Australian singer Sia explains why she hasn’t made new music for years

She’s finally set to release new music – and the Australian singer has revealed a heartwrenching reason why it’s taken her so long.

Sia has explained why it's taken her so long to release a new album.

Sia has revealed why she’s been absent from showbiz in recent years.

The Australian singer, 47, is finally set to release new music with the upcoming release of her 10th studio album, Reasonable Woman, which comes two years after her last album Music copped lacklustre reviews alongside the panned film of the same name.

Apart from a Christmas album in 2017, Sia’s last critical and commercial success was with the 2016 album This is Acting, which debuted at number one in Australia.

In a rare interview on The Zane Lowe Interview Series podcast, the Adelaide-born performer opened up about the heartbreaking reason why she hadn’t been producing much music, citing a deep depression that saw her struggle to get out of bed for years.

“The truth is that I had just been every now and again writing a song here or there for the last six, seven years,” she said.

Sia is about to release her new album, Reasonable Woman. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Christian Siriano

Sia added: “I got divorced and that really threw me for a loop. That was such a dark time that I was in bed for three years, really, really severely depressed. And so I couldn’t really do anything for that period of time.”

The Chandelier singer is referring to her split from ex-husband Erik Anders Lang, whom she married in August 2014. Sia filed for divorce from the documentary filmmaker in December 2016, citing “irreconcilable differences”.

Sia, who is notoriously private, having spent much of her career wearing her signature wig disguise at public events, said working on her upcoming album had been a lengthy process due to her mental health struggles.

Sia with her ex-husband Erik Anders Lang. Picture: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images for Miu Miu

“I started again, just little bits and pieces here and there but it was really hard to get me out of bed,” she said.

“And then, finally, it just turned out we had enough songs to make an album, enough good ones. So I just rely on my management to tell me when we’ve got enough good ones because I can’t — I don’t really — I can tell when I think one is particularly good, I think I can tell, but they tell me when we’ve got 11 or 12 or 13 enough good ones, real good ones.”

Sia, who adopted two boys ageing out of foster care in 2019, is now married to Dan Bernad, whom she wed in Portofino, Italy, in May.

She previously revealed her struggles with infertility while married to Lang, opening up about her IVF journey in an interview with InStyle magazine in 2020.

The singer opened up about her deep depression, which impacted her ability to write new music. Picture: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for EJAF

She said she “took time away” after getting a divorce from Lang (pictured left). Picture: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

“When I got married [to Lang], we did a lot of IVF, but I still had unexplained infertility,” she said.

“Eventually, we did get embryos, but then we also got a divorce, so I wasn’t able to use them.

“It was all very painful, and by the end of that relationship, I had suffered so much that it took lots of profound therapy for me to realise that I needed to take care of my own inner baby for a while.

“So I took some time away. I spent three or four years basically in bed by myself, recovering from the trauma of my marriage.”

Sia’s new album features the lead single Gimme Love, which was released on September 13.

The full album is expected to be released via her label, Atlantic Records, next year.

Originally published as Australian singer Sia explains why she hasn’t made new music for years