Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Sia and the art of finding your own path

On Saturday night, I went to hear Sia at the Hollywood Bowl. Her concert isn't just a bunch of lights and sets and performances - not that I don't enjoy those. :) It's performance art, and it's inspirational - she has found what works for her, which is to stand in the corner in her signature face-covering wig, and let the dancers express visually what she is singing. I loved it.

I first started listening to Sia a few years ago when my friend Tyler turned me on to the song "Be Good To Me" and of course there are dozens of hits on the radio written by Sia and recorded by other artists, but what truly inspires me about Sia is that she is on her own path. Because in my mind, in order to "make it" as a singer, I have to be young and skinny and beautiful, and most of all, sexy. And the older I get, the less that makes sense to me. But Sia is writing her own rules. Her video for "Chandelier" was so inspiring to me as a survivor of abuse, assault, loss and addiction. (It doesn't hurt that Maddie Ziegler's expressiveness is insanely fantastic!) And her performance Saturday night was transporting - as we were leaving the venue, I overheard the conversation a man near me was having and he said "It was the best concert I've ever been to. I didn't even feel like I was there with anyone. I was transported into another world."

It's such a good reminder for me that as an artist, it's not my job to give the industry what it is looking for. It's my job to find my own path and be true to it, whatever it may look like. And it may take years and years (it already has) but it really is a navigation of uncharted territory.

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