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Sia mesmerises at Coachella

Fans are lauding Sia's appearance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as "the concert performance of a generation."

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Reclusive Australian pop star Sia Furler sang a rare live set at the Coachella music festival that has been hailed by critics and called "the performance of a generation" by some fans.

The star-studded festival gleamed with superstar acts (Calvin Harris, Rihanna, Kanye West), emerging heroes (Kesha, Halsey, Jack Ü and Major Lazer), reunions (N.W.A., LCD Soundsystem and the 'classic' Guns N' Roses line-up). Our own Angus Young even made a surprise showing, joining Guns N' Roses on stage not long before Axl Rose was confirmed as AC/DC's replacement singer.

Brilliant performance ... Sia and dancer Maddie Ziegler (out of frame) perform onstage during day 3 of the 2016 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California.

Brilliant performance ... Sia and dancer Maddie Ziegler (out of frame) perform onstage during day 3 of the 2016 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Photo: Kevin Winter

But it was Sia dominating post-Coachella discussions on Tuesday.

Covered by her signature black and blonde wig and wearing a huge white dress, Sia sang 13 songs including her own singles - Chandelier, Elastic Heart, Alive, Breathe Me and Cheap Thrills - plus several she wrote for other artists including Titanium (David Guetta) and Diamonds (Rihanna).

It was Sia's first full concert performance since June last year; the 40 year old South Australian has preferred the short, high visibility hit of TV appearances in recent times, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

She used several celebrity dancers including Maddie Zeigler (from Chandelier), Hollywood stars Kristen Wiig and Paul Dano, and comedian Tig Notaro, although whether they were there in the flesh or just on screen was a question left hanging for many.

Rolling Stone's critics named her one of the 30 best acts at Coachella and noted that the "winking mystery" of who exactly was dancing live added to the "magical reality" of Sia's performance.

LA Times' Mikael Wood wrote: "At a Coachella defined by surprise pop-star cameos, Sia's performance Sunday night cleverly flipped the script ... the show's guest stars were the folks onscreen, not in the flesh."

On social media site reddit, fans debated her performance under a thread titled 'Sia just gave the concert performance of a generation'.

"She won Coachella this year ... without a doubt. That was sophisticated art, on so many levels," wrote one user, while another said: "If this isn't the thing that makes Sia a superstar then it's us that f----d up."

Yahoo's Lyndsey Parker was effusive, calling Sia's show "one of the greatest moments in Coachella's 17-year history".

She called festival closer Calvin Harris "a disappointment, really nothing different from anything you'd see at one of his Vegas weekend megaclub residencies.

"Instead, the day – and really, the entire festival – belonged to elusive and reclusive pop provocateur Sia.

"To call Sia's set a 'concert' does it a massive injustice. This was theatre, challenging the very notions of what a live festival experience can be.

"Each of Sia's 13 songs Sunday night was a performance art piece unto itself, featuring avant choreography, dramatically angst-y plotlines, and visuals that were much trippier than any of the screensaver-like video-screen graphics that would later run in loops during Harris's DJ set."

Billboard's Joe Lynch gave her show a mixed review, calling it "impressive but unusual" and "captivating ... but confounding".

"The oddity of seeing something closer to performance art than pop music onstage during Coachella was captivating for thousands, but seemingly confounding for just as many."

Lynch wrote that her set was so "challenging" many fans "remained disinterested, although polite".

While Sia is gospel to many pop fans, she remains too idiosyncratic for others (some could be overheard wondering why she couldn't just show her face onstage like everyone else)."