Hannah Montana<\/a>\u201d exactly 20 years ago. Then,\u202flifting up\u202fher mic stand under the glow of a spotlight, Cyrus belts the power ballad \u201cThe Climb.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re about to be so gagged for what\u2019s to come,\u201d says Cyrus before disappearing behind the curtain for an outfit change. She may be speaking about the next number \u2014 \u201cThe Best of Both Worlds\u201d \u2014 or the broader celebration: This concert is being filmed as part of an hourlong \u201cHannah Montana\u201d anniversary special airing on Disney+ on March 24.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAside from Cyrus\u2019 voice \u2014 now thicker and raspier \u2014 the tunes sound exactly, gloriously, the same. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t want to do this modern approach to Hannah,\u201d Cyrus says a few days later at a homey, mostly empty caf\u00e9 in Silver Lake. \u201cI wanted to keep it preserved. But also, now Hannah wears Gucci,\u201d she says, drawing out the word like \u201cGew-chee.\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s elevated. She\u2019s gotta look a little less Galleria,\u201d Cyrus adds, referencing the Glendale mall where she used to buy some of Hannah\u2019s bedazzled tank tops and skinny jeans.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBut \u201cHannah Montana\u201d\u202fwas about much more than the fashion; it was a multimedia phenomenon that turned Cyrus into one of the most famous child stars in history. From 2006 to 2011, the series, about a teenager named Miley Stewart who lives a double life as a pop singer, was the crown jewel of the Disney Channel empire at the peak of its stronghold over American youth. (Its legacy endures: More than half a billion hours of the show have been streamed this decade on Disney+.)\u202fThe Season 1 album was the first TV soundtrack\u202fto debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and Cyrus\u2019 2007 \u201cBest of Both Worlds\u201d tour sold out 71 arenas across North America. The accompanying documentary was the highest-grossing concert film ever upon its release. \u201cThere were times where\u202fHannah Montana felt like the Beatles or something,\u201d Cyrus says. (Indeed,\u202fan\u202fentire section of the doc is devoted to girls shrieking at the top of their lungs.)\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tI showed up early to this Eastside caf\u00e9 and told the hostess I was meeting someone high profile, and could we please have a table tucked away in the back? She didn\u2019t care \u2014 this is L.A.; everyone thinks they\u2019re famous \u2014 and after awhile, I worried the idle staffers thought I\u2019d been stood up by a date. But when Cyrus arrived, a hushed curiosity washed over the place: She\u2019s a real star, a rare star that shifts the gravitational center of any room she inhabits. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHer hair is arranged into tousled, gilded bangs, and\u202fshe\u2019s\u202fwearing tinted glasses and a white T-shirt that\u202fshowcases\u202fthe collage of scattered tattoos crawling up her arms. Her presence is warm and calm. Double-fisting an oat-milk latte and a chamomile tea, she looks like the grown-up version of the world\u2019s most famous fictional pop star, reemerging after a 15-year hiatus.\u202fShe\u2019s here, in part, to talk about the special, and she sums it up with these words: \u201cIt felt like home again.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tMiley Cyrus and her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, on the set of \u201cHannah Montana\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney General Entertainment<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter \u201cHannah Montana\u201d ended, Cyrus forged her own career, becoming the chart-topping, chameleonic singer-songwriter behind \u201cWrecking Ball,\u201d \u201cParty in the U.S.A.\u201d and the Grammy-winning \u201cFlowers.\u201d At 33, she\u2019s\u202fone of the most accomplished and, for a long time, scrutinized artists of her generation. (More on that later.) Cyrus once shed her Disney-clean image, but she has now returned to her golden-blond roots to \u201creclaim\u201d Hannah Montana.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cA lot of artists feel like to become the next version of\u202fthemselves,\u202fthey have to leave something behind,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cBut I\u2019d rather be more like a gorgeous patchwork blanket. I\u2019d rather take every little piece of all the things that I\u2019ve been and create a mosaic of exactly who I am now \u2014 not trashing any of that\u202fpast but allowing it to come with me.\u201d She hopes the special inspires people to \u201cnot take everything so seriously.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tLast year, Cyrus started teasing plans for the 20th anniversary of \u201cHannah Montana,\u201d hinting in interviews and on red carpets that she had something \u201cspecial\u201d up her sleeve. At the time, she was lying. Or shall we say manifesting?\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI learned this terrible habit \u2014 but I actually think it was good advice \u2014 from Dolly,\u201d she says, referring to the country legend she calls her godmother.\u202f\u201cShe told me that if you want something to happen, promote it before it exists. Then no one can say no.\u202fSo\u202fI just started promoting a \u2018Hannah Montana\u2019 20th-anniversary special that\u202fliterally did\u202fnot exist.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think even Disney\u202fsometimes forgets the connection between me and Hannah,\u201d she adds. \u201cIt\u2019s\u202fnot just a TV show. I see daily how important Hannah is to people. When I travel, people bring me\u202f\u2018Hannah\u2019 merch. They ask, \u2018Are you ever going to do another season?\u2019\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreg Swales for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tSo Cyrus planted the seeds last summer, sat back and watched the hype grow. She began sending fan reactions to Disney, saying, \u201cI\u2019m telling\u202fyou,\u202fthis would be huge.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cShe willed it into existence,\u201d says Disney exec Charlie\u202fAndrews, who helps foster new fandoms for old Disney Channel shows. The company started planning in December, and it\u2019s been a \u201cmad dash\u201d since January executing Cyrus\u2019 vision. \u201cThe thing she was adamant about is that this is for the fans. That has gone into literally every decision she has made.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus first recruited \u201cCall Her Daddy\u201d host Alex Cooper, a self-professed \u201cHannah Montana\u201d superfan, to interview her in the special. \u201cShe understands Hannah in a way that I couldn\u2019t,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cI never got to experience Hannah being crazy in the pit with other kids.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWith that in mind, Cooper helped design the event around what fans\u202factually care\u202fabout, even shooting down some of Cyrus\u2019 ideas. \u201cShe would go, \u2018As a Hannah fan, no one wants that,\u2019\u201d Cyrus says. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tGuided by that fandom, they made sure to incorporate the\u202flittle things\u202fthat would make viewers nostalgic: the hair flips, the Disney Channel wand commercials and, of course, the \u201cOoh-whoa-ooh-whoa-ooh-ooh-whoa\u201d transition music. Cyrus\u2019 mom, Tish, brought out dozens of outfits, fan letters and scrapbooks from the archives, and Disney re-created the sets of the Stewart house. One\u202fthing Cyrus did not want to replicate was Hannah\u2019s wig, so she dyed her hair and styled it with bangs instead.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCooper also arranged for a cameo from fellow Disney kid and \u201cHannah Montana\u201d guest star Selena Gomez, who surprised Cyrus on set. \u201cI love Selena, but I didn\u2019t know how much our friendship meant to the fans,\u201d Cyrus says. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was Cooper\u2019s idea, too, to open the special on an emotional moment, with Cyrus driving from Malibu to the soundstage. \u201cI didn\u2019t think about the correlation between Hannah\u2019s house in Malibu and my house in Malibu,\u201d Cyrus says, \u201cand my house burning down and me rebuilding.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThen came the performances. Cyrus hadn\u2019t sung \u201cBest of Both Worlds\u201d since 2008, but it only took three passes of rehearsal to snap right back into it. \u201cIt was literally a bike. The dancers were doing stuff, and I\u2019m like, \u2018That\u2019s not original!\u2019\u201d she says with a waggy finger, dialing up her Southern staccato. \u201cAnd they\u2019re like, \u2018Well, we\u2019re trying to make it modern.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018It ain\u2019t broke \u2014 don\u2019t fix it!\u2019\u201d Still, she will freshen things up by performing a new, original song in the special too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreg Swales for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tIt was important to Cyrus to preserve the spirit of Hannah\u2019s music. She may be belting the same Disney theme song she sang at 13, but\u202fthere\u2019s\u202fnot a hint of camp or snark. \u201cWe did not want irony. This is not a joke,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202fwant this to be a viral moment. My point of doing this was not to break the internet.\u201d Her point, Cyrus says, was to make the fans \u201cfeel seen.\u201d \u201cMy entire life is because of that loyalty.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the taping, the studio audience is told to chant \u201cHannah \u2026 Hannah \u2026\u201d before Cyrus returns to perform \u201cBest of Both Worlds.\u201d But before Cyrus reappears, the chant changes to \u201cMiley.\u201d \u201cThat was really emotional for me,\u201d she says later. \u201cI think they\u202ffelt like, \u2018We want to make sure Miley feels like we\u2019re equally celebrating her 20th.\u2019\u202fIt\u2019s\u202fnot just about the show itself.\u202fIt\u2019s\u202fabout the entire evolution of myself growing.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI love the present, and I love the future. But the past is not somewhere I love to live too much,\u201d Cyrus says, squeezing honey from a plastic tube into her tea.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tSo back to that scrutiny: In 2008, while she was filming the \u201cHannah Montana\u201d movie, a 15-year-old Cyrus was snapped on the cover of Vanity Fair wearing nothing but a bedsheet. The backlash to the risqu\u00e9 photo was so intense that Cyrus issued an apology, which landed on the front page of The New York Post with the headline \u201cMILEY\u2019S SHAME.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI remember sitting at the family computer looking at what people were saying about me,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sorry so much as I was embarrassed by the reaction, and it felt like it would put out a lot of fires for me to be apologetic.\u201d In hindsight, Cyrus says, \u201cI don\u2019t think it was apology-worthy, because I didn\u2019t do anything wrong.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn the years following, Cyrus made more headlines for harmless teenage antics. At 18, she lost a multimillion-dollar Walmart deal due to a leaked video of her smoking a bong. And a year later, she was fired from a lead role in \u201cHotel Transylvania\u201d because of a leaked photo of her posing with a penis-shaped birthday cake. These scandals stung at the time, but looking back, Cyrus wouldn\u2019t have changed a thing. \u201cRegret is so in the past and pointless,\u201d she says.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIf Disney sometimes forgets the connection between Cyrus and Hannah, it\u2019s perhaps because, for a long time, it seemed like Cyrus wanted to forget it too. In 2013, a year after the show ended, a 20-year-old Cyrus launched what was seen as a rebellious rebrand. She swapped the Hannah wig for a bleached-blond, slicked-back pixie cut. She hung out with rappers and smoked a lot of weed. She stuck out her tongue so much it prompted\u202fthink pieces\u202fin The Atlantic and The Guardian. And she incinerated the remains of her Disney Channel image in an infamous performance at the VMAs in which she twerked on Robin Thicke. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCyrus twerks Robin Thicke during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/WireImage for MTV\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\n\tA couple months later, she hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d and declared, jokingly, that Hannah Montana had been \u201cmurdered.\u201d Celebrating the show\u2019s 10th anniversary in 2016, Cyrus wrote on Instagram, \u201cEven though HM is chopped up into\u202flittle tiny\u202fpieces and buried in my backyard, she will always hold a very special place in my heart!\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u202fBut on this anniversary, Hannah Montana is very much\u202falive. Contrary to popular belief\u202f\u2014 and to some of her past comments \u2014 Cyrus says, \u201cI wasn\u2019t trying to kill Hannah off. I was just progressing.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBeing recognizable as a teen going through different phases and stages was sometimes awkward,\u201d she continues, \u201cbut that\u2019s what helped me relate to the kids watching at home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus notes that reinventing herself was a risk, when she could have starred in more \u201cHannah Montana\u201d movies and other Disney projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI boldly and unapologetically presented myself to the world at that time, where I could have gone the other way and played it safe,\u201d she says. \u201cMaybe that would have been successful at the time, and it wouldn\u2019t have been such a cross to bear, but I wouldn\u2019t have had the reward. I\u202fdon\u2019t know if I would have had the sustainability that my career has now.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThroughout\u202fall\u202fof Cyrus\u2019 different eras, one constant in her life is the support of her mother.\u202f\u201cWhen you\u2019re a kid, your parents don\u2019t want to buy you a jacket that\u2019s your actual size because you\u2019re still growing; they buy you a size up so it can last longer,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s what my mom did for me in my career.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u202fTish even immortalized their mother-daughter journey in ink. \u201cMy mom literally has \u2018The Climb\u2019 lyrics tattooed down her back,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cLike a full chorus and a bridge.\u201d She laughs.\u202f\u201cPeople always ask her, \u2018What were you thinking when Miley was doing those wild things?\u2019 She\u2019s like, \u2018I was the one telling her to do it!\u2019\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus was born in\u202f1992,\u202fthe year her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, had the No. 1 country song in America. Her name was Destiny Hope Cyrus, but her sunny disposition earned her the family nickname \u201cSmiley,\u201d later shortened to Miley. The family lived in Tennessee, and Tish would drive Cyrus across state lines for auditions. By the time she was 12, Cyrus had only a few credits to her name: three episodes of the medical drama \u201cDoc\u201d alongside her father, a minor part in Tim Burton\u2019s \u201cBig Fish\u201d and a commercial for chicken pot pie.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen Disney started to cast a new sitcom about a middle schooler secretly moonlighting as a pop star, Cyrus initially auditioned for the sidekick role, Lilly, who was ultimately played by Emily\u202fOsment. The network then asked Cyrus to tape herself as the main character \u2014 a girl named Chloe.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tCyrus as Miley Stewart in 2009, and in the \u201cHannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrom left: Bob D\u2019Amico\/Disney Channel\/Getty Images; Ser Baffo\/Disney<\/p>\n
\n\tBut Disney went in a different direction, deciding Cyrus was too small and young. So she went back to cheerleading at her middle school in the Nashville suburbs, and Disney shot a pilot with a different cast. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tA year later, the Cyruses\u2019 phone rang; it was the producers. \u201cHannah Montana\u201d just\u202fwasn\u2019t\u202fworking, and they wanted Cyrus to fly to Los Angeles to audition again \u2014 this time in person. Cyrus remembers going to the mall in Tennessee to pick out an outfit for the audition. She saw her fate hanging on a clothing rack: a blue-and-white T-shirt that read, \u201cI Should Have My Own TV Show.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tShe booked the part, and then it came time to select Hannah\u2019s dad. As Tish remembers it, a Disney casting director, smitten by Billy Ray, joked, \u201cToo bad we can\u2019t afford her real dad,\u201d and Tish said, \u201cOh, maybe you can.\u201d She convinced her then-husband to fly to California to audition. Billy Ray had been shooting \u201cDoc\u201d in Toronto, splitting time between Canada and Tennessee. Tish viewed \u201cHannah Montana\u201d as an opportunity to reunite their family.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut my dad is too nice,\u201d Cyrus says. She recounts a story that has become family lore: \u201cHe goes out into the parking lot, grabs other dads, brings them into Disney and is like, \u2018You should hire this guy! He\u2019s\u202fa great actor!\u2019 And my mom was behind him, squeezing his back, saying, \u2018Shut up! We need you to get the role so we can all move out here!\u2019\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy dad always says, \u2018When you knock \u2019em\u202fout, you don\u2019t need a judge.\u2019 We knocked \u2019em\u202fout,\u201d remembers Cyrus. \u201cIt was so obvious, after all the other dads, that you\u202fcan\u2019t\u202ffake the kind of connection that we have. The inside jokes, the nicknames, the handshakes, singing\u202fthe songs together. It was a TKO.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe rest is history: Billy Ray starred in 99 episodes of the series as a retired country singer who manages and writes songs for his pop-star daughter. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe past few years have seen a reckoning in children\u2019s television, boosted by a 2024 docuseries focused on the alleged abuse during producer Dan Schneider\u2019s tenure at Nickelodeon. Cyrus believes having Billy Ray on set helped shield her from the dark side of child stardom.\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cMy parents didn\u2019t need me to be famous to survive or to be stable,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat happens to a lot of these kids is their parents want it more than they do, or the kids become responsible for the entire income of the family. That was never my job. Every penny I ever made went into my bank account because my parents were good.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThroughout \u201cHannah Montana\u2019s\u201d five-year run, Cyrus\u2019 dressing room was connected to her dad\u2019s,\u202fand between them was a kitchen-turned-office where her grandmother Loretta \u201cMammie\u201d Finley managed her fan club. \u201cMy dad was on set every single day, so there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn\u2019t know about,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cThere was never a time where I was going to be alone in that dressing room.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs her parents\u2019 marriage hit the skids toward the end of \u201cHannah Montana,\u201d Cyrus\u2019 relationship with her dad began to fracture. Their estrangement played out publicly through Billy Ray and Tish\u2019s drawn-out divorce, which was finalized in 2022. The two\u202fdidn\u2019t\u202fspeak for years. Then, in 2025, Cyrus wrote a song for him called \u201cSecrets,\u201d a peace offering featuring Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, because Fleetwood Mac is her dad\u2019s favorite band. In the song, Cyrus sings, \u201cCall off all your forces \/ A white flag in the war.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tBilly Ray cried when he heard it, writing on Instagram: \u201cOne great song can do more for the soul than a million therapy sessions.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe two\u202freunite on the \u201cHannah Montana\u201d special, hip bumping in a replica of the Stewart family living room.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring the pandemic, when she was in her mid-twenties, Cyrus made a decision that changed her life. She got sober.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that I had my experiences with drugs and alcohol,\u201d she says, reflecting on the vertigo of childhood fame. \u201cI was so used to living at a high, and I\u202fdon\u2019t\u202fthink I ever learned how to come down from that. Now, through a sober lens, I can have compassion and understanding for myself.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIn addition to traditional therapy, she also tried EMDR, a type of psychotherapy based on guided eye movement. She credits the technique with helping her confront the source of her anxiety \u2014 and curing her stage fright. \u201cYou didn\u2019t see any nerves, right?\u201d\u202fshe\u202fasks about the \u201cHannah Montana\u201d concert taping. \u201cIn the past, that would have taken over my entire body. I would have been frozen.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThis\u202fdoesn\u2019t\u202fmean Cyrus plans to tour again. She swore off arenas after 2014\u2019s \u201cBangerz\u201d tour and has since mostly performed at select festivals and live TV events, as well as her intimate private concerts at L.A.\u2019s Chateau Marmont. \u201cI actually miss and love live shows,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cBut me being on the road for six months out of the year and leaving my family and my normalcy and my routine is just not best for me.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreg Swales for Variety<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus is currently the betting favorite to headline next year\u2019s Super Bowl. Would she accept an offer to perform?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI always think the Super Bowl feels like too much pressure,\u201d she says. \u201cI would have to do the mental work of making it not about the Super Bowl, because then you\u202fcan\u2019t\u202fhelp but go, \u2018It\u2019s millions of people, and it\u2019s the most-watched thing in the world.\u2019\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBut if I could find a way to make it exactly what the Hannahversary was \u2014 taking a journey through the discography and appreciating each song, each era for what it is \u2014 I think I could find it in myself.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus is similarly open-ended about acting. Her last real screen role was in a 2019 \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d episode in which she plays, naturally, a pop icon. She says she\u2019s \u201cvery interested\u201d in returning to acting: \u201cI just haven\u2019t found the right role for me.\u201d She has even started to write down a couple of her own ideas. \u201cI\u2019d want a character that felt like an extension of me. Or something completely different from who I am.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIf the future seems unscripted,\u202fit\u2019s\u202fbecause Cyrus prefers it that way. \u201cI love changing,\u201d she says. \u201cAnything I say could be out the window tomorrow.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the same time, she has finally reached a point where everything feels aligned. \u201cMy life is so beautiful. It never feels like I\u2019m swimming upstream anymore,\u201d she says. Last year, she got engaged to her longtime boyfriend, the musician Maxx Morando. \u201cI like the way people see me. And when I first left \u2018Hannah\u2019 and put out \u2018Bangerz,\u2019 I did not feel that way.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBack then, it seemed like Cyrus was burdened by the weight of the Magic Kingdom. In the years since, she thinks the public\u2019s expectations of child stars have changed. And while Cyrus stays off social platforms, she believes the media is less cruel now than it was during the tabloid boom. \u201cWe\u2019re much more tolerant and celebratory of people\u2019s individuality than we were 10 years ago,\u201d she says. \u201cI would like to think that I\u2019ve championed some of that.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAs\u202fshe\u2019s\u202fgrown up, Cyrus has been lucky to rely on music legends like Parton, Joan Jett and Stevie Nicks as mentors. And she hopes to one day take on a similar role for younger artists following in her footsteps. When Chappell Roan opened up about her challenges with fan harassment, Cyrus was among the first celebrities to reach out to her. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI never bow down to bullies. Anytime I feel like somebody is being bullied, I feel very protective of them,\u201d Cyrus says. \u201cWhen I see people struggling, I\u2019m always the first one to ask, \u2018Can I get in contact with them?\u2019 I\u2019d like to show artists how they can have a balanced life.\u201d\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBack on the soundstage, as the band resets between songs, Cyrus gazes at the fans with the headsets and the wigs, struck, perhaps, by the fact that they\u2019re not little kids anymore.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI used to think of Hannah as something separate from myself,\u201d Cyrus says into the gold-studded microphone. She viewed Hannah as a fantasy \u2014 a wig she put on to play pretend. But recently she had an epiphany. \u201cThis special,\u201d Cyrus says, \u201cis my reclaiming of merging Hannah and Miley together.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tShe continues this thought at the caf\u00e9, explaining how living a double life on TV taught her to compartmentalize the\u202fdifferent aspects\u202fof her identity: If Miley Stewart represented the sacredness of normalcy and Hannah Montana symbolized magic and possibility, then for many years, Miley Cyrus \u2014 the real girl \u2014 stood for freedom and authenticity. But she was also a shield.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI think I created a Miley Cyrus persona to protect myself,\u201d she says, \u201cso I could have the Miley behind closed doors. But as I\u2019ve gotten older, I\u2019ve been able to integrate what I love about all of them into one being.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAt the end of \u201cHannah Montana,\u201d after revealing her true identity, Miley Stewart turns down a major movie role and instead decides to attend college with Lilly. She chooses normalcy over the life of a superstar. But for Cyrus, it\u2019s not that binary. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cI get so much of every single thing I want,\u201d she says. \u201cMy relationship is private, my business is\u202fsuccessful\u202fand I get to have the\u202fsmall things people take for granted, like waking up in my own bed and feeding my dogs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCyrus leans forward, her eyes widening behind those tinted lenses. \u201cBut then I also get to be Hannah again and have people sobbing because they just saw \u2018This Is the Life\u2019 live. I love that I\u2019ve\u202fcurated my life that way.\u201d\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s not the best of both worlds, but something whole. It took 20 years to develop, but this is Cyrus\u2019 new theme song: \u201cI can actually have it all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\tProduction: Alexey Galetskiy; Location: AGP West; Production design: Milena Gorum; Styling: Bradley Kenneth\/A Frame Agency; Makeup: Janice Daoud\/The Wall Group; Hair: Bobby Eliot\/The Wall Group; Manicure: Miho Okawara; Look 1 (Cover and opening spread): Full look: Maison Margiela; Look 2 (Blue top): Full look: Paco Rabanne Archive; Look 3 (Hat): Full look: Valentino; Look 4 (Gold): Full look: Roberto Cavalli\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a stupidly hot Friday in February, 215 lucky fans line up at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,62564,20634,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-482670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-hannah-montana","tag-miley-cyrus","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}