The prerequisite musical acts that arrive at the end of late-night talk shows is either the moment you switch off (mostly Saturday Night Live) or the moment you look forward to to the most (also mostly Saturday Night Live). There’s only so many variations that can be imagined before you realise the only changes being made are the light placements, and maybe the volume of dry ice. Enter Jimmy Kimmel. Or more specifically: enter Sia via satellite.

As the music portion of SXSW 2016 swung into gear, Sia (or Kristen Wiig) predictably blew everyone away. Performing Bird Set Free replete with her trademark black and white wig and a dancer doing his gosh darned best Chandelier impression. What’s more, the performance was beamed into Jimmy Kimmel Live via her Austin set that closed the three day Samsung’s Galaxy Life Fest, Consequence of Sound reported.

It’s a much more engaging and refreshing approach to what can be achieved in a format that never stops clamouring for audience share. It helps having an artist as brilliant and alluring as the Adelaide singer/songwriter.

Bird Set Free is a single off her seventh album, This Is Acting, that consists of songs initially written for other artists but were rejected, presumably in a deeply sonorous way. It’s a rousing and singularly emotive number that left the crowd in raptures. It continues her recent late-night talk show dominance, like her stint on Saturday Night Live.

According to NME, she also revealed details for her first headline gigs since 2011, playing Coachella in April, Flow Festival in Finland, and Sweden’s Way Out West, both taking place on the same weekend in August.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHZwkZAamHM]

Image: American Songwriter

With an eye for starting solo projects beyond her White House tenure (remember this?), First Lady Michelle Obama has enlisted some prodigious talent for This is for My Girls, a charity anthem that aims to promote the Obama Administration’s Let Girls Learn Initiative and #62MillionGirls campaign, according to Billboard. Both initiatives aim to provide young women the opportunity of an education across the globe.

The song, which arrives a day before her keynote address at Austin’s SXSW 2016 festival, was penned by Diane Warren. It features Missy Elliott, Zendaya, Kelly Rowland, Chloe and Halle, Lea Michele, Janelle Monáe and Kelly Clarkson among others, which is almost on par with Sending Our Love Down the Well’s all star line up.

It’s one of the stronger entries into the charity song canon (how is that even a thing?). It bubbles along with a suitably empowering energy and some catchy funk inspired beats and hooks. The chorus sounds an auto-tune tweak away from Beyonce‘s Run the World and unfortunately there’s no FLOTUS rap anywhere on the track, which is an opportunity missed.

https://twitter.com/ZendayaMedia/status/709787047897096193

A live stream of Michelle Obama’s keynote speech and panel discussion with Missy Elliott, Diane Warren, Sophia Bush and moderated by Queen Latifah can be found here.

Have a listen to the audio rip here.