Ok, This Whole Sia Covering Her Face Thing Needs To Stop Now

22 January 2015 | 2:03 pm | Sally Anne Hurley

The bananas that broke the fan's back.

I am a Sia fan. I'm not the biggest, or most passionate or most hardcore, but I like, respect and appreciate her. I dig her individuality and the fact that her art speaks for itself. I think she's a terrific songwriter. I resonate with the emotion she puts into her music. Her 2010 album We Are Born is one of my favourite local releases of the past few years and I think 2014's 1000 Forms Of Fear is incredible.

But I'm not a fan of her hiding her face anymore.

When Sia announced the release details of 1000 Forms Of Fear early last year, she said she would not be doing any touring or promo for it. Fair enough. The singer-songwriter stopped touring back in '10, due mostly to battle with Graves Disease.

The promo thing has been the interesting part of that though. A new promotional photo of Sia dropped just before Chandelier blew up, featuring the singer with a paper bag over her head. It seemed the singer wanted to let the art do the talking. Again, fair enough.

Then Chandelier's clip dropped, featuring the ridiculously talented 12-year-old Maddie Ziegler of Dance Moms fame in a Sia-esque blonde wig, and the artist was in more demand than ever before and subsequent promotion — talk show appearances, etc — began.

I think the Chandelier clip was genius. As was her performance of it on The Ellen Show where she remained with her back turned towards the audience, even if it was a little bizarre at first to watch. Same with her recent, stunning turn on Saturday Night Live, where she wore a veil on her face during both Chandelier and Elastic Heart. But then there was the cringe-worthy SNL preview clip where she appeared with said veil on, talking and laughing to the camera.

"She somehow turned insight into one of the best video clips the world has seen in a long-time into a distracting joke."



And we arrive at today's release of a behind-the-scenes video for her latest, much-talked about single Elastic Heart. In it, Sia spends a great deal of time talking to the camera about the clip's concept and creation, with a super-imposed bunch of bananas placed perfectly across her face. Yes, you read that right - bananas.

I legit rolled my eyes and laughed when the first sight of banana-clad Sia appeared on my screen. I shook my head and asked 'why?' - multiple times. Is she for real? Like, seriously, Sia, are you for real? She somehow turned insight into one of the best video clips the world has seen in a long-time into a distracting joke.

I'm starting to feel like this whole hiding the face thing is not really about the ol' 'let the art do the talking' business anymore 'cause all those bananas screamed at me today was TAKING THE PISS!!! And if this whole thing is just some kind of joke from the singer, maybe it's not hitting the mark?

For the first time in my tenure as a fan of Sia, I found myself bored and tired of her. I'm guessing it's only temporary, 'cause there's no need to be overly-dramatic but right at this moment, if another clip featuring Sia was appear on the worldwide web, I'd seriously consider whether it's worth watching.

I want Sia to let her art do the talking, which she has always done throughout her career, not just the 1000 Forms Of Fear era. But I don't believe hiding her face is going to allow her to do that anymore. If anything, it's going to start taking away from the art I fear.

I don't want people to start not giving two shits about one of Australia's greatest musical imports because she's boring us all with her overdone, blonde wig impersonators roll call. I don't want to see Carrot Top accept anymore awards for her in a blonde wig and I don't think I'm the only one.

You're better than that Sia. Your audience is better than that. And, we are all much, much better than super-imposed bananas.