March 24, 2023

Music Friday: ‘You Worth More Dan Diamonds, More Dan Gold’ in Sia’s ‘Cheap Thrills’

Welcome to Music Friday when we celebrate chart-topping songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Aussie sensation Sia teams up with Jamaican rapper Sean Paul to deliver the international mega-hit “Cheap Thrills.” Viewed more than 1.7 billion times on YouTube, the song features Paul’s reggae-spiced refrain, “You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold.”

The song follows Sia as she prepares for an exciting weekend with her partner at the dance club. She explains that she doesn’t need dollars bills to have fun tonight, because embracing the music and letting loose on the dance floor is worth so much more.

Sia and Paul alternate lines as they sing, “But I don’t need no money / (You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold) / As long as I can feel the beat.”

Penned by Sia and Greg Kurstin, “Cheap Thrills” was the second single released from Sia’s seventh studio album, This Is Acting (2016). The song has been described by critics as a “bouncy party anthem,” a “sunny jam” and “another superior slab of on-trend ear candy.” It has the distinction of being the most Shazamed song of 2016.

The “Cheap Thrills” lyrics video, which mimics the 1960s vibe of American Bandstand and features faceless dancers (Minn Vo and Stefanie Klausmann) wearing signature Sia wigs, is well on its way to 2 billion views.

A second video highlighting the then-13-year-old Dance Moms star Maddie Ziegler has accumulated 860 million views. Ziegler also appeared in Sia’s videos for “Chandelier,” “Elastic Heart” and “Big Girls Cry.”

“Cheap Thrills” ascended to #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Sia fans may remember that she wrote “Diamonds” for Rihanna in 2012. That song was also an international hit, with worldwide sales of more than 9 million.

In an interesting twist, Sia and Kurstin wrote “Cheap Thrills” for Rihanna, but the artist passed on it. As reported in Rolling Stone, Rihanna’s manager was seeking out another “Diamonds,” a song with soul and feeling.

“I realized just as soon as I was cutting it that it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her,” Sia told Rolling Stone. “We did actually send it to her, but they passed on it, and then I just couldn’t stop listening to it in the car.”

Sia decided to perform it herself, and the rest is hit-making history.

Please check out the “Cheap Thrills” video at the end of this post. The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…

“Cheap Thrills”
Written by Greg Kurstin and Sia Furler. Performed by Sia, featuring Sean Paul.

Up with it girl
Rock with it girl
Show dem it girl (Bada bang bang)
Bounce with it girl
Dance with it girl
Get with it girl (Bada bang bang)

Come on, come on, turn the radio on
It’s Friday night and I won’t be long
Gotta do my hair, I put my make up on
It’s Friday night and I won’t be long

Til I hit the dance floor (Bada bang)
Hit the dance floor (Bada bang)
I got all I need (Sia)
No I ain’t got cash
No I ain’t got cash
But I got you baby
(Just you and me)

Baby I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills)
Baby I don’t need dollar bills to have fun tonight
(I love cheap thrills)
But I don’t need no money
You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold
As long as I can feel the beat
Mek di beat jus tek control
I don’t need no money
You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold
As long as I keep dancing
Free up yourself, get outa control

Come on, come on, turn the radio on
It’s Saturday and I won’t be long
Gotta paint my nails, put my high heels on
It’s Saturday and I won’t be long

Til I hit the dance floor (Bada bang)
Hit the dance floor (Bada bang)
I got all I need (Sia)
No I ain’t got cash
No I ain’t got cash
But I got you baby
(Just you and me)

Me and you girl, you and me
Drop it to di floor an mek mi see your energy because
Mi nah play na hide an seek
Wah fi see di ting you have weg mek me feel weak girl
Cause anytime you wine and kotch it
Di selector pull it up an pull it pon repeat girl
I’m nah touch a dollar in my pocket
Cause nuttin in this world ain’t more dan what you worth

But I don’t need no money
You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold
As long as I can feel the beat
Mek di beat jus tek control
I don’t need no money
You worth more dan diamonds, more dan gold
As long as I keep dancing
Free up yourself, get outa control
Oh, oh

La, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills)
La, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills)
La, la, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills)
La, la, la, la, la
(I love cheap thrills)