Music : Sia Releases a Moving Tribute to Orlando Victims
Photo Credits: SiaVEVO
Sia paid tribute to the forty nine people who lost their lives at the Orlando shooting last June with her latest single titled The Greatest released yesterday, September 6, 2016.
The song, which featured Kendrick Lamar, came out nearly three months after the attack. The single reveal had an accompanying music video starring dancer Maddie Ziegler and forty eight others—each one of them representing a life lost during that fateful night.
The Greatest’s haunting video opens with a message #WEAREYOURCHILDREN before we are given a view of a sea of bodies crammed inside what seemed like a prison. The scene shifts to a black and white hallway littered with more bodies, changing again to show the dancers huddled together. Seconds later Maddie appeared on the screen, caged with the other dancers. She painted her face with rainbow colors associated with the rainbow flag, the popularized symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride.
When the music started playing, Maddie was crying—seemingly in agony—but she broke through the prison along with the others. The video ends with all forty nine dancers collapsing to the floor, the walls on their back pierced by what appeared to be multiple bullet holes.
The song itself is upbeat and catchy, making the listeners want to dance to the tune, while the powerful message of the lyrics is applicable to all walks of life.
“Hey, I am the wisdom of the fallen – I’m the youth/ Hey, I am the greatest/ Hey, this is the proof/ Hey, I work hard, pray hard, pay dues, hey/ I transform with pressure, I’m hands-on with effort/ I fell twice before, my bounce back was special/ Letdowns will get you and the critics will test you/ But the strongest survive another scar may bless you.”
Without a doubt, The Greatest follows the tradition of Sia’s previous songs such as Chandelier, a song that makes listeners want to float, swing, or fly. But upon closer look Chandelier actually tells about the story of a sad, party girl and her painful struggles with alcoholism and prescription drugs.
You can watch the video of The Greatest below which has already garnered over 4.4 million views as of this writing.
To be honest, I wasn’t impressed. The video chip’s tone was similar to several others by Sia. By tone I don’t mean the subject matter, I mean the color schemes, the atmosphere, etc she used. It’s foggy and dark. The set very much reminded me of Chandelier, and Maddie just running around from room to another with dancing made this clip look like Chandelier part 2. Sorry, but I just couldn’t see it as a tribute to Orlando. The Orlando victims were 49 gay men. Yet here we have children and women and what not and Maddie who was pretty much in the center of it all. I love Sia’s voice and I love her songs, but when it comes to her video clips, sorry but I am over the “art” aspect. Most of them look the same to me. Heck even the choreography is pretty much the same with the ridiculous solo parts with Maddie pinching herself,etc also the same.
Um no, the victims were not all gay men. There were lesbians among the victims as well as straight woman who has a gay son. The youngest victim was an 18 year old woman. Did you even watch the news reports or look at the victim list?
Great video and message Sia!
The 49 victims weren’t just men….there were women, young adults, older adults…
What bugs me about this whole critique is that your annoyed by lack of representation? Why should it have to completely represent the incident? It shouldn’t it. Art is subjective, but you need to get some facts straight. Not all the victims in that club were gay men. They were men, women, and trans individuals. How can you bugging about a tribute when you don’t even know that wasn’t just men. I see it as a Orlando tribute. No matter how old you are, you are someone child that has been lost.
Also coming from a dancing background, this choreography isn’t a complete departure from Maddie’s style, but its more refined and more choreographed than in Chandlier. Its shown how much she has grown as a dancer. She may had even choreographed this herself.
nope more gay pop music
Soundcloud search #Pray4Orlando
ShooShoo…. I suggest you do a little research. There were several women killed that night. Not all of the victims were gay or lesbian. You comment was very dismissive towards those lives… bottom line, doesn’t matter if they were men or women, straight or gay… they were all somebody’s child.
Is she donating any of the money made from this song to the victims family?