Why Sia refuses to show her face

SIA performed one of 2014’s most recognisable songs, Chandelier, at the Grammy Awards, but she managed to remain unseen. Here’s why she’s so shy on stage.

The 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards - Red Carpet

SIA performed one of 2014’s most recognisable songs, Chandelier, at the Grammy Awards, but she managed to remain unseen.

Wearing a blunt blonde wig, the singer opted to hide while performing (while turning around and facing a wall, instead of the star-studded audience, while Kristen Wiig danced on stage) — something that has become a trademark characteristic for the 39-year-old Australian artist.

“I don’t want to be famous, or recognisable,” she told Chris Connelly on Nightline in June 2014. “I don’t want to be critiqued about the way that I look on the internet.”

Kristen Wiig lip-synchs Sia's Chandeleir onstage at the Grammys.

“I’ve been writing pop songs for pop stars now for a couple of years and I’ve become friends with them and see what their life is like and that’s not something I want,” she said.

Although she’s had her face photographed on red carpets and plastered on previous albums, it’s no longer how she wants to live her life.

Her unusual performances on Saturday Night Live, Ellen, Late Night with Seth Meyers and more all feature her standing off to the side with her back to the audience.

Sia performs on The Ellen Show and never faced the audience.

Sia has been in the music industry since the late ‘90s. She’s also built a huge reputation penning songs for the likes of Beyoncé, Rihanna, Britney Spears and more.

“I just wanted to have a private life,” Sia told The New York Times in April 2014. “Once, as my friend was telling me they had cancer, someone came up and asked, in the middle of the conversation, if they could take a photograph with me. You get me? That’s enough, right?”

This article originally appeared in The New York Post.

Originally published as Why Sia refuses to show her face