Although it took a collaboration with David Guetta to revive her solo career after years of focusing strictly on songwriting, Australian powerhouse Sia Furler is no stranger to the music industry. In fact, she was swinging from the chandelier for a while before breaking through the U.S. music charts. What sets this part two of her career from her early days is her refusal to show her face in all performances, promotional initiatives and interviews. Instead the unmasked, lipstick-bearing face that served her in the early days of her career (and a simple Google search will confirm her face is an easy find) a bright, blonde wig has taken its place. In an interview with Dazed the singer claimed, “I don’t want to be famous. If Amy Winehouse was a beehive then I guess I’m a blonde bob. I thought, ‘well if that’s my brand, how can I avoid having to use my face to sell something’, so my intention was to create a blonde bob brand.”
She’s stuck to her word, too. All things promotionally linked to her music since her comeback are represented via the bright blonde wig, or rather the back of it. Furler’s performances thus far indicate one thing; she prefers singing to a wall rather than an audience, which spectators question.
Her “anti-fame manifesto” for Billboard in 2013 gave some insight, “”If anyone besides famous people knew what it was like to be a famous person, they would never want to be famous. Imagine the stereotypical highly opinionated, completely uninformed mother-in-law character … she’s not just making cracks about dying before I give her some grandkids, she’s asking me if I’m barren. She’s asking me whether I’m ‘so unattractive under those clothes that her son/daughter doesn’t want to fuck me anymore,’ or if I’m ‘so dumb I don’t know what a dick is and how to use it.'”
In her performances prior to Sunday’s Grammys, the singer graced the stages of talk shows, concerts and interviews all with her back turned to the audience. In Sunday night’s performance of “Chandelier” the blonde-clad singer crooned from a corner of a messy set with her nose to the wall while 12-year-old Maddy Ziegler reprised her role as the exuberant dancing sprite from her music video. To the audience’s surprise, she was also accompanied by Kristen Wiig. Turns out Wiig can modern dance with the best of them (and also pull off the odd eyelid twitch that has become characteristic of Furler’s dancers).
The performance was vocally flawless with Furler’s sparkling vibrato but once again the people in my living room (and surely others throughout the nation) were asking, why does she insist on singing to a wall?
This is only the most recent of many performances characterized by crazy efforts to shield upstage her face with bright blonde hair and girls prancing around in nude leotards. Thus far Furler’s repertoire of masked performances is growing steadily. Here is Furler performing on Saturday Night Live. Bright blonde wig? Check. Refusal to “face” audience? Check.
And here it is again on Ellen, in which the host said, ““When she performs, she chooses not to face the camera, but believe me, this is her singing live.” In another performance on Ellen, her face was hidden by bangs.
Here’s a rare performance on Late Night with Seth Meyers in which Furler sang face-down into a bunk bed while Lena Dunham took her turn adorning the blonde wig for an interpretive dance.
Her interviews are approached with the same obscurity.
In an interview with Nightline, she told Chris Connelly: “I don’t want to be famous, or recognizable. I don’t want to be critiqued about the way that I look on the internet … I’ve been writing pop songs for pop stars for a couple years and see what their lives are like and that’s just not something I want.”
One could argue her resistance to face the crowd distracts the audience from the raw vocal talent she possesses. Although she claims this sends the message that she doesn’t want the fame nor be linked to it, these performances garner attention and fame all on their own and perhaps encourage her to be sought out more. Well played, Furler. Until the day she decides to open herself up and stop hiding from the camera, we’ll have to “face” the music all our own.