Sia – Chandelier lyrics

This song is about the destruction of The Self. It's all about "swinging from the chandelier", which literally means to have sex with as many people as possible. She is also involved with heavy drinking, and she has too many times tried to escaping the pain in her life, so now she has given it all up. This is a song about social suicide; a song about how to completely ruin everything which evolves from an identity. It's about self-destruction, a beautiful song of how to escape life by doing unhealthy things to your body and your mental health then completely disappearing from the surface of the earth.

It's a song of a person who is having a breakdown and finally putting an end to it with a solution which ends with taking her own life. Putting an end to her miser-ability after engaging in promiscuity and being infected with AIDS.

Its about unhappiness of being unloved and unwanted. The first writer had it right about self-destruction. But it is also about being ashamed of her life and what has happened to make her hate herself so much - the fact that she only feels loved when a man wants to use her for s**. I don't believe its about suicide, just a cry for help to escape from her nihilistic existence through drink and s** - she is numb emotionally, mentally and physically - this is her only existence and the only way she can hold onto her life - the only way to get through the days.

My impression that I take away is that Sia always performs this song with her back to the audience & is always with a child or child-like dancers in a house like environment. It's not just the song to take into consideration; it's the visual component as well. The dance is a mime of a child pretending to be already grown up, looking forward to doing adult things like drinking & dancing (basically clubbing), going to work, etc. from an idealistic viewpoint. There is no parent because she, he or they are actually are at work or out clubbing so the child is free to dance wherever in the house. Sia's song though is the adult's point of view that they're not doing this to have a fun time; the drinking & dancing is being used as a coping technique to deal with life's real challenges instead, including the disillusionment that adult life hasn't cracked up to what she imagined to be when she was the child. So, on the surface, when you listen to it, you hear it from the child's PoV but if you read into the song more, you hear the adult's PoV as well.

Few people alluded to six as a child. They partly get it. The one who wrote it is a child growing up and separating sia by saying as a child, misses the point. Here it is. She, Sia is a child. We all are. As time passes, we add on layers. Never doubt this fact, it is proven and you can test for yourself, no matter what age! Now, having said that, do you see the difference in some of the intepretations? Only the ones that say that it is Sia as a child, have it. Almost right. It is Sia now speaking from her inner child. She may be remembering or acting out on recent events in her life. Or acting on behalf of someone else who was "hanging from a chandelier" so to speak. At any rate, it is a beautiful song and the video completes what otherwise is a somewhat romantic fatalistic pov. In other words, seeing the video version makes the song more sad because we tend to be shocked to our senses when we realize there is a child witnessing or experiencing these things. I think this theme has been used many times. It is however, the first time I think we have seen the artist alluding to something more than what anyone could bear to guess or state. Sexual abuse, as a child or a teen. Or even as an adult. Rape or some other form of sexual assault. Again, do not doubt this sad fact. It is in greater numbers than we yet know. A terrible thing for anyone at any age to go through. Of course, especially the younger loss of innocence is an unspeakable crime. There in lies the problem. And which I suspect Sia may really be alluding to here. If so, this is a landmark song and video production in trying to suggest to us there is something more. And the hope is that the dialogue will speak the rest. Her song is the spark, the video the wind and the dialogue is the fire!

For me, especially in the beginning, this song is about pushing your feelings away or deep inside you. For me wanting to swing from the chandelier is more about wanting to feel free of all the burden of holding in your emotions. Living like no matter what you say or do it's all going to be forgotten by tomorrow. "I'm holding on for dear life" to me is about holding on so tightly to keeping everything bottled up. "Gotta get up now gotta run from this" reminds me of how it feels to want to run away. "Help me" is just perfect. To me it's looking at where you are and begging for help to make it better. I've felt so trapped in my life and this song's lyrics make me feel like I just have to get away and start being myself.