Miley Cyrus About Her ‘Bangerz’ Era: “I Was Harshly Judged”

Miley Cyrus got nostalgic about her ‘Bangerz’ era and looked back on all the controversy it caused.
In an interview, Cyrus said that she’s “not an attention-seeking person, sitting here as a 30-year-old grown woman” despite the moments of her youth that people use to define her by. These moments include a fully nude music video for hit song ‘Wrecking Ball’ and Cyrus twerking on Robin Thicke in nothing but latex at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

“I was creating attention for myself because I was dividing myself from a character I had played,” she said, referencing her character as Hannah Montana. “Anyone, when you’re 20 or 21, you have more to prove. ‘I’m not my parents.’ ‘I am who I am.’”
Cyrus also said that she “carried some guilt and shame” for several years after releasing Bangerz because of the public scandal of it all, but these days she gives herself more grace. “Now that I’m an adult, I realise how harshly I was judged,” she tells the U.K. magazine. “I was harshly judged as a child by adults and now, as an adult, I realise that I would never harshly judge a child.”
After a decade of releasing ‘Bangerz’, she has now released ‘Endless Summer Vacation’ with her lead single ‘Flowers’, which is a massive hit. She also unveiled the sultry music video for ‘Jaded’ recently. Cyrus spoke about an unnamed songwriter who recently pitched a track for her to record.

“It was like, you know, the standard f–ked up in the club track. And I was like, ‘I’m two years sober. That’s not where I spend my time, you know,’ she explained. She also noted that the experience inspired her to write a completely different new song which goes, “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.”
‘Bangerz’ became Cyrus’ third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart and brought her the first Grammy nomination of her career for best pop vocal album.
– Riya Sohini