Maddie Ziegler has been having a moment.
The 12-year old dance star first found success on the reality show Dance Moms, but things really blew up when singer Sia recruited her for her video “Elastic Heart”. Aside from numerous dancing, acting, and modeling jobs in the months since, she’s also the star of Sia’s new video “Chandelier”, which she performed live at this year’s Grammy Awards with none other than…Kristen Wiig?
It’s true. The Saturday Night Live alum donned a platinum wig and nude leotard to perform an interpretive dance with Maddie while Sia sang the song facing away from the audience, something she’s known for. Maddie and Kristen jumped around a set onstage, looking like one another’s doppleganger in their matching wigs, and today the performance is getting quite a bit of buzz.
Sam Smith may have walked away with most of the awards on Sunday night, but it’s likely not a big deal to Sia, who has made it clear in the past that she doesn’t care that much about fame and accolades. Over the years, she’s declined to stay in the spotlight too long and has hidden her face for many performances because she doesn’t want to sacrifice her personal life just to be famous.
“I don’t want to be famous, or recognizable. I don’t want to be critiqued about the way that I look on the Internet. I’ve been writing pop songs for pop stars for a couple years and see what their lives are like and that’s just not something I want,” Sia told ABC News.
Maddie Ziegler and Shia LaBeouf made headlines when “Elastic Heart” was released, as the two of them performed in the video together, prompting worry that there were undertones of pedophilia. However, according to several interviews Maddie has given, that was such a non-issue that all she was worried about was how dirty her costume was.
Maddie said recently that the fame has been surreal, especially when she meets celebrities who know who she is.
It’s changed in so many different ways. I mean, now celebrities know who I am. When I saw Miley Cyrus and J.Lo (on the red carpet at the VMAs) I was like, “Hi, um, I’m Maddie, I don’t know if you know me, I’m in the Sia video.” They’re like, “We’ve seen it.” And I was like, Whoa, that is cool. Because, you know, I’m just a girl that lives in Pittsburgh. It’s not a big deal at all,” she told Cosmopolitan.