Miley, Miley, Miley. We love you. We really do. It just took us a while to truly understand you. We think almost everyone can agree that Miley Cyrus has had quite the career since her Hannah Montana debut. There have been many ups, and many, many downs. However, we think it’s safe to say that Cyrus has finally come into her own. And she may be making the art she always wanted to make.
We’re just glad that she’s finally out of the cringe-infested phase that was the early 2010s.
For a minute there, we thought that stage of her life was never going to end. Although these Miley Cyrus awkward moments are uncomfortable to look back on, it’s comforting to know that the cringey days are behind Cyrus. She’s taking care of herself and her mental health. She’s in a committed relationship with husband Liam Hemsworth. And she just released a bomb new album that makes everyone who listens feel empowered AF.
All in all, Cyrus seemed to quell her desire to be in the public eye performing bonkers stunts.
She’s honestly back to being a quasi-role model. And we love it. Let’s take a look back on Cyrus’s most cringe-worthy moments and crawl out of our skin… together. If this isn’t a Kumbaya moment, we don’t know what is.
2010 – She released “Can’t Be Tamed.”
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And Miley definitely let us know she’s not a little girl anymore.
To be fair, if Cyrus had released this track at literally any other time in her life, the backlash would not have been so severe. However, she was still in the midst of filming episodes for Disney’s Hannah Montana. And to parents’ chagrin, this leotard-clad, smokey-eyed vixen was no longer the funny-girl role model they signed up for. Who knew Disney Channel stars could change so much… said no one ever.
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2010 – The Disney princess started smoking Salvia.
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And it happened while her hit Disney show Hannah Montana was still on the air.
Media outlets caught Miley Cyrus smoking Salvia, a legal yet questionable hallucinogenic herb. Video footage of Cyrus inhaling the substance and asking for “more of that sh*t” leaked to tabloids. And all of her young, adoring fans saw it. This was the first sign that our girl was growing up and successfully (if not aggressively) distancing herself from Disney.
2013 – She participated in the fateful “Blurred Lines” performance.
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We all remember it.
Miley Cyrus’s performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards is perhaps one of (if not the) most-memorable, most-referenced, and most-hated VMA performances of all time. The set started with Cyrus emerging from a giant teddy bear, wearing a teddy bear onesie. Her tongue was out, her mini buns were in, and she first performed “We Can’t Stop.”
The whole thing was so cringey, Drake couldn’t even watch it.
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He had to look away.
Although the twerking at the beginning of the set was enough to make One Direction blush, things got even worse when Robin Thicke cosplaying as Beetlejuice joined the stage. To really take things to the next level, Cyrus stripped down to a nude latex bikini. It seemed to blend right into her skin.
And let’s not forget that age gap.
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Thicke was much older than Cyrus. But the two performed an R-rated version of “Blurred Lines,” and we can’t unsee any of it. After this performance, she reportedly told the Sunday People, “I have so many f*cking issues. I am so f*cked up — everyone does dumb stuff when they are messed up.”
2013 – She referred to Nicki Minaj’s sound as “hood music.”
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And the comment seemed to be in poor taste.
We’re not exactly sure what Miley Cyrus meant when she called Nicki Minaj’s music “hood” in a 2013 interview with Billboard. But we think her word choice left a lot to be desired, especially considering the racially-charged history of the word Judging on what she said later in the interview, Cyrus most likely lumped hip-hop and rap into a single genre and problematically called the entire thing “hood.” But many of Minaj’s songs fall into the pop genre.
“A lot of people wanted to try to make me the white Nicki Minaj,” Cyrus infamously said in June 2013.
We’re not sure who she’s referring to. But she went on to say:
That’s not what I’m trying to do. I love “hood” music, but my talent is as a singer. I’ve always wanted country-rock influences, but now I’m moving over to a more urban side. It’s not a hip-hop album, though – it’s a pop album. I’m not coming in trying to rap. It’s more like, I don’t see any girls out there doing what Miguel and Frank Ocean are doing.
2015 – There Was More Miley and Nicki Drama.
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Listen, a lot of bonkers stuff went down at the 2015 MTV VMAs.
In fact, Miley Cyrus hosted that year. Kanye announced his presidential campaign, and Justin Bieber broke down in tears after his performance. But perhaps the most uncomfortable moment from the show occurred when Nicki Minaj accepted her award for Best Hip-Hop Video. During her speech, she said, “Back to this b*tch that had a lot to say about me in the press. Miley, what’s good?”
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Previously, Minaj spoke about “Anaconda” being left out of the Video of the Year category at the 2015 VMAs. She believed race played a role
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But Cyrus seemed to downplay Minaj’s opinion during an interview with The New York Times. The former Disney star said:
[It’s] not anger like, “Guys, I’m frustrated about some things that are a bigger issue.” You made it about you. Not to sound like a b*tch, but that’s like, “Eh, I didn’t get my VMA.” If you want to make it about race, there’s a way you could do that. But don’t make it just about yourself. Say, “This is the reason why I think it’s important to be nominated. There’s girls everywhere with this body type…” What I read sounded very Nicki Minaj, which, if you know Nicki Minaj is not too kind. It’s not very polite. I think there’s a way you speak to people with openness and love.
Minaj wanted to make her point clear, however.
The fact that you feel upset about me speaking on something that affects black women makes me feel like you have some big balls… You’re in videos with black men, and you’re bringing out black women on your stages, but you don’t want to know how black women feel about something that’s so important? Come on, you can’t want the good without the bad.
Moral of the story is, Cyrus should have definitely kept quiet on this one.
2015 – Her “BB Talk” music video made everyone uncomfortable.
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In December 2015, Cyrus dropped the music video for “BB Talk,” a song from her album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz.
And TBH, the video made the entire internet uncomfy. The song itself isn’t really the problem. It’s about Cyrus not liking how her lover uses baby talk when they’re intimate and expresses a lot of PDA. The issue is that the star dresses as and acts like, a little baby in the video.
And that’s not what takes the cake.
In some moments, the singer acts like a sexy baby. The mashup of the baby visual plus the song about baby-talking in extremely intimate moments just seems off. With about 418,000 likes and 440,000 dislikes, the video obviously made a few people cringe.
2016 – She got too high before performing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”
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Even a classic song couldn’t stop her.
But listen, the whole thing isn’t that bad. Miley Cyrus started singing the classic tune at the Kennedy Center as part of a ceremony honoring Bill Murray, who won the 2016 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. However, she messed up the lyrics after taking the song down a punk-rock path. Then she told the audience, “I f*cked it up.”
“Sorry, guys,” she said between the lyrics.
“I got too stoned. I smoked too much and forgot,” the singer went on. At least she was honest, right? It doesn’t look like this take made it to air, probably because the ceremony was taped and debuted on PBS. But according to those who were there, it certainly happened.
And luckily, the guest of honor had a pretty great reaction.
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In fact, Murray thought the flub was funny. He said, “This is happening right now in Washington D.C., the 51st state in the union.” He then told Cyrus to give the performance another shot, which was the one that PBS shared with its viewers.
2017 – She implied rap music was all about sex.
In a noteworthy May 2017 interview with Billboard, upon her phasing out of her Dead Petz phase, Miley Cyrus explained that she wanted to separate herself from the hip-hop and rap world. However, she didn’t really explain her reasoning so eloquently.
And, understandably, people were puzzled.
The star said:
I also love that new Kendrick [Lamar] song [“Humble”]: ‘Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks.’ I love that because it’s not ‘Come sit on my d*ck, suck on my c*ck.’ I can’t listen to that anymore… That’s what pushed me out of the hip-hop scene a little. It was too much ‘Lamborghini, got my Rolex, got a girl on my cock.’ I am so not that.
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When people criticized her for saying such a generalized and offensive statement, Cyrus got defensive and shared a now-deleted Instagram post.
She wrote:
Unfortunately, only a portion of that interview makes it to print, & A lot of the time publications like to focus on the most sensationalized part of the conversation… So, to be clear I respect ALL artists who speak their truth and appreciate ALL genres of music (country, pop, alternative… but in this particular interview I was asked about rap.
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However, in 2019, Cyrus revolved back to this comment.
The star issued a full apology in the comments section of a fan-made video. She shared:
I am aware of my platform and have always used it the best way I know how and to shine a light on injustice. I want to start with saying I am sorry. I own the fact that saying… “this pushed me out of the hip hop scene a little” was insensitive as it is a privilege to have the ability to dip in and out of ‘the scene… Silence is a part of the problem and I refuse to be quiet anymore. My words became a divider in a time where togetherness and unity is crucial. I can not change what I said at that time, but I can say I am deeply sorry for the disconnect my words caused. Simply said: I f*cked up and I sincerely apologize. I’m committed to using my voice for healing, change, and standing up for what’s right.
And we’re pretty impressed.
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We can’t be sure what this interesting star has planned for the future. But we’re hoping for more mature comments and self-reflections like this one. And like we said before, Miley, we love you even though we don’t love everything in your past. Everybody has cringe-worthy moments, though. But at least yours were truly iconic.