." Later that month, contestant Emily West from the ninth season of America's Got Talent performed the song with an orchestral background to advance past the quarterfinals. On 5 August 2014, Scottish band Twin Atlantic covered the song on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

In September 2014, Irish band The Script delivered a rendition of the song on the same radio programme. Music and Lyrics praised the three-man harmonies. Reigan Derry performed the song the third live show of the sixth series of The X Factor Australia in August 2014, gaining a standing ovation by the judges. In March 2015, British singer-songwriter and 2012 X Factor winner James Arthur recorded a highly-acclaimed acoustic version of the song, which he also later performed for MTV International. Also Andrea Faustini performed the song on The X Factor UK in November 2014. The tenth episode of Selfie, "Imperfect Harmony", featured Karen Gillan singing a karaoke version of the song that segued into a cover by The Wind and The Wave and a sequence mimicking the original video. In the Glee episode "We Built This Glee Club" (119th episode overall), in March 2015, Samantha Marie Ware, Becca Tobin, and Laura Dreyfuss perform the song while J.J. Totah does Ziegler's dance routine and Marshall Williams swings on a chandelier. Keegan Joyce sings the song in the third-season episode "Simple Carbohydrates" of the Australian TV series Please Like Me.

In January 2015, Swiss singer Mélanie René performed a slower version of the song at the Swiss national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015, winning the right to represent her country in Vienna. The Belgian representative in the European contest Loïc Nottet also released a cover of the song on YouTube in November 2014, later praised by Sia on Twitter. Months later, he danced the song twice (including one in the final) in the French Dancing with the Stars, winning the competition. On 22 June 2015, Punk Goes Pop 6 was re-released with three new songs, one being a cover of "Chandelier" by PVRIS.

In October 2014, the dance moves on the music video for "Chandelier" were parodied on Saturday Night Live by Jim Carrey, Kate McKinnon and Iggy Azalea in a sketch. Other parodies include Miranda Sings' parody video, which has accumulated more than 9 million views. Derek Hough lip-synced the song while performing a parody of Ziegler's routine on the eighth episode of Lip Sync Battle. "Chandelier" was played as the background music in the closing scene of the episode "Truth" on the TV show UnREAL. Jordan Smith covered it in his audition for the The Voice in September 2015. The YouTube video of his audition has accumulated more than 50 million views. Trent Harmon covered it in his Top 4 performance for the American Idol in March 2016. The song was covered by Pentatonix on the May 19, 2016 episode of Bones entitled "The Strike in the Chord." Kim Yewon from Pledis Entertainment trainee group Pledis Girlz sang a cover of this song. Also in 2016, Finnish singer Saara Aalto covered the song twice during the 13th series of the UK version of The X Factor, first as her initial audition piece and later in the live semi-final round.

Appearances in other media

The song is also featured in the television shows Hit the Floor, Wonderland, Selfie, Unreal, Transparent, Shades of Blue, American Dad!, and Dance Moms.

Credits and personnel

Credits for "Chandelier" are adapted from CD single liner notes