Watch: ‘Cheap Thrills’ by Sia brings back Maddie Ziegler, but there's not much else that’s new

Pop star Sia has teamed up with young dancer Maddie Ziegler once again, for a new video for her track “Cheap Thrills”. The video has Maddie reprise a look and choreography similar to their previous music video collaborations, including “ Chandelier”, “ Elastic Heart” and “ Big Girls Cry”. [caption id=“attachment_2690840” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Still from Cheap Thrills. Screen grab from YouTube[/caption] “Cheap Thrills” was initially written for Rihanna, but Sia decided to record it herself after the Barbadian pop princess passed it off. While we’d love to know what a Rihanna video of the catchy track would have looked like, Maddie and Sia’s return isn’t to be scoffed at either. Incidentally, Sia has co-directed the video along with Daniel Askill. The video for “Cheap Thrills” — which is off Sia’s latest album This Is Acting — features 13-year-old Maddie dancing in a nude leotard and tutu, along with two similarly dressed male back-up dancers. While the sets played an important role in the “Chandelier” and “Elastic Heart” videos, in “Cheap Thrills”, the focus is purely on the dancers as they do their routines in front of a purple backdrop, with the beams from two spotlights providing an interesting lighting effect. Sia makes a fleeting appearance or two. Sia’s previous videos with Maddie have been interesting, disturbing and trend-setting. “Cheap Thrills”, however, seems to tread no new ground. The choreography by Ryan Heffington gets repetitive, as do Maddie’s expressions. Artists often build upon their previous work until they perfect an oeuvre, but “Cheap Thrills” hardly has the path-breaking feeling of Sia’s previous music videos. Here’s the video for “Cheap Thrills”: https://youtu.be/31crA53Dgu0