Hannah Montana to Wrecking Ball: Miley Cyrus' new single documents her child icon to risqué pop star journey

Miley Cyrus

“Hannah is for kids. Miley is for grown-ass men in heels,” says Miley Cyrus, singer songwriter, as she reflects on the last 30 years of her life in a special titled Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions), an hour-long sit-down interview. In it, Cyrus takes us through her days as a Disney channel star, her auditions for the role of Hannah Montana (she was originally supposed to play Hannah’s friend Lily, a role which later went to actor Emily Osment). At one point, Cyrus gets emotional while talking about her relationship with father Billy Ray Cyrus, whose single Achy Breaky Heart ruled over the Billboard charts in the '90s.

Estrangement from dad Billy Ray Cyrus

Miley Cyrus performaing her father's hit song 'Old Town Road' at the Glastonbury festival in 2019.

“When I was born (in 1992), my dad had the No. 1 country song (Achy Breaky Heart),” Cyrus says in the show. “When I see the numbers, I just see the humans behind it enjoying the music. And I just see people in numbers. My dad grew up the opposite of me, so I think that’s where me and my dad’s relationship to fame and success is wildly different”. In August 2022, Miley Cyrus unfollowed her father on Instagram. Unconfirmed reports from last year suggest that Cyrus had an explosive fallout with her dad after his separation from Cyrus’ mother Tish, in April 2022.

“There were words exchanged over what ­happened towards the end of Billy and Tish’s marriage, and since then, but they clearly see things very differently,” reported a tabloid. While Cyrus doesn’t divulge what went wrong in the relationship, she eagerly watches an old video on an iPad where she and her dad are singing together affectionately. She then wipes a tear.

Perils of being a child icon

In the special, Cyrus also talks at length about the challenges of being a Disney star and how it took a toll on her well-being. The constant media scrutiny, followed by endless interviews, meet-ups and press conferences (and school work) got the best of the singer. Cyrus describes what a day would look like in the life of Hannah Montana — she would wake up at 5.30 am for hair and make-up, then start a long day of press, photoshoots, meetings and school. Her day would end at 7 pm and then she also shot new episodes for the Disney channel show. “I’m a lot of things but lazy ain’t one of them,” Cyrus says. “I do think this girl deserves a little endless summer vacation,” she quips with a smile.

In her special, Miley Cyrus opened up about the perils of playing a child star on a Disney Channel show.

Cyrus is no stranger to Hannah Montana memes and the cult following the show has developed over the years. She even reacts to a meme from the last episode of the show where Hannah says goodbye to her old Malibu home. “This is how I say goodbye to everyone now,” she adds. “I am just your average teenage girl with 250 individual hair extensions.”

Cyrus' viral Hannah Montana meme where she says goodbye to her Malibu house in the show.

The special has plenty of witty one-liners, courtesy Miley’s updated GenZ humour. However, what cuts through the light-hearted remarks is the sadness in Miley’s voice. Revisiting a part of her life where she rarely got a chance to make major decisions regarding her career trajectory is perhaps painful. She also addresses how her record label didn’t give her song See You Again a music video because they felt “it wasn’t a hit”. “My fans decided otherwise. It has always been us,” she says.

“My record label told me that the song wasn’t gonna be a hit… and my fans decided otherwise, it’s always been us”

- Miley Cyrus about her debut single “See You Again” pic.twitter.com/YaTXHfwdqZ

— Miley Nation (@MileyNation13) August 30, 2023

Wrecking Ball Fiasco: Good Girl, Gone Bad

Once Cyrus seized the reins of her career, it was no surprise that she rebelled and tried to break free from her calculated Disney star image. With her fifth studio album Bangerz, which is considered a cult classic by some, cringe by others, Cyrus successfully dissociated herself from the Hannah Montana image with a bob-cut, risqué music videos (the music video of her song Wrecking Ball was met with severe backlash) and a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards 2013 which broke the internet, a year before Kim Kardashian’s PAPER magazine photoshoot.

Miley Cyrus backstage at MTV Video Music Awards 2013.

The performance, where Cyrus danced suggestively with Blurred Lines singer Robin Thicke, was described by Rolling Stone as “hot mess”. The performance prompted Disney to pull Cyrus' Hannah Montana series from reruns on Disney Channel. Also, Toys "R" Us discontinued all Hannah Montana toys from its stores. It also got Cyrus a lot of flack and comments slut-shaming her.

“Everyone kept saying ‘Why are you doing this? You’re gonna do like a hundred shows and you’re not gonna make any money?’ And I said there’s no one I’d rather invest in than myself. So I paid for it all to make it exactly what I and my fans deserved”

- Miley Cyrus about Bangerz… pic.twitter.com/eQmYv0fdIP

— Miley Nation (@MileyNation13) September 3, 2023

A coming-of-age tale for our times

Miley Cyrus addressed her separation from husband Liam Hemsworth and their time on the sets of the film 'The Last Song' on her special.

Besides her Bangerz era, in the special Cyrus also made revelations about her break-up with husband Liam Hemsworth — how the two fell in love on the sets of the film The Last Song (2010). She then shares a painful memory — her Malibu house burning down due to the Woolsey Fires in 2018. The singer, who was shooting for the ‘Ashley O’ Black Mirror episode in South Africa, had a vision of her burning house. "I was in South Africa, but [the episode] was taking place in Malibu, so it was just a real trip," she says.

miley cyrus reveals she was filming blackmirror at the same time her house burned down pic.twitter.com/ZHauwj35au

— Miley Nation (@MileyNation13) September 5, 2023

Cyrus kept a strong face and shot a music video for the episode the next day. “The show must go on”, says the singer with a melancholic smile. The special, which comes off as a sit-down interview, not only gives us a peek into Cyrus’ artistry but also holds a mirror to how harshly the media judged the much-loved child icon who was only trying to break away from an image she was forced to adhere to through her childhood years.

Miley performs 'Used to be Young' while looking into the camera and sporting a T-shirt with Mickey Mouse on it.

Cyrus then unveils the music video of her song Used To Be Young where the singer looks directly into the camera while singing (a callback to her Wrecking Ball music video). She sports a T-shirt with a Mickey Mouse doodle on it (a reference to her being a Disney star).

“I know I used to be crazy/I know I used to be fun/You say I used to be wild/I say I used to be young.” The melancholy in the song pierces through the scene. Cyrus is clearly revisiting a time when she was young and, perhaps, isn’t very proud of. “I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character [Hannah Montana] I had played. Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. I carried some guilt and shame around myself for years because of how much controversy and upset I really caused. Now that I’m an adult, I realise how harshly I was judged. I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realise that I would never harshly judge a child,” Cyrus says in an interview to British Vogue.

Influence of Disney channel stars on teens

The 2000s pop-culture had an unprecedented impact on pop-culture, including Indian pre-teens.

Hilary Duff (Lizzie McGuire), Selena Gomez (Wizards of Waverly Place), Zendaya (Good Luck Charlie), Demi Lovato (Camp Rock), Raven-Symoné (That’s So Raven) became household names in the 2000s owing to their immense popularity among pre-teens and teens, not just in the US but also in India, thanks to the Hindi dubbed versions of the shows. For the teenage audience, these stars grew up right before their eyes. Therefore, it isn’t particularly surprising that much of Cyrus’ Indian fanbase also realises how harshly not just the singer, but many of her contemporaries were judged when they tried to break out of their child-star image.

“Those wasted nights are not wasted/I remember everyone” says Cyrus in the updated chorus of the song. The singer has moved on and doesn’t really identify with her past but isn’t disowning it yet — she remembers everyone from those wasted nights when she was young. Cyrus’ coming-of-age tale is one full of pain and angst, but definitely not regret. Used to be Young is Miley’s way of saying “things could have been better...” and “I am happy things happened the way they did…” in a way only she can — in a bitter-sweet song.

Miley's television special is titled 'Endless Summer Vacation Continued'. It coincided with the release of her single 'Used to be Young'.

Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions) is available to watch on Instagram/@MileyCyrus