Sia Sorry for ‘Pedophilia’ Concerns Over New Clip ‘Elastic Heart’
by Lars Brandle
Sia has addressed the pedophilia “cries” about her new video, and apologized to folks who felt “triggered” by the clip.
The Australian singer and songwriter on Wednesday shared the new video for “Elastic Heart”, which features a poetic cage battle between the under-fire actor Shia LaBeouf and Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler, the pre-teen whose outstanding, solitary performance in Sia’s “Chandelier” made it one of 2014’s most striking music videos.
Sia’s ‘Elastic Heart’ Video is a Cage Match Between Maddie Ziegler & Shia LaBeouf
Ziegler is back in her skin-colored body suit and blonde bob, though this time she’s engaged in a dance-off with a shirtless, grubby LaBeouf.
photo: Splash News
While many have praise the clip for its art and emotion, some viewers took to social networks to declare their outrage over the intimacy portrayed by the actors. One tweeted, “The new Sia video is disgusting,” and another wrote that the video would be “magic if her dancing partner wasn’t 30 years old, looked like a child predator and was a good dancer.” Elle Magazine tweeted that the video was “creepy”.
Sia responded with a string of tweets. “I anticipated some ‘pedophelia!!!’ Cries for this video. All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play”
"Chandlier" director Daniel Askill and choreographer Ryan Heffington again lent their talents to "Elastic Heart", which has generated more than 2.6 million hits on YouTube in less than 24 hours.
It’s Sia’s latest single from her sixth album 1000 Forms of Fear, which debuted at the summit of the Billboard 200 albums chart last July. The song has origins dating back to late 2012, when it was included on the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and featured the Weeknd & Diplo.
Sia is nominated for four Grammy awards, including record of the year and song of the year for “Chandelier.” The Adelaide-raised artist cleaned up at the ARIA Awards last November, where she took out four categories including best album, the annual gala’s top prize. She took a brace of trophies at the APRA Awards last June, including the prestigious songwriter of the year award. It’s the second successive year she’d taken the trophy, a feat never before achieved.
