Sia and Sean Paul’s five-year-old track “Cheap Thrills” is getting new life with a high-profile feature on the big screen in MCU’s Black Widow.
The Pop/ Electronic 2016 tune was featured in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Widow movie soundtrack released last Wednesday (July 7). The action-packed spy thriller takes place between the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War in 2016.
Sia often describes the song as an upbeat anthem that will lift you’re mood. This exemplified when Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow, drives down a hazy roadway in Norway. This occurs as “Cheap Thrills” plays on the radio, synchronizing with, and enhancing the mood of the scene. The song plays just as the film’s main villain (Taskmaster) attacks Natasha “out of the blue.”
Sia, an Australian pop star, and Sean Paul, a Jamaican dancehall icon, created magic in February 2016 when they dropped “Cheap Thrills.” The song went on to peak at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“Cheap Thrills” earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/ Group Performance and was certified 4X platinum in the US, UK, Belgium, Sweden, and Australia with over 11 million certified units worldwide.
Additionally, the lyric video for the bouncy dancehall flavored song has over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Interestingly, “Cheap Thrills” could have gone to Rihanna, as it was originally written for the “Umbrella” singer. Sia, who usually writes for a number of popular singers, disclosed in an interview with Rolling Stone that Rihanna rejected the song because “it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her.” The song was expected to be a part of the Bajan superstar’s ANTI album, but due to her rejection, it ended up being a part of Sia’s seventh studio album titled, “This Is Acting.”
It was later released with Sean Paul’s bars for digital download.
Despite the creation of a magical chart-topping hit, the collaborators never met each other face to face. “We’ve never met, and we did the song over the internet. She sent me a big bunch of flowers when it went to No. 1,” Sean Paul told Access about his relationship with Sia last year.
Despite the deprivation of face-to-face interactions, the two are coming together this year to make some magic again. Sean Paul disclosed that he is collaborating with the singer on a song called “Dynamite” released as a part of his “Scorcher” album later this year.
Black Widow movie is already proving to be one of the biggest movies released with a pandemic box office record of $80 million raked in over the opening weekend. So surely the song’s feature in the movie is huge for both Sia and Sean Paul.
