Miley Cyrus felt “really well prepared” for fame.
Miley Cyrus felt ‘really well prepared’ for fame
The 32-year-old pop star found major success in her teenage years when she was cast in the title role of the Disney Channel sitcom ‘Hannah Montana’, but as the daughter of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ hitmaker Billy Ray Cyrus and goddaughter of country legend Dolly Parton, she insisted that she has always had an “understanding” of the how the business of celebrity works in a way that perhaps someone else would not.
Speaking on The New York Times ‘The Interview’ podcast, she explained: “I’ve known fame since the moment I was born, I’ve never known anything else so I was really well prepared in a way that someone…it’s really hard to train yourself to know what to expect on everything that fame can bring.
“But I already had the handbook because they did the same thing to my dad, and to Dolly and to everyone around me. Dolly is a great example of that, so I felt that…you know what I think it is? I understand the business I’m in. I am in the music industry, I’m in the record business.
“When I sign a contract, they’re buying records that they wish to sell, so I understand that I am setting myself up to become merchandise.
“I am committing to them that I not only want to bring success to myself, but to them also. So I understand the music industry.”
The ‘Easy Lover’ songstress – who has just released her ninth studio album ‘Something Beautiful’ – only received her first Grammy Award in 2024 for her hit song ‘Flowers’ and had spent years wondering what she had to do to get that sort of recognition but, prior to her win, had decided that the “validation” she craved came from her millions of fans around the globe instead.
She said: “There were other Disney artists who dominated in those categories. I don’t know who else before that, but there was The Jonas Brothers. It was boys, so they didn’t have a character to shed, but because I wore a wig and I was a pop star…I remember being broken-hearted because The Jonas Brothers got asked to perform with Stevie Wonder, and I never got an opportunity like that as a young girl.
“My show had been on air for years before, and I’d had everyone on that show – Dolly Parton, Vicki Lawrence, who taught me so many amazing things, so somewhere…it was actually the greatest blessing that those awards never happened because I was recognised all the time by millions of people.
“Their identities were being formed by me. There’s a part of them that’s a little part of me. I love that people became my reward. People loved me and that feel good.
“Of course, every year, never having my name called, and I was working so hard. Not necessarily saying that I deserved it, but I felt like ‘What am I not doing?’ Where’s the math? Because if we’re doing the equation, I feel like it equals some sort of validation.”
