-Welcome to the show.
-This is the best day of my life.
You don't understand.
-Aw. I'm so happy you're here. [ Cheers and applause ]
You know I'm a fan of yours.
I met you -- When did I meet you?
A couple of years ago, right?
-When I did "Ellen," when I was 11,
so that was like five years ago.
-Yeah. I mean, five years ago.
But I was like, "Maddie, I know --"
-I was so excited. I was like, "Jimmy!"
You knew who I was and I was so shocked. I was so excited.
-Oh, it was great. I met you, I met your mom.
But I'm a fan of yours from "Dance Moms."
-Thank you. Thank you so much.
-I would watch that and you were just so cute and you had it.
You're just the smartest little kid,
and I was like, "Oh, she was great."
And I watched that with my wife. We were obsessed.
-Oh, my God. Thank you. -We were obsessed with that.
Is that how Sia got hooked up with you?
-Yeah, when I was -- I mean, I started when I was, I think,
I just turned 8, and then she watched the show religiously.
And then she tweeted me and was like,
"I want you in my music video."
And at the time, I didn't really know who she was.
But then, we did the video and I didn't expect the outcome,
and now it's just --
-I mean, yeah, I mean, it's --
Well, this is you from the video "Chandelier."
-I know. I look like a different person.
-Yeah. That was everybody.
I remember everyone was just talking about you,
and they're like, "Dude, you got to see this girl
in Sia's video. She's unbelievable."
And I was like, "Wow. She's amazing."
You were doing these moves.
This move with the -- -Yes, you got it.
[ Laughter ]
-What is that move?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you did that.
And I go, "Yes, the girl's fantastic."
-Thank you.
-Somebody goes, "That's Maddie from 'Dance Moms.'"
-And I'm like, "W-W-W-What?" -I know. It's weird, right?
-"Let me watch that again." -I know.
People didn't recognize me at first,
but what was the coolest experience for me was, I mean,
that video changed my life forever.
And then now people started recognizing me and being like,
"Oh, you're in 'Chandelier.'"
And I was like, "That's the coolest feeling."
Because people got so confused.
They were like, "Is that Maddie from the show or Maddie from --"
-Yeah, different chapters of your life as you're growing up.
They're like, "Oh, yeah, now I know you with the Sia wig."
And you've been in almost all of her music videos.
-Thank you.
-You've become friends with her?
-Yeah, she is the best person in my life.
She really is. She's, I think, my godmom now.
-Is that right? -Yeah, I think so.
-Like, officially or just for fun?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if anything were to happen,
she would take me, which is really cool.
And we just -- the day we met, we clicked
and we knew that it was a special collection.
-She's so great.
-She's the greatest person, and she's just nice to everyone.
-So talented. -She's taught me everything.
Like, so many life lessons and I'll never forget that.
So, yeah.
-I remember even first time meeting her,
because she has so much mystique around her.
And just meeting her.
Like, wow, she's actually as cool as you think.
-If you didn't know she was a pop star,
you would never think -- she's the most down to earth.
-You just want to hang with her.
-Yeah. And it's so funny because when we go to restaurants, like,
no one knows who she is and then she'll be like, "Hi. I'm Sia,"
and everyone's like, "Wait, what?"
Because you would never know.
-No, because she does the whole thing on purpose.
The wig and everything like that so you don't -- it's just smart.
She's the original -- she was the original masked singer.
Let's just say that. [ Laughter ]
-No, literally, people -- we went to a movie theater one time
and she literally -- a girl came up and said,
"Maddie, do you mind if your mom takes the photo?"
And it was her. And she's like, "Yeah, sure, I'll take it."
[ Laughter ]
-It's funny because -- -Oh, my God.
-Because, you know, I will get recognized,
but she is on a different level.
And people, just, think she's, like, my mom which is hilarious.
"If only you knew."
-"If only you knew who that was." Yeah.
And she inspired this dress?
-This is her bridal dress.
Like, her bridal shower dress. [ Audience aws ]
Aw! Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-But how did you end up -- I don't --
-Okay, she -- I'm basically like her daughter.
And so she's always wanted to, like, dress up her daughter
and just, like, put her in different, like, cool clothes.
And this fit like a glove and she's like, "This is epic."
And she literally --
I've never seen her turn into a stage mom like that before.
She literally was on her -- she was like this, she was like,
"Okay, from the side, to the back."
Like, she was, like, taking photos.
And she was, like, sliding on her knees.
And I was like, "What's going on?"
-It's a photo shoot. Yeah.
-I know. She's like -- I mean, she was a fan of the show.
So she lived her "Dance Mom" moment.
-That was her "Dance Mom" moment.
-Yeah. -And that's the dress you wore.
-Yeah.
-I'm so happy you wore the dress on our show tonight.
-Yeah, it's special.
-Let's talk about "The Callback."
This is the second in a series of three books, right?
-Yeah, it's a trilogy.
-And what is it about?
-So, the first book, Harper joins a dance team.
She moves to a different state,
and in this book she has a really hard time connecting with
what she loves and she's having a hard time finding her passion
and has trouble with, like, her other friends
and who is becoming her real and not real friends.
So this book, she really finds herself and realizes
that she liked musical theater and tries new things and --
I mean, the whole book's -- the whole book is really inspired by
my life so it's really cool.
-It's called "The Callback."
I think it's great.
You have good friends in real life.
-Oh, I have the best friends, but it's hard
because in the dance world, you're gonna find people
who are not so real and some fake friends.
-Yeah.
I heard you do a thing with your friends called bad dancing.
-I do.
-Now, what is -- what is bad dancing?
-Well, because we're trained to be good professional dancers,
but I'd rather be a bad dancer than a good dancer.
-But, I mean, like, do you -- do you -- do you go out to --
[ Laughter ]
Do you go to parties and bad-dance on purpose?
-Yeah, it's hilarious because -- okay, so I'm a teenager,
so I'm at the point where, like,
I guess, you kind of start dating and stuff.
But -- [ Laughter ]
-No! Absolutely not! No!
Maddie! Don't you dare do this to me on television.
[ Laughter ]
-Boys look at me for the wrong reasons.
When I'm at a party dancing, they're looking at me like this.
"Oh. Okay." [ Laughter ]
-Really? -Not in, like, "Oh, she's cute."
In like a, "Oh, she's really weird, but I don't even care."
-Really? -Yeah.
-Could you show me a little bit of bad dancing?
-Will you do it with me?
I need you to bad-dance with me. [ Cheers and applause ]
You have to.
-Maddie Ziegler. "The Callback" is in stores now.
We'll be talking to -- [ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
We'll be right back with more "Tonight Show," everybody.