Video: Sia, ‘Elastic Heart’
Kevin Bronson on
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Sia shouldn’t have had to apologize for her “Elastic Heart” video, but last week’s firestorm was to be expected considering it stars an actor with baggage. In case you were napping and weren’t one of the 35 million-plus viewers on YouTube: The video, directed the Australian songstress and Daniel Askill, features the spill-a-minute actor Shia LaBeouf and 12-year-old Maggie Ziegler wearing flesh-covered outfits and dancing in a cage. It’s quite artistic, actually, the players and their movements conveying the “elasticity” of the song’s emotions, and the cries of pedophilia seem like hollow click-baiting by people who make a living by posting celebrities’ DUI arrest mugshots. It’s easy to imagine the video would have had the same, if not more, visceral impact had the male lead been played by some talented but anonymous dancer. Then again, it might not have received 35 million-plus views. The single, by the way, is the second from her 2014 album “1000 Forms of Fear” (the first, “Chandelier,” earned four Grammy nominations) and was produced by Diplo and Greg Kurstin. If you met Sia via “Healing Is Difficult” back in 2002, you might miss the old days.
Oh Sia? You mean that one singer from Zero 7?