Miley Cyrus has been the talk of the town since her release of the disco-pop treat, ‘Midnight Sky’. After weeks of cryptic teasers, the tune finally made its landing on August 14th.
‘Midnight Sky’ sees a departure of the old Miley and an embracing of the newer version of her. With the first single off her upcoming album, it appears that the star has shed her skin and with it, a lot of emotional baggage. This sentiment is reflected strongly in her lyrics as she discusses the impermanence of things: be it love, spaces or even interests. Miley makes peace with the fact that she doesn’t like to be tied down and was simply, “born to run”.
With this song comes an embracing of her independence, as she reclaims the narrative, choosing to tell her story as it were. And through this song, we’ve come to understand the former Disney star just a bit more intimately. So, here’s a dip into Miley’s stories, ones that she’s unearthed with this release.
Miley Cyrus & Young Love
Miley recently shed some light on her early relationships, when she stopped by the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast. In the rather candid interview, she openly discussed her first sexual experience.
“I was attracted to girls way before I was ever attracted to guys. When I was like 11 or 12, my friends were starting to tell me what they were doing with guys and I didn’t really understand it, so I got most of my girlfriends to hook up with me,” the young star said. She then quipped, “The first time I ever hooked up with anyone was with a girl — two of them.”
The conversation then steered into Hemsworth territory as Miley brought up her old flame, “I didn’t go all the way with a dude until I was 16…but I ended up marrying the guy. I lied and said he wasn’t the first so I didn’t seem like a loser.” The pair dated on and off for nearly a decade before they decided to get married in December, 2018. And just about a year later, they bid goodbye to this relationship after officially filing their divorce papers in early 2020.
Miley then emphasized that she was enjoying some much needed alone-time. And just like, ‘Midnight Sky’ suggested, she was using this time to reflect and re-discover herself. As she articulated, “But, for right now, two halves can’t make a whole and we’re individually just working on ourselves to become the people that we wanna be.”
Miley, Sobriety & A Bucket Load of Introspection
In a more recent interview, Miley Cyrus, delved into her struggles with substance abuse. While she’d been through quite a rough patch, in terms of her relationship with Liam Hemsworth, putting a halt on her marijuana use really helped clear her head.
“You just definitely want to feel like you are just in control of your own life and not trying to control anyone else’s. So for me to be able to really have a good, clear understanding of the last two years, which there was some traumatic experiences — losing the house in Malibu and going through a really public breakup — I think I just really needed some clarity. And so it was just really important to me to be able to like really sit with my thoughts,” she confessed. In fact, back in June, the young star even mentioned that she’d been sober for six months and that it had truly helped her “polish up” her craft.
Now, speaking of introspection, what better time to do it than when you’re stuck within four walls. The COVID-19 pandemic has at the least, allowed for some time to self-reflect. For Miley, a large portion of her time in quarantine was spent Marie Kondo-ing her house. “Things that belong to you, and things that don’t, and things that no longer serve you. And that was really, really healthy for me. And I don’t think I could have done that if my mom hadn’t smoked all my weed, and I didn’t have any left.”
During quarantine, Miley also launched a brand new online series titled, ‘Bright Minded’. It involved getting a number of artists and close friends on board, just to chat about life in lockdown, mental health and primarily for some good company.
Miley then went on to talk about the future – which mainly revolved (grudgingly) around her thoughts on marriage and having kids someday. “I never really cared that much. I am sure that my fans are going to pull up me at 12 saying, ‘Oh I want to have kids,’ but like I don’t, as a 27-year-old woman that would have a little bit more of a realistic idea of what they want. That has never been kind of my priority. For me I don’t just really think about marriage and things like this anymore… I follow a lot of feminists online and it’s kind of like, how many men do you ask if they are going to get married or have kids? I’m sure maybe you do want to buy into Jonas Brothers and things like that but I don’t think that many men feel the pressure to have kids and to get married.”
So, What Does ‘Midnight Sky’ Mean to Miley Cyrus?
In ‘Midnight Sky’ we see Miley in her most vulnerable moments. She’s disillusioned by the idea of “forever”, a concept we’ve been conditioned to yearn for as children. Speaking of the focal point of her song, Miley stated, “You asked me to kind of explain briefly what my song is about. And I think it’s my relationship with the stigma.”
She further explained, “And I just don’t think that. I think we’re kind of set up for devastation — in that, from the time we’re little kids, we’re taught to claim other humans as our best friends forever. And you just don’t know who you’re going to be sitting with here right now. You never know who you’re going to evolve to be and who they’re going to evolve to be. So I think that we, especially as women in relationships, a lot of the time we can get villainized when ‘forever’ doesn’t happen.”
The star also pointed out that by dwelling on the idea of “forever”, it doesn’t allow us to fully understand ourselves as individuals – we’re too caught up in our relationships and the idea of permanence to concentrate on ourselves and our growth. “We’re changing and evolving and understanding ourselves from such a different perspective that it just feels like forever is definitely a big word, especially for someone young, especially as three-years-old, we’re like, ‘Oh, this is my best friend forever.’ It’s like, ‘You have no idea what Allie is going to become.'” Perhaps another glance at the song’s lyrics will help grasp her views. Take a look:
But it’s been a long time since I felt this good on my own (Uh)
Lotta years went by with my hands tied up in your ropes (Your ropes)
Forever and ever, no more (No more)
And finally, Miley discussed the fact that she’s found a close friend in Dua Lipa – who might just end up as her future collaborator.
“One thing that I really loved about Dua is that she is one of those people that if you’re talking to her, she is like listening so closely and really engaged and really present, I know, especially when you’re kind of a new artist, it’s all going so fast that it’s hard to really zone in. And when someone is kind of getting in there with you, you really engage with them and I always loved that about her. So, it’s a really easy collaborative process because of just how there and present she is.”
So, hopefully these thoughtful anecdotes could help you reacquaint yourself with this new version of Miley Cyrus, one that’s decided to stick to the path of self-discovery.
By: Nina Karun