Sia figured out how to shake up the perfect cocktail of a pop song — take one part “party,” one part “decadence,” and one part “Gatsby-esque disillusion from too much party and decadence,” and you’ve got yourself a hit on the Billboards. “Chandelier” masquerades so perfectly as a Rihanna song that it takes multiple listens to realize that it’s not RiRi on the mic. Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler has been spending most of her music career working behind the scenes writing chart-toppers for Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue, David Guetta, Flo Rida, and, yes, Rihanna herself. So it was only a matter of time before the “it takes one to know one” mentality would drive Sia to pen this semi-muckraking track about the loss of control that comes from excessive partying.
It takes unbelievable vocal control to sing about losing control the way that Sia does when she belts lyrics like “I’m gonna fly like a bird through the night / feel my tears as they dry.” Through “Chandelier,” Sia gives us a glimpse of the crust that she sees from her bird’s-eye view of all that is diamond-encrusted.