Sia’s new video, “Elastic Heart” has definitely turned some head’s this week. Though the video is more thought provoking than provocative, some on the Internet reacted with cries of Pedophilia.
Sia even tweeted:
I anticipated some ‘pedophelia!!!’ Cries for this video. All I can say is Maddie and Shia are two of the only actors I felt could play
— sia (@Sia) January 8, 2015
Oh Internet, this reminds us of the other “heart” controversy just last week. You know, the one when Madonna was called racist by re-posting images of her “Rebel Heart” album artwork. But let’s get back to “Elastic Heart.” How on earth could a music video conjure of images of pedophilia you ask?
For one, the video has 12-yeard old dancer Maddie Ziegler dancing in a giant cage with 28-year old Shia LaBeouf. But if you watch the video the first thing you might think is yes, this is kind of weird. Was Shia on ‘Dance Moms‘ as well? Or was there another show we might of missed called Dance Dads? And how did he book this video anyway?!
For most of us, watching ANY video with interpretive dance is already low on the bucket list and, though LeBeouf and Ziegler running around in a cage is hardly anything to be ashamed of, it is, to be honest, just not our thing. At any rate, as is usually the case with Internet “controversies”, Sia apologized….and then after the video racked up 25 million views in three days she declared victory:
I’m thrilled the majority loves #ElasticHeart thank you for your support! We all worked our asses off and are very very proud of it.
— sia (@Sia) January 9, 2015
So what do you think? Bad taste, bad video or totally awesome?