Best Sia Collaborations
How one songwriter became the unseen architect of 2010s pop, writing hits she doesn't sing.
Rihanna's "Diamonds" arrived in 2012 and became one of the defining pop songs of the decade. Soft, massive, simple enough that it lives in adverts and weddings and broken hearts everywhere. And it was written in 14 minutes. Fourteen. By someone whose name wasn't on the cover, wasn't on the radio, wasn't the voice anyone recognised.
That's Sia as a songwriter in one fact: invisible, indispensable, and working faster than most people can even think about working.
The songwriter's gold standard: Rihanna, Diamonds (2012)
This is where to start. "Diamonds" is the writing credit that changes how you hear Sia's whole catalogue. It's the proof of concept: she can write songs so good and so fitting for someone else's voice that no one even needs to know she did it. The songwriting run she built on top of this is staggering. Beyoncé's "Pretty Hurts". Katy Perry's "Chained to the Rhythm". Britney Spears' "Perfume". Each one is a perfect fit for its artist, which is exactly the point.
When you hear her voice: David Guetta, Titanium (2011)
Before "Diamonds", before the songwriting blitz, Sia was the voice on David Guetta's "Titanium" in 2011. Her vocal is the whole song: that raw, cracked delivery sitting on top of Guetta's production like she's singing to you from somewhere inside the track rather than in front of it. It's the moment her voice reached a massive audience without her being the headliner, and it's crucial to understanding what came next.
The collaboration within her own work: The Weeknd & Diplo, Elastic Heart (2014)
This is different from the writing credits. "Elastic Heart" is Sia's song, released on her own terms, but with The Weeknd and Diplo as full collaborators alongside her. She's the one calling the shots here, and she brings them in to make the track darker and more layered than it would be on its own. It's the difference between writing someone else's hit and inviting other people into your own world.
The full architecture
Between "Diamonds", "Pretty Hurts", "Chained to the Rhythm", "Perfume", "Titanium" and "Elastic Heart", you start to see the full picture of who Sia is: not just a solo artist with some massive hits, but one of the people who actually shaped what 2010s pop sounded like. Most people never register her name. That's the whole point.