Sia

Famous Australian singer Sia (full name – Sia Kate Isobelle Furler) started her music career in Australian acid jazz band Crisp, and then, after leaving the group, she released her own solo album OnlySee in 1997. But all Sia's acts were unsuccessful until she moved to the United Kingdom and signed to the Sony Music sub-label DancePool. With the help of major label she recorded second solo album, Healing Is Difficult (2000), an eclectic mix of R&B and jazz (and the song Taken For Granted contained a sample from Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights). Sia received wide popularity – ironically, not exact for her music, but for remix of the song Little Man by Wookie – it became a huge club hit and led many people to discover her music. At the same time, Healing Is Difficult received wide critical acclaim and led to Furler being hailed as the next Lauryn Hill or Nelly Furtado by critics.

After her conflict with record label, Sia left Sony Music and signed with Go! Beat Records, a subsidiary of UMG. 2003 saw Sia release single entitled Don't Bring Me Down, and then she recorded her third album Colour The Small One (it was released in 2004 in Europe and USA) – it was a downtempo record, in which Sia employed a mixture of acoustic instruments and electronic backing in her material, which led to comparisons to artists such as Dido and Sarah McLachlan. The disk became popular with singles Breathe Me, Where I Belong (was earmarked to appear on the soundtrack of the film Spider-Man 2) and The Bully (a collaboration with American musician Beck Hansen).

In 2005, Sia parted ways with Go! Beat Records too, disappointed at the company's poor promotion of the album, and its failure to bring Colour The Small One to the US. The album was released in the United States by Astralwerks, which licensed track Breathe Me for the television series Six Feet Under. This made Sia known all over the world. She toured the U.S. throughout 2006, promoting the album and cross-promoting the Six Feet Under. In addition to her solo career, Sia provided vocals for pop-band Zero 7 on their hit singles Destiny and Distractions from their debut album Simple Things. She sang for their second album When It Falls, and their third album The Garden too. Sia also recorded a cover version of Radiohead's Paranoid Android, which appeared on the tribute album Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads in 2006 (this track appeared in a teen drama The O.C.).

On April 3, 2007, Sia's third LP Lady Croissant was released, consisting of 8 live songs and 1 new studio track. It was followed by Sia's four-song EP Day Too Soon in November. In January of 2008, Sia's fourth album Some People Have Real Problems was released. Day Too Soon became the first single from it. Sia also announced her plans to form a duet with singer Katie Noonan, a member of Brisbane-based band George. Two years later the artist released her new long play We Are Born (2010), which turned out to be more dynamic than its predecessor. The record got excellent reviews from the experts, who also noted the highest level of that studio attempt and at ARIA Music Awards We Are Born was nominated in the category Album Of The Year. That fact definitely says a lot about both the singer’s performance skills and the quality of the presented material.