The Greatest


 * "I could be the one" — Dua Lipa

"The Greatest" is a song by Sia featuring Kendrick Lamar. The single was released on 5 September 2016 by Monkey Puzzle Records and RCA Records as the first single from the Deluxe edition of This Is Acting, Sia's seventh studio album. The song was written by Sia and Greg Kurstin, who also produced the track. The music video for the single features Maddie Ziegler, and was directed by Daniel Askill.

Commercially, the single reached the top 5 in several countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom.

Composition
Billboard editor Gil Kaufman described "The Greatest" as a "uplifting, poppy song with a subtle island vibe."

Critical reception
Jessica Goodman from Entertainment Weekly found the chorus "massive and catchy." Once the critics had picked up on the song's connection with the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic wrote:Russell also praised Lamar's rap in the single release of the track.

Music video
The music video was directed by Sia and Daniel Askill and choreographed by Ryan Heffington. It was released on 6 September 2016.

Writers from various media outlets, including E! Online and People magazine, concluded that the video was a tribute to the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. The video opens with a low drone and cuts between shots of a fraught Maddie Ziegler smearing rainbow colors on her cheeks. She frees 48 other young people trapped in a cage (49 being the number of people killed in the shooting); their freedom is short-lived, however. In the end, a wall is seen riddled with bullet holes as everyone falls to the ground, and tears stream down Ziegler's face. Kornhaber wrote:

Official audio


== Official remix audio ==

== Live performances == On 7 September 2016, Sia, Ziegler and several other dancers performed "The Greatest" live for the first time at the 2016 Apple launch of the iPhone 7 at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. On 23 September, Sia and Ziegler performed the song at the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Festival.

Lyrics

 * -| Solo =


 * -| ft. Kendrick Lamar =