Sia’s ‘Cheap Thrills’ With Sean Paul Pops Up In Marvel’s ‘Black Widow’
Australian pop star Sia and Jamaican Dancehall star Sean Paul had their mega-hit collab, Cheap Thrills (2016), featured in the soundtrack to Marvel Studios’ Black Widow movie, which was released on July 7.
Starring Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow takes place between the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War — around the year 2016 — and the movie illustrates this at the beginning as Natasha drives a truck down a misty road in Norway, while Cheap Thrills plays on the radio. According to ScreenRant, the song plays just as the film’s villain (Taskmaster) attacks Natasha “out of the blue”.
Described as a bouncy, Dancehall-tinged synthpop song, Cheap Thrills was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and had earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. It’s certified 4X platinum in the US, UK, Australia, Belgium, and Sweden, with over 11,000,000 certified units worldwide.
The song’s lyric video, released in February 2016, has over 1.6 billion views on YouTube.
Cheap Thrills was originally written for Rihanna for her Anti album, but it was rejected by the Bajan superstar because “it sounded a little bit too Brit-pop for her,” according to Sia in an interview with Rolling Stone.
The song was then released as the second single on Sia’s seventh studio album, This Is Acting. The hit version with Sean Paul’s patios bars was later released for digital download.
Sean Paul told AccessOnline last year, that he and Sia had still not met face to face, despite creating the chart-topping hit together. “We’ve never met, and we did the song over the internet,” he said. “She sent me a big bunch of flowers when it went to No. 1.”
Earlier this year, Paul revealed that he and Sia have another collaboration in the works, titled Dynamite, that’s destined for his Island Records album dubbed Scorcher.
Directed by Cate Shortland, Black Widow has snagged a massive $80 million in its first weekend, according to Variety. The movie is now in theaters and streaming on Disney+ Premier Access.