Sia has reunited with her 13-year-old dancer muse Maddie Ziegler for the music video “Cheap Thrills.” The minimalist video has Ziegler dancing in front of a pink backdrop as two other male dancers support her. This is the fourth time Ziegler has starred in a music video for Sia.
Ziegler first rose to fame thanks to the Lifetime reality show “Dance Moms” before she partnered with Sia for the music video for her song “Chandelier,” which was released in 2014. The video was a smash hit and was followed the next year with controversial video for “Elastic Heart,” which also featured Shia LaBeouf. Ziegler and Sia teamed up one more time for the video for “Big Girls Cry.”
“Cheap Thrills” is the latest single off of Sia’s most recent album “This is Acting,” a concept album that includes songs that were initially written for other artists like Beyoncé and Adele. Before the song was released, Sia revealed that “Cheap Thrills” was originally written for Rihanna’s latest album “ANTI.” The pop star’s manager requested Sia specifically write Rihanna a new song that was similar to “Diamonds,” a song that Sia previously wrote for Rihanna, which was a smash hit.
"I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her,” Sia said of the song. “It's more Icona Pop. We did actually send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn't stop listening to it in the car. I wouldn't normally be just jamming out to my own tunes. There's something really uplifting about it that put me in a good mood ... It felt very summer and fun, and I was like, 'I'll put that on there.'"
The music video for “Cheap Thrills” was co-directed by Sia and her frequent collaborator Daniel Askill, with choreography by Ryan Heffington. Sia herself can actually be spotted in this music video in the corner. Like in her live performance, in the video, Sia wears a wig that covers most of her face as she sings into a microphone.
Ziegler first got her start thanks to the Lifetime reality TV show “Dance Moms,” a show Sia was a big fan of. The 13-year-old dancer is set to be one of the judges on the new show “So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation” and will try out her acting talents in the upcoming film “The Book of Henry,” which is being directed by “Jurassic World” director Colin Trevorrow and stars Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay, and Sarah Silverman.
