"Snowman" is a song by Australian singer-songwriter Sia. 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 Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or 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 cl ...

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 mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

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

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of Masterpiece, lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or Literary merit, highest quality, class, or rank – something that Exemplification, exemplifies its ...

Composition

"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 contributed to five songs that pe ...

. Written in the key of

D♭ major D-flat major 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. The D-flat major scale is: Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in w ...

, Sia's vocals span one octave and a semitone from F₃ to G♭_4. Production on the track was handled solely by Kurstin. The song is a

midtempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given composition, and is often also an indication of the composition's character or atmos ...

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

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

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

snowman A snowman is an Anthropomorphism, 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 wit ...

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 technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

accounts on 7 November 2017, and was released for digital download and

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

on 9 November 2017 as the second single from '' Everyday Is Christmas.'' Sia performed "Snowman" on ''

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

reality TV series Reality is the sum or aggregate of everything in existence; everything that is not imaginary. Different cultures and academic disciplines conceptualize it in various ways. Philosophical questions about the nature of reality, existence, or be ...

''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

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'' described the song as a "clever ode to fleeting romance". ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' named it the best song on ''Everyday Is Christmas'', noting it " akessomething we associate with winter and ppliesit to a universal theme." ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' 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." The song has also been included in lists of the best

Christmas songs Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of carols, may employ lyrics about the nativity of J ...

of all-time published by ''

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'', ''Esquire'', ''Cosmopolitan'', and was described by ''Billboard'' in 2022 as a "modern seasonal classic".

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. Since its rise in popularity in 2020, the track has reached the top 10 various markets, including Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. It also reached the top 20 in Australia and Canada, among others, and peaked at number 15 on the ''Billboard'' Global 200 in 2023. In 2021, it reached number 1 on the

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

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

Norwegian Singles Chart VG-lista is the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from Norwegian and international artists. It is presented weekly in the newspaper '' VG''. The data is collected by Nielsen Soundscan International and based on the sale ...

for two weeks and returned to number 1 in 2022 and 2023. "Snowman" entered the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

singles chart for the first time on the week ending in January 4, 2025 at number 43, over seven years after its first entry on a Billboard chart. As of December 2022, "Snowman" was one of the 10 most-streamed Christmas songs of all-time on streaming platform

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

Music videos

On 30 October 2020, a

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

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. 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 – 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 at Sterling Sound in New Jersey. Gehringer is known for having mastered recordings by popular artists such as AJR, Dua Lipa, Drake, Ed Sheeran, Gwen Stefani, Harry Styles, ...

– mastering engineer

Charts

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Sia singles 2010s ballads 2017 songs 2017 singles American Christmas songs 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