Breaking It DownMiley Cyrus Talks ‘Hannah Montana’, Winning Her 1st Grammy and Performance Anxiety: ‘I Perform Out of Fear’

On Finally ‘Being Taken Seriously’ at the Grammys

Miley spoke about winning her first Grammy this year after her decades-long career.

“No shade, but I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and this is my first time actually being taken seriously at the Grammys? I’ve had a hard time figuring out what the measurement is there, because if we want to talk stats and numbers, then where the f–k was I? And if you want to talk, like, impact on culture, then where the f–k was I? This is not about arrogance. I am proud of myself.”

On Her Grammys Performance

“I wrote on this dream board that I wanted to show up to the Grammys with a childlike confidence, like when a kid isn’t scared to just dive into the deep end or do a backflip because they don’t know what’s on the other side,” she said. “My 12-year-old self got to come out and play, while my 31-year-old self was in Bob Mackie with big hair.”

On Her Fear of Performing

“I really wanted ‘Flowers’ to be a celebration of ­bravery, because I perform out of fear. I didn’t always have the fear of performing that I have now. But going from spending two years alone and seeing no more than one person a day during lockdown to knowing that millions of people watch the Grammys is a big shock to the nervous system. Anyone who’s ever put themselves in a position to be observed or judged is brave. It doesn’t matter if it’s eight or eight million people—that fear is there.”

She continued, “Before I went onstage [at the Grammys], right as that curtain was about to lift, I was screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘I am free!’ When I was 20 or 21, it might have sounded more like, ‘I don’t give a f–k what people think. I’m just being me.'”

On Her Relationship to Disney

She spoke about being honored at the 2024 Disney Legends Awards Ceremony.

“It’s a place to celebrate the journey of both being on and graduating from Disney. It was a great, safe experience overall. People have 50- or 60-year-long careers, but mine has been close to 20 years, and I’m 31. I have been in the public for more of my life than I haven’t. They say that the creative adult is the child who survived. I worked really hard as a child. I didn’t go to prom. I didn’t go to dances. I didn’t have so much of that social experience or time for friends. Disney, they were doing very well off of the amount of work that I was putting in as a child. I don’t have any bad feelings about that. It’s just the truth. And so I think they have to give me this award. I’m excited to celebrate that with the fans. Something I wanted to talk about with you is celebration versus competition, because competition is really of no interest to me. I don’t think of other artists as opponents. Artists are not the same as athletes, playing a zero-sum game and keeping a score. There isn’t a score in art.”

On Her Fans Being Like Her Kids

“I love being an adult. I have a rule that I don’t look up or don’t look down at anyone. I just look, which allows me the clarity to see the world for what it really is and people for who they really are. I look at myself almost every day in the mirror and I say, ‘I am a woman.’ I’m 31 now, and I still don’t know if I want kids or not. I feel like my fans kind of are my kids in some way. I’ve heard Dolly [Parton] say that too, because she didn’t have kids.”

On Working Out in Heels

“My lifestyle is extremely clean. Sobriety is a big part of it. My mantra is, like any athlete, ‘Practice how you perform.’ So that’s why I practice in my heels. The gym looks really tough, but then I’ve got my ivory Gucci slingbacks because they remind me of Marilyn ­Monroe. I train in heels, mostly. I’m interested in feminizing the workout space, because so much of the workout equipment is ugly.”