Cheap Thrills


 * "Forget about the price tag" — Jessie J

"Cheap Thrills" is the sixth track from Sia's seventh studio album, This Is Acting. Released on 17 December 2015, the song serves as the album's fourth single. Along with another song called "Reaper", it was originally meant for Rihanna. The song currently has three versions: a solo version, one with Sean Paul, and one with Nicky Jam.

After 23 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, "Cheap Thrills" became number one in the US.

Background
Rihanna's manager approached Sia to write a soulful song for the Barbadian singer akin to their previous collaboration, "Diamonds". Sia went to Greg Kurstin and both came up with "Cheap Thrills", which was sent to Rihanna, but was passed on. Sia told Rolling Stone that she put the song in her album because it felt "very summer and fun":

Composition
"Cheap Thrills" is written in common time with a tempo of 90 beats per minute. The song's chord progression, F♯m–D–A–E, may be read either as i-VI-III-VII in F♯ minor or, more likely, as vi-IV-I-V in A major; it is a variant of the I–V–vi–IV progression. Sia's vocal range in the song spans an octave, from B3 to B4.

Critical reception
Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone called it a "bouncy party anthem", whilst The Guardian described it as "a perfectly serviceable party tune". Nick Levine of NME praised the track's production, "and there's no denying this is another superior slab of on-trend ear candy from one of pop's finest songwriters." A CBS affiliate's critic wrote that "Cheap Thrills" was the No. 3 song that "saved 2016", calling it a "formidable hit".

Chart performance
The song reached No. 1 in over twenty countries including Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United States. In Australia, it was eventually certified Quadruple Platinum for shipments of over 280,000 copies, and reached No. 6. In New Zealand, it reached No. 3, and was certified Double Platinum for sales of over 30,000 copies. The song reached the top three in European countries, and was awarded with various certifications, including Quadruple Platinum in Sweden, Five time Platinum in Spain, and Double Diamond in Poland. In the UK, it peaked at No. 2 for four weeks, and was certified double platinum for shipments of over 1.2 million copies.

The song became the best selling and highest certified single of all time in Italy, reaching 9x platinum status, with sales of over 450,000 copies. On 25 September 2017, the song received a Diamond certification in Italy, making Sia the first female singer to achieve such mark.

In South and Central America, the song reached the top 10 in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, top 5 in Guatemala, and No. 1 in Argentina.

In the United States, the song debuted at No. 81 and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, in the issue dated 6 August 2016. The song became Sia's first number-one single in the country, and Sean Paul's fourth; his return to the top 10 after ten years. With "Cheap Thrills," Sia became the first woman over 40 to top the Hot 100 since Madonna did with "Music" in 2000.[17] It sold 1.7 million copies in the US in 2016, becoming the tenth best-selling song of the year in the country.[18] It has sold 1.9 million copies in the US as of May 2017.

Live performances
Sia has performed "Cheap Thrills" on various television shows and concerts, with a group of dancers usually led by either Maddie Ziegler or Stephanie Mincone, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in January 2016, American Idol in March, Coachella in April, and YouTube's Brandcast event in New York City, as well as the season finale of The Voice, both in May.

Music video
A lyric video featuring Sean Paul performing new verses was released on 10 February 2016. In the video, a faceless couple (dancers Minn Vo and Stefanie Klausman) wearing the wigs that have become part of Sia's signature look, win a dance contest on a black-and-white television show reminiscent of American Bandstand or The Buddy Deane Show. The video, directed by Lior Molcho, has been viewed more than 1.5 billion times.

Sia and Daniel Askill directed a performance video featuring Maddie Ziegler dancing with two male dancers to Ryan Heffington's choreography, which was released on 21 March 2016. The three dancers wear beige, with black and blonde wigs or hairstyles and gloves in the half-and-half style used in most of Sia's videos for This Is Acting. They dance on a bare stage, with Sia at a rear corner in the background singing into a microphone while wearing a similar bobbed two-toned wig, a large bow and a white dress. Billboard wrote that "the video features the same type of intense, captivating choreography as some of [Sia's] other work. This time, Ziegler is backed by two other dancers, and the trio seems to blend as one". Teen Vogue said that Ziegler "delivers another powerful performance". This video has been viewed more than 400 million times.

Lyrics

 * -| Solo =


 * -| ft. Sean Paul =


 * -| ft. Nicky Jam =