Cyrus at the Hollywood Bowl.
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Miley Cyrus returned to the stage for a two-night run at the Hollywood Bowl, but her comeback became mired in mess when she extended energy responding to fan criticism. She was bothered by critiques that she wasn’t singing enough, that she wasn’t dedicated to fan experience, and that she considered the performances an experiment. “I’ve never heard that I don’t put my heart into something,” she said in a video shared on X. “I don’t know if any of you heard that somebody was doing commentary to get clickbait on their video talking about my show on Friday night, but I’m a lot of things, and we’re not even going to entertain that.” But entertain it she did. She went on to clarify that “this is not an experiment of you, this is an experience for me — you all make the experience possible.”

Even though she’s a household name, Cyrus hasn’t done a full show like this since 2022 and has not been on tour since 2014. The Hollywood Bowl run did include interesting choices: On both nights of the show, Cyrus brought out her fiancé, Maxx Morando, to help her play “Let’s Get Married”; performed two songs with Flaming Lips lead singer Wayne Coyne; and sang a tribute to her godmother, Dolly Parton. But she wasn’t just focused on performing. During her night-two performance of “Bass Persuades,” Cyrus said, “Oh, I forgot I’m supposed to sing every fucking line!” Maybe it wasn’t a surprise when she admitted that performing is odd for her. “I appreciate each of you guys reaching out and touching me and me getting to feel you. But I do want to say — it is a lot for me,” she said on night one, per the Los Angeles Times. “It is a little bit overwhelming.”

The audience criticism was so damaging that Cyrus considered not performing the second show. “Before I came out for [the first song] ‘Orbit,’ I already told myself I wasn’t going to come onstage, I was going to run away,” she told the crowd. “But never would I leave you all sitting in these seats unfulfilled from a show. So I can take a lot, but one thing I will not stand is any question about where my heart is when I’m on the stage. I am fully present.” Is she getting ready to be fully present at an even bigger venue? What about, say, the Super Bowl?

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