This Is Why Sia Doesn’t Show Her Face Anymore

I first noticed Sia's relatively new face-shrouding performance ritual
when she was the musical guest on a recent episode of SNL. During "Elastic
Heart," the singer faced off to the side, a tulle shield
obscuring most of her face underneath her signature blonde wig. Sia faced the
audience for "Chandelier," but she still wore the same
black visor, and a mime performed next to her to draw attention away from the
singer.

A quick YouTube search revealed several similar performances everywhere
from Ellen — where Sia completely
turned her back to the audience — to Nightline,
where Chris Connelly interviewed the back of her head, and all interstitial
shots of Sia at work were done from behind. 


Other people have noticed
Sia's publicity shyness as of late, too. "Show Us Your Face, Sia," Vulture beseeched in a piece published on
Friday. The singer didn't listen, though; instead, she choose to further obscure
her face when she appeared at the Grammys last night. Sia walked the red
carpet in a wig that left only her mouth and the tip of her nose visible.
She faced a back wall of the set constructed for her "Chandelier" performance.

When she was
nominated for an award, her artist photo was just a blonde wig on the
black outline of a head. 
Since inquiring minds probably want to know,
there is a reason for Sia's sudden shyness. It's not actually a new thing. In
October 2013, she wrote an article for Billboard called "My Anti-Fame Manifesto (By Sia Furler)."
"If anyone besides famous people knew what it was like to be a famous
person, they would never want to be famous," Furler wrote. "Imagine
the stereotypical highly opinionated, completely uninformed mother-in-law
character and apply it to every teenager with a computer in the entire world.
Then add in all bored people, as well as people whose job it is to report on
celebrities. Then, picture that creature, that force, criticizing you for an
hour straight once a day, every day, day after day."


She continued to
voice this belief in the aforementioned Nightline
interview. "I don’t want to be famous, or recognizable. I don’t want
to be critiqued about the way that I look on the internet," she told Chris
Connelly. 


This same sentiment was again reiterated in an interview with The New York Times in 2014,
in which the headline dubbed Sia "socially phobic." After
witnessing the invasion of fame on her famous friends and collaborators'
daily lives, Sia decided that she "just wanted to have a private
life."  


There are photos of Sia's face out there; she even appeared at the Annie  premiere
in a top knot, smiling away as recently as December. As of late, however, she's
become more dedicated to her anti-fame/anti-face M.O. 


The question is
now whether or not Sia's refusal to show her face will just send curious people
on a search for it. Is her withholding just going to make fans and
paparazzi who normally wouldn't think twice about what her face looks like
even more desperate to see it? That was Vulture's conclusion.


We want to respect
Sia's wish for privacy, but we also have to wonder: How does she not trip over
things? (Page Six)