‘You made me smile today
You spoke with many voices.
We travelled miles today
Shared expressions voiceless.’
Born Sia Kate Isobelle Furler in Adelaide, Australia 18 December 1975, this singer songwriter known simply as Sia (pronounced See-ah) is classified in the jazz/down tempo/pop genres.
And I’ll tell you she is quite a character. A bouncy, gregarious, buoyant, upbeat, animated character. You could probably fill a whole page full of words of the like to describe her. And just to give you an illustration this is what you will find on her Myspace page:
hi. this is my myspace.
myspace. my my myspace. mine? spacemine. spacemined. spacemind. spac spaccy myspacccy myspace to get spaccy. come join me. let's dance. wanna make out? cool. now let's dance some more.
my name is sia furler. i am a unicorn fart. i was born out of the butthole of a unicorn called steve.
someday i'll die. between now and then i'm going to keep my shit together and sing my fucking heart out. i love dogs. they're my people.
one day i'll write a real biography.
Some would say she was on something that day. Others would understand.
I wont mention all her EPs and Singles though they are worthy of mention. I will mention however that she has done work with the ambient, soulful, electronica/power pop group Zero 7 some say she may even have eclipsed them, big as they are. And I think she may have as I only found out about them through her.
‘We've been to the top; we've been to the bottom.
We've known everything and forgotten, yeah’
If you’ve watched that movie ‘Guess Who’ you know a song of hers. I don’t remember most of the movie but I do remember the song. That’s when I first found out about her – and I patiently waited till the credits came up to read the song list. I think it features in that scene when they break up (or do they make up in that scene? I don’t know). I immediately thought - Corrine Bailey Ray, as her similarly raspy, soulful voice made me think. But no – I was far from it.
Amazing as her road to fame and as impressive her musical resume is, she is still surprisingly down to earth. Her popularity does not make her a sellout however as she is known to lament the state of the entertainment industry. And I'll quote her here, "I don't really even go out that much now except to walk my dogs, because I don't want to be recognized. I used to be a really friendly person and now I just want to be invisible. I liked myself much more before I got famous. I was much friendlier and had more energy."
So effectively she has decided to not want to be famous anymore. Although she’ll still make music, she reckons she might make albums and sell them but not necessarily market them in the way she’s seen big labels do. She’s also decided to focus on her songwriting and that’s been going well. Having written songs for some artists at Sony as well as a musical, her excellent songwriting capabilities and her ear for a good melody won’t and hasn’t gone to waste.
‘Death by crying doesn't exist, though
the headaches feel a bit like it.
You might explode,
but you reach the end of the road’
Having lived a life full of major ups and downs, it seems even now the fates have thrown her another curve ball which most fans found out about through an announcement on a social networking site that she has been diagnosed with Grave's disease. I rest assured she won’t let it get her down though.
Here’s a list of the gifts she’s given her fans over the years:
- Only See 1997
- Healing Is Difficult 2001
- Colour The Small One 2004
- Lady Croissant 2007
- Some people have real problems 2008
- We are born 2010