celeb news Sia is in Australia filming a documentary about her life and career.

[Sometimes James]

 

 

Sia Furler has gone from the depths of despair to the top of the charts. After her rare Adelaide sighting this week, we take a look back at her journey from waitress to pop superstar.

 

On a journey that has been anything but smooth, the 48-year-old has waged battles with alcohol and drug addiction, several medical conditions, her mental health and fame itself.

 

She has also forged an extraordinary career in music on her own terms, winning legions of fans for her incredible body of solo material while penning hits for some of the biggest names in pop and dance music.

 

After her rare sighting in the Adelaide Hills this week, we take a look back at Furler’s remarkable journey from Adelaide waitress to one of the most successful and celebrated names in music.

 

EARLY YEARS

 

 

Sia Furler was born in Adelaide on December 18, 1975 to Phil Colson, a musician, and Leone Furler, an artist and art lecturer. She went to Adelaide High School.

 

Her father played in seminal Adelaide bands in the 1970s, including the Mount Lofty Rangers who famously once boasted the legendary Bon Scott in the line-up.

 

Her uncle was actor Kevin Colson. Her parents separated and her father moved to Sydney when Furler was 10.

 

Sia has also had a long friendship with singer-songwriter Colin Hay, referring to him as ‘Uncle Collie’ and ‘my favourite singer’.

 

START IN MUSIC

 

In the early 1990s, Sia, then 17, joined a new Adelaide band called Crisp as lead vocalist.

 

As Steve Knopper wrote in the The New York Times, Sia was not an extrovert or natural performer and “relied on booze to help get her through live shows”.

 

As Hillel Aron wrote in a piece in Rolling Stone in 2018, she was terrified the first night she performed with Crisp.

 

“Someone handed her a glass of wine, her first ever.

 

“For years afterward, she hardly went a day without a drink”.

 

The band became known for its “acid jazz” stylings, although Flavell says at the time, the band considered themselves to be more of a “jazz funk explosion”.

 

The band released two albums – Word and the Deal in 1995 and Delirium in 1997. They played Triple J’s Live at the Wireless and toured nationally before disbanding in 1997.

 

After leaving Crisp, Sia released her debut solo album, OnlySee, which sold 1200 copies.

 

MOVE TO LONDON

 

Sia’s big move overseas was inspired by love, but ultimately would be defined by grief.

 

The 21-year was en route to the UK to be reunited with her boyfriend – fellow Adelaidean Dan Pontifex – when her mother called with tragic news.

 

Pontifex had been hit by a taxi and killed on his 24th birthday. Sia was devastated.

 

“Dan was my first love back in Adelaide,” she told the Sunday Times in 2007.

 

 

In London, Sia landed a gig as a backup singer on a couple of unreleased Jamiroquai tracks and signed a solo contract with the Sony sub label DancePool.

 

In 2000, she released Taken for Granted, the first single from her third solo album, Healing is Difficult, which came out the following year.

The single cracked the UK Top10, but as Rolling Stone reported, despite the song’s chart success, failed to sell in huge numbers and Sia was dropped from her label.

 

As Andrew Leahey writes in a biography on her career for allmusic.com, Sia’s solo work brought her to the attention of several big name British acts who were keen to collaborate.

 

She began working with the trip-hop duo Zero 7, who, as The New York Times reported, had built a steady following during the 1990s but lacked a lead singer.

 

She continued producing her own solo material while working as a gun for hire, releasing the album Colour the Small One in 2004.

As Triple J’s The J Files reported in 2015, the album was well received by critics, but commercially it was a flop.

 

By her own admission, Sia, still mired in grief, was in a very dark place. On the night she wrote the song ‘Breathe Me’, Rolling Stone wrote, she attempted suicide.

 

“That’s why the vocals are so small and fragile on that track, because that’s how I was feeling,” she told The Independent.

 

SOLO BREAKTHROUGH

 

After the despair came the biggest breakthrough of Sia’s solo career thus far.

 

In 2005, ‘Breathe Me’ was featured in the finale of the hit HBO series Six Feet Under.

 

The episode was watched by millions of fans and is regarded by some critics as being among the best finales in TV history.

 

In a 2015 interview with Vulture, show creator Alan Ball, who also directed the episode, revealed he considered at least one other song for the moving final scene but “it wasn’t quite as poetic or as poignant as the Sia song was”.

 

“When I heard “Breathe Me,” I was like, ‘Okay, that’s it. That’s the one,’”, Ball said.

 

“I wrote the scene to fit that song, with that music in mind.”

 

Speaking about that fortuitous moment a few years later, Sia said her Six Feet Under moment virtually saved her ailing career.

“I knew that show, and I watched it, and I loved it, but I didn’t have any real idea of what a big deal it was going to be for my career. It totally resuscitated it,” she told the Star Tribune in 2012.

 

MOVE TO THE US

 

 

After the best part of a decade in the UK, Furler moved to New York in 2005 and began touring the US extensively.

 

In 2008, she released her fourth studio album, Some People Have Real Problems, which sold solidly and marked an important shift towards the more upbeat pop style that Sia would soon propel Sia to stardom.

 

The album was her first to chart in the US, making it to 26 on the US Billboard 200.

 

As News Corp’s Kathy McCabe writes, it also helped Sia continue on her upward career trajectory and again, brought her to the attention of major US pop acts who were desperate to collaborate with one of music’s most exciting talents.

 

SIA QUITS TOURING, BECOMES SONGWRITING GUN FOR HIRE

 

Sia decided to change tack, creatively, too.

 

She hired a new manager, Jonathan Daniel, who convinced her she should try her hand at writing songs for other artists.

 

She quickly became one of the most prolific and in demand songwriters in the industry, writing hits for major stars including Flo Rida, Beyonce, Britney Spears and Katy Perry and penning the smash hits Diamonds for Rihanna and Titanium for French DJ David Guetta.

 

As Rolling Stone reported, Sia was not just a gifted lyricist, but an efficient one. She wrote Diamonds in just 14 minutes and Titanium in 40 minutes.

 

Her decision to step out of the limelight and quit touring, appearances and promotional activities proved the most lucrative of her career.

 

“I have never really made money touring either, or with merchandise, surprisingly,” she said.

 

“But I do make money by just having my songs in the background of television shows or in commercials, or movie trailers. That’s been really good.”

 

“It’s amazing that 40 minutes of my life and zero promo turned into my most successful song to date,’’ she tweeted at the time.

 

Full article:

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/unstoppable-how-sia-became-musics-brightest-star/news-story/780977220a4106979d8adc53e5ad42ef?amp&nk=45744719c485ac2c34b8640516f97f62-1705753724

[Allopatry]

i wonder if it will recap her days in beyonces basement

 

[Raptus]

[Illuminati]

Is she finally gonna do a face reveal

[popmusicisdead]

are they gonna tackle the whole Music fiasco?

[truthteller]

[Revolution]

After she mocked artistic people we don’t want another movie from this person

[Sometimes James]

1 hour ago, Revolution said:

artistic

But she only mocks untalented people

[Dragonfly]

reasonable woman thingz

[Sometimes James]

2 hours ago, Raptus said:

Wait... she actually has a song in this doc