Alive

The lead single from This is Acting, "Alive" was originally written by Sia for and with Adele, but the English songstress rejected the track at the last minute. Nevertheless, the Aussie decided to take on the track anyway. "It's about [Adele's] life, so I now sing a song from [Adele's] perspective," she told Slovenian news outlet. RTV Slovenija.

The song works perfectly with the theme of the album, as the title stems from Sia creating songs not necessarily meant for herself. She told Australian station Nova 96.9's DJs Fitzy and Wippa: "I'm calling it 'This Is Acting' because they are songs I was writing for other people, so I didn't go in thinking 'this is something I would say'. It's more like play-acting. It's fun."

Sia and Adele wrote three songs in two days, including "Alive," and none of them made the cut. The Australian songstress told Ryan Seacrest, that she said to Adele regarding this song, "Do you mind if I pitch it to, let's say, Rihanna?" The English star replied: "Yeah, but can you take my vocal off it because I don't want my vocal floating around out there on a demo." Sia added that she agreed to Adele's request: "I was like, 'Sure.' So I went and recut the vocal and everybody in my life was like, 'You can't give this away to anybody.'" Rihanna rejected the song too, so Sia ended up placing the track on This Is Acting.