"Snowman" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter

Sia Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she rel ...

. It was released on 9 November 2017, as the second single from Sia's eighth studio album, '' Everyday Is Christmas''. A music video made via

claymation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

was released on 30 October 2020. A part two of the music video was released on 22 December 2022. "Snowman" earned positive reviews from critics, some of whom deemed it the highlight single from ''Everyday Is Christmas''. The song experienced a popularity surge in November 2020 on

TikTok TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. TikTok is an international version o ...

, and has since been branded as a modern-day Christmas

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

. In 2020, Brandon Funston of ''

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

'' listed "Snowman" as the 85th best Christmas song of all-time.

Composition

Greg Kurstin studio 7053 Peter Hill (cropped)

"Snowman" was written by Sia and frequent collaborator

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and written and produced four songs ...

. Written in the key of

D♭ major D-flat major (or the key of D-flat) is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B and C. Its key signature has five flats. It is enharmonically equivalent to C-sharp major. The D-flat major scale is: : Its ...

, Sia's vocals span from F₃ to G♭_5. Production on the track was handled solely by Kurstin. The song is a

midtempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often ...

, 60's-inspired, piano-driven, crisp, swaying

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

over which Sia's vocals, described as "calm but energetic" by ''mxdwn'', tell a

snowman A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a man often built in regions with sufficient snowfall and is a common winter tradition. In many places, typical snowmen consist of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional ...

not to cry as he will melt. The track runs for a length of 2 minutes and 45 seconds.

Release and promotion

"Snowman" was announced on Sia's

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

accounts on 7 November 2017, and was released for digital download and streaming on 9 November 2017 as the second single from '' Everyday Is Christmas.'' Sia performed "Snowman" on ''

The Ellen DeGeneres Show ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'' (often shortened to ''Ellen'' or ''The Ellen Show'') is an American daytime television variety comedy talk show that was created and hosted by its namesake Ellen DeGeneres. Debuting on September 8, 2003, it was pro ...

'', and on the finale of the fifteenth season of American

reality TV series Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

''The Voice''. In December 2020, a challenge based around the song on video-sharing app

saw a massive rise in popularity, becoming a trend. The challenge sees TikTok users attempt to sing a portion of the song, lasting forty seconds, in one breath. Sia subsequently released a "Snowed In & Slowed Down Remix" of the track, which was later featured on the ''Snowman Deluxe Edition'' of ''Everyday is Christmas'' on 5 November 2021. In addition to this, a sped-up version was included on the 2022 reissue of the album.

Reception

'' Slant Magazine'' described the song as a "clever ode to fleeting romance". '' Slate'' named it the best song on ''Everyday Is Christmas'', noting it " akessomething we associate with winter and ppliesit to a universal theme." In 2020, Brandon Funston of ''

'' listed "Snowman" as the 85th best Christmas song of all-time. ''Billboard'', in 2022, described the song as a "modern seasonal classic". ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' commented that the TikTok remix version of the song "opts for a breezier tempo than the original, with Sia changing the song’s key midway through for extra effect."

Commercial performance

Upon its initial release in 2017, "Snowman" debuted and peaked at number 3 on the ''Billboard'' Holiday Digital Songs Sales chart dated 2 December 2017. Following its rise in popularity in 2020, the track reached the top 50 in Australia, Canada, France and Germany, among others, and peaked at number 25 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200. In 2021, it reached number 1 on the

Finnish Singles Chart The Official Finnish Charts ( fi, Suomen virallinen lista; sv, Finlands officiella lista) are national record charts in Finland compiled and published by Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. The name ''Suomen virallinen lista/Finlands officiell ...

, becoming Sia's first chart-topping hit in the country. In the same year, it topped the

Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista is a Norwegian record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide chart ...

for two weeks and returned to number 1 for four additional weeks in 2022. As of December 2022, "Snowman" was one of the 10 most-streamed Christmas songs of all-time on streaming platform

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Music videos

On 30 October 2020, a

music video for "Snowman", directed by Lior Molcho, premiered on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

. On 22 December 2022, a "Part II" of the video was released, also directed by Molcho.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

. *

Sia Furler Sia Kate Isobelle Furler ( ; born 18 December 1975) is an Australian singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Adelaide, she started her career as a singer in the acid jazz band Crisp in the mid-1990s. In 1997, when Crisp disbanded, she re ...

– songwriter, vocals *

– songwriter, producer, bass, drums, keyboards, piano, engineer * Alex Pasco – engineer * Julian Burg – engineer * Şerban Ghenea – mixer * John Hanes – mixing engineer *

Chris Gehringer Chris Gehringer (born May 27, 1962) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered recordings such as Gwen Stefani's '' Love. Angel. Music. Baby.'' (2004), Rihanna's '' Loud'' (2010), Lady Gaga's '' Born This Way'' (2011) and Drake' ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Sia singles 2010s ballads 2017 songs 2017 singles Number-one singles in Finland Number-one singles in Norway Sia (musician) songs Song recordings produced by Greg Kurstin Songs written by Greg Kurstin Songs written by Sia (musician) Stop-motion animated music videos