Childhood & Early Life
Sia was born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler on December 18, 1975 in Adelaide, South Australia to Phil Colson and Loene Furler. Her father is into music while her mother is an art lecturer. She studied at the ‘Adelaide High School’.
With her father being a musician, and uncle Kevin Colsan, an actor-singer, Sia was exposed to music from an early age. Moreover, her father had friends from Australian rock band ‘INXS’ and a close friend Colin Hay from another Australian rock band ‘Men at Work’ that probably furthered her musical bent.
Her early musical influences include Sting, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin, whose performing styles she would often imitate as a child.
Continue Reading Below
Career
She launched her music career in the mid-90s as a vocalist with ‘Crisp’, a local Adelaide acid jazz band, contributing in two of its EPs namely ‘Word and the Deal’ (1996) and ‘Delirium’ (1997) as vocalist.
‘Crisp’ disbanded in 1997 and on December 23 that year Sia released her first studio album ‘OnlySee’ which included her full name rather than only Sia as in case of her later albums. It comprised of 13 tracks and saw a sale of 1200 copies.
In pursuit of advancing her music career and to be with her boyfriend, Dan Pontifex, Sia decided to shift to London. However, before she could leave australia, Pontifex met with a fatal car accident.
Devastated by such incident, Sia finally relocated to London and became associated with British funk and acid jazz band ‘Jamiroquai’ as background vocalist.
She also got associated with English musical duo ‘Zero 7’. Eventually, she became some sort of an “unofficial” lead singer of the downtempo group that saw her touring with them as well as contributing as vocalist in their first three studio albums.
Her vocal contributions for the first three studio albums of ‘Zero 7’ includes tracks ‘Destiny’ and ‘Distractions’ from the first album ‘’Simple Things’ (2001); tracks ‘Somersault’ and ‘Speed Dial No.2’ from the second album ‘When It Falls’ (2004); and five tracks from the third album ‘The Garden’ (2006).
Meanwhile, she released her debut single ‘Taken for Granted’ on May 19, 2000, after signing contract with ‘Dance Pool’, a sub-label of ‘Sony Music’. The song became part of her second studio album ‘Healing Is Difficult’ (2001 UK; 2002 US) and reached No.10 on the UK Singles Chart.
Not satisfied with the promotion of ‘Healing Is Difficult’, she left ‘Sony Music’ and signed with ‘Go! Beat’. On January 19, 2004, her third studio album ‘Colour the Small One’ released, but it failed to make much impact.
In 2005, she moved to the US, where organised by her manager David Enthoven, she started touring across the country.
Continue Reading Below
On January 8, 2008, her fourth studio album, ‘Some People Have Real Problems’ released and had a first-week sales of around 20,000 copies. It debuted at #26 on the US Billboard 200 marking her first album to achieve such feat in the US. It was selected as Top Pop Album of 2008 by iTunes.
‘Some People Have Real Problems’ also reached #41 in Australia and obtained gold certification from the ‘Australian Recording Industry Association’ in 2011.
On May 19, 2009, her first video release ‘TV Is My Parent’ came out that comprised of four music videos, recordings of a 2007 live concert held at New York City’s ‘Hiro Ballroom’ as also some "behind the scenes" footage. It won her the ‘ARIA Music Award’ for Best Music DVD in 2009.
Her fifth studio album ‘We Are Born’ was released on June 18, 2010 that made its way to several international charts including debuting at #2 on the Australian Albums Chart and reaching #37on the US Billboard 200.
Apart from furthering her international fame ‘We Are Born’ fetched her two ‘ARIA Music Awards’ in 2010 and also earned gold accreditation from the ‘Australian Recording Industry Association’ in 2011.
Unable to handle the increasing popularity and craving for a private life Sia started to backtrack from all the glitz and glamour including wearing a mask and refusing to do promos. She gradually became addicted to alcohol and drugs and even contemplated suicide.
During such time her new manager Jonathan Daniel advised her to commence song-writing for other artists. Thus began a new chapter in her life that saw her taking a hiatus as recording artist and thriving as a songwriter.
Some of her successful collaborations as songwriter includes writing ‘Titanium’ (2011) for David Guetta; ‘Wild Ones’ (2011) for Flo Rida; and co-writing ‘Diamonds’ (2012) with Benny Blanco and StarGate for Rihanna.
She made a stupendous comeback as recording artist with her sixth studio album ‘1000 Forms of Fear’, which released on July 4, 2014. It debuted at the top of the US Billboard 200 and received a gold certification from ‘Recording Industry Association of America’ (RIAA) thus soaring her fame yet again.
She made her way to the US Billboard Hot 100 through lead single ‘Chandelier’ from ‘1000 Forms of Fear’ that climbed at #8 on the chart. The song also fetched her four nominations at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in 2015.
On January 29, 2016, her seventh studio album ‘This Is Acting’ released that not only debuted at number one in Australia and clinched the No. four spot on the US Billboard 200, but also fetched her Grammy Awards nomination for ‘Best Pop Vocal Album’.
The song ‘Cheap Thrills’ from ‘This Is Acting’ paved her way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song clinched the top position in more than twenty countries and obtained several certifications including a quadruple platinum certification in Australia.
Sia has also tried her hands at acting with film ‘Annie’ (2014) and TV series ‘Transparent’ (2015) and ‘Beat Bugs’ (2016). Her upcoming acting endeavors include performing in films like ‘Charming’, ‘My Little Pony: The Movie’ and ‘Sister’.
