Photo: WENN
The stage is filled with teddy bears, luminous flowers, neon t-shirts and inflatable glitter balls. It can only be The Flaming Lips right? Wrong. Adelaide’s finest pop export Sia takes to the stage, all giddy and effervescent. Her tiny frame, bright clothing, sweet speaking voice and rainbow wall hanging give impressions of an inspiring nursery school teacher. Which makes it all the more baffling when she starts singing.
The voice doesn’t fit. How can it be? The innocent blonde on stage has a range to rival Bjork and a power to put Duffy to shame. When she sings, people listen. Apart from the crazed Mel from Flight of the Concordes impersonator in front of me that is. But, everyone else is captivated. She demands attention, even when the glitter balls are flying around the Empire.
The eclectiveness continues on 'Soon We’ll Be Found' as two excited girls bound on stage to sign the song, napolean dynamite style. Sia also wants the sold out crowd, mainly Australian, to be as happy as she is, so the young 32-year-old throws sweets and goodies out to her adoring fans.
Sia, most famous for her collaborations with Zero 7, goes back to her melodic acid jazz routes, with crowd pleaser 'Destiny' and her own belter 'Buttons'. 'Electric Bird' is the show’s closer, although she admits "Don’t worry, this is just a fake ending before we come back on". And come back on to raptuous applause they do. Ending on 'Breathe Me', Sia dances like a pixie on acid, and this pixie with her recent appearance on Jools Holland, dedicated fanbase (and Mel), will be fizzing around for a long time yet.
