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When Sia Met Maddie: ‘Big Girls Cry’ Dancer Discusses First Meeting

By Jonathan Franks
Published on: 02:11 PST, Apr 2, 2015

Singer Sia and young dancer Maddie Ziegler seem to be building a longtime partnership together!

With the recent release of the music video for her new single, “Big Girls Cry”, Sia shared her third video collaboration with the Dance Moms preteen star.

How did Sia and Maddie meet? What brought the 39-year-old Australian singer and the 12-year-old American dancer together in the first place?

In an interview withEntertainment Weekly back in January, Maddie Ziegler shared the story of how the budding friendship and professional partnership between her and Sia first began last year with a tweet.

“[Sia] tweeted me and she was like, ‘I’m a big fan of the show, and I would like you to be in the video for my new song, ‘Chandelier.’ I didn’t even see [the tweet]—it was my mom or someone on my team that saw it, and I was like, ‘This isn’t even real. Someone’s trying to prank me.'”

However, it apparently was not a prank at all because Maddie stated that she flew to Los Angeles two weeks later. Maddie explains that she had four days to learn the now-popular Chandelier dance routine, which was later praised and parodied by quite a few people, in just a few hours.

The Pennsylvania native expressed just how nervous she felt when she first met Sia at the rehearsal location.

“When Sia walked in…I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect from her, because there’s obviously pictures of her when she was younger, and videos, but there wasn’t any new pictures of her, because she hasn’t shown her face in a while. So I didn’t know what to expect.”

However, as soon as Sia saw Maddie, the 12-year-old dancer admitted that those feelings changed rather quickly.

“The second she saw me, she just ran and gave me a big hug. We just felt like we knew each other, really.”

At the time of the interview, Maddie was promoting the Elastic Heart music video, which featured her performing alongside actor Shia LaBeouf. She openly expressed how her performance in Sia’s Chandelier video changed things for her personally and professionally.

“I’m surprised people recognize me… Most people are like, “Oh, you’re the girl from the ‘Chandelier’ video!’… But everything’s changed for me. I’ve had so many opportunities. Getting to do another Sia video is just crazy. It’s been a lot of fun.”

In addition to being featured in Sia’s music videos, Maddie Ziegler has also been involved with Sia’s on-stage performances. For instance, Maddie danced while Sia performed “Elastic Heart” on Saturday Night Live as well as alongside SNL alum Kristen Wiig during the Grammys in February.

With a new single and music video collaboration making headlines once again, Sia and Maddie Ziegler’s days of working together are far from over.

[Image Credit: Larry Busacca/Getty Images]

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