Music
Page: 593
Latin music, the term assigned to music performed predominantly in Spanish, is the fastest growing “genre” of music both in the U.S. and worldwide, with Latin acts –- from Bad Bunny to Karol G to Annita and Shakira — dominating both charts and headlines. But it wasn’t always like that: From its initial heyday in the 1950s, when Latin dances like mambo and cha-cha-cha were all the craze, Latin music’s popularity has ebbed and flowed. But for the last 35 years, at least, there has been two constants: the Billboard Latin charts and Billboard Latin Music Week.
What is now the single most important, and biggest, gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world, has been the one, steady foundation of Latin music in this country and for the world. Every single artist of note has spoken or performed at Latin Music Week through the years: Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Selena, Jenni Rivera, Marc Anthony, Chayanne, Bad Bunny, Karol G, Daddy Yankee, Shakira, Romeo Santos, Don Omar, Camilo, Bizarrap, Carin León, Grupo Firme, Peso Pluma, Luis Fonsi, Christina Aguilera, Wisin, J Quiles, Gloria Trevi… The list goes on and on.
This year’s Latin Music Week, taking place October 14-18 at the Fillmore Miami Beach, will feature superstar speakers J Balvin, Young Miko, Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz, Peso Pluma, JOP (Fuerza Regida), Eden Muñoz, Bad Gyal, Mon Laferte,Thalia and Maria Becerra among many others. But Billboard’s history of stellar appearances is 35 years deep. Here are some outstanding moments in the Billboard’s Latin Music Week 35-year history.
Visit Billboard Latin Music Week to register to this year’s event.
1990
Tyla’s mom had “premonitions” that her daughter was pregnant, and the “Water” singer duped her with a prank call. As part of Elle‘s Phoning It In segment on Monday (Sept. 23), Tyla made a few prank calls to her mother, Central Cee, her manager and more. She attempted to scare her mom, Sharleen Seethal, with a pregnancy prank, but things took a turn when her mom had a feeling the singer was pregnant.
“Mom, I think I’m pregnant,” begins Tyla, who recently accepted Billboard‘s Global Force award at the R&B No. 1s party.
Her mom replied: “Yeah, I’m happy. I had a feeling for a long time. That’s what I’m seriously shocked about. Oh my God. I swear to God. I had premonitions. I swear to God.”
Trending on Billboard
“I don’t know who the father is,” Tyla continued. She couldn’t lead her mother on any longer and fessed up to the prank.
“Tyla, but I had a premonition,” Seethal countered. “I spoke to Auntie Mila and I told her I need grandchildren. Oh my God, Tyla. Am I supposed to scream?”
While Tyla isn’t actually pregnant, her mother clearly wants her 22-year-old daughter to give her some grandchildren in the future.
As for Central Cee, Tyla went with the prank that she was flying to London, but her Airbnb wasn’t ready and her team needed a place to stay in the U.K. in the meantime.
“I’m supposed to go to London tomorrow and I just have a problem,” she told him. “Literally, like, my whole family is meeting me there and I booked an Airbnb and everything … They said the wait is going to be, like, a few hours before they can actually get in so I was just wondering if they could, like, maybe wait at your place.”
Cench said: “This is the maddest question I think anyone’s ever asked me.”
She eventually gave up on the prank, but Central Cee was happy that he showed he was willing to step up and house Tyla and her party of five.
Watch the full clip below.
09/24/2024
The “After Hours” title track from his blockbuster fourth album breaks his 17-song tie with Drake.
09/24/2024
Eric Church recently paid homage to Country Music Hall of Famer Alan Jackson as only “The Chief” can during the 17th annual ACM Honors, which were held in August at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and airs Tuesday (Sept. 24) on Merit Street Media.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
During the event, Jackson — who has earned 26 Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 hits and is a co-writer or sole writer on most of those — was celebrated with the ACM Poet’s Award for his songwriting.
Trending on Billboard
“Alan Jackson is an institution and an American treasure. It’s my honor to be here and play for him,” Church said before he offered a soulful performance of Jackson’s 1990 hit “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow.”
Before launching into the performance, Church also offered up a story from being on the road with another country music luminary.
“I was touring with Hank [Williams] Jr., and every night he would play ‘Family Tradition,’” Church said, recalling that after he tried putting his own spin on the song, “Hank tolerated me for about 30 seconds and he pulled his glasses down and said, ‘Brother, don’t paint on the Mona Lisa.’ So tonight I’m going to try to paint around the Mona Lisa, OK?”
Church’s rugged rendition was passionate, clearly conveying the two artists’ shared experiences chasing their dreams — and weathering rejections — in Music City. Church earned a standing ovation and one of the most fervent applauses from the crowd, along with praise from Jackson himself.
This year, the annual ACM Honors celebrates honorees including Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Lainey Wilson, Chris Stapleton and Luke Bryan, as well as producer/former label head Tony Brown, music executive Shannon Sanders, songwriter Walt Aldridge, various music venues and several top-shelf musicians who play on so many of the country music albums emanating from Nashville.
Other performers and presenters during the evening include ACM Honors co-hosts Carly Pearce and Jordan Davis, as well as Lauren Alaina, Jason Aldean, Jackson Dean, Kameron Marlowe, Lee Ann Womack, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Tyler Hubbard, Jamey Johnson, Ashley McBryde, Terri Clark and Keith Urban.
Watch the sneak peek look at Church’s performance below:

On Thursday, September 5, the heart of New York City’s music scene came alive as Tres Generaciones Tequila hosted an intimate dinner, bringing together the industry’s movers and shakers. Held ahead of the much-anticipated 2024 Hip Hop and R&B Power Players Award Celebration, this exclusive evening served as both a prelude to the prestigious awards and a celebration of the profound connection between music, culture, and community.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
The dinner, held in a stunning green oasis in the heart of Times Square, was graced by key decision-makers, trendsetters, and notable artists, including NLE Choppa, Toosie, Serayah, and Saint Jhn, adding to the evening’s sense of prominence. A curated guest list ensured an air of exclusivity, where conversations flowed between the stars shaping the soundtracks of today and tomorrow. The dinner also marked a toast to those shaping the future of music, showcasing the powerful partnership between Tres Generaciones and Billboard.
Rashida Zagon
As the evening began, Rocsi Diaz, celebrated host of the Get Up Anthems series, took to the stage to share heartfelt words on the enduring power of music in the community. Her speech set the tone for the night, sharing how music, much like tequila, has the power to move, inspire, and unite us, reminding everyone in the room of the shared mission of Tres Generaciones: to bring people together in celebration.
Trending on Billboard
Diaz then introduced the evening’s guest of honor, Joey Bada$$, a fellow New Yorker and Get Up Anthem participant, whose impact on the hip-hop scene has been undeniable.
Guests savored a perfectly paired, elevated culinary experience featuring signature cocktails crafted by Tres Generaciones Tequila, adding a luxurious flair to the evening. The “Trespresso Martini” and the “Tres 75,” both custom creations, perfectly complemented the sophisticated palette dinner. These drinks, like the artists in the room, were crafted with complexity and innovation, reflecting the essence of Tres Generaciones’ 50-year history of excellence. Born in 1973 to celebrate three legendary generations of distillers, Tres remains a symbol of Mexican pride, made with only three simple ingredients—agave, yeast, and water—and triple-distilled for a smoother finish.
Following the dinner, attendees were invited to descend two floors into the iconic Paradise Room, where the 2024 Hip Hop and R&B Power Players Award presentation awaited. The energy was electric as the room filled with industry titans ready to celebrate the night’s honorees. Joey Bada$$, having already captivated the dinner audience with his humility and wisdom, was honored with the prestigious Impact Award, presented by Tres Generaciones Tequila. The award recognized his enduring influence, innovative artistry, and his role in shaping the next generation of musicians and creatives.
This night, defined by intimacy, elegance, and a shared passion for the art form, set the stage for what promises to be a defining year for Hip Hop and R&B, reminding all in attendance of the cultural and creative power music holds. The Impact Dinner, like the music it celebrated, was more than just an event—it was a moment, a memory, and an ode to the voices that continue to move the world.
Continue the vibes at home and relive the night by watching Joey Bada$$’s acceptance speech HERE and check out the recap sizzle of this unforgettable evening.
Tres Generaciones’ partnership with Billboard is built on a shared mission of inspiring and uplifting communities through music and celebration. Together, they spotlight the pivotal role that both music and tequila play in bringing people together—whether through the Get Up Anthems content series, which travels city to city celebrating iconic tracks, or the Get Up Sessions concert tour, showcasing the next great generation of artists.
To keep the evening’s magic alive, try recreating the signature cocktails served at the event.
Cheers to music, culture, and continuing the celebration at home!
Izzy Nuzzo
Linkin Park are going back back to the start. The rock band dropped the hard-hitting new single “Heavy Is the Crown” on Tuesday (Sept. 24), a rager that will be the official anthem for the League of Legends World Championship. The follow-up to the band’s first new music in seven years — the previously released […]

Goals will be scored for a good cause on Thursday, Oct. 3, when the annual electronic world charity soccer tournament Copa del Rave returns to Los Angeles. The tournament will include seven teams made up of employees from UTA, Red Light Management, Beatport, Infamous, Circa, Downtown Music and Symphonic Distribution. DJ players include SG Lewis, […]
Lady Gaga just threw fans a major curveball. After leading fans to believe that she was teasing her upcoming seventh album with a string of cryptic posts on Instagram, the superstar has announced that she’ll soon be dropping Harlequin, a companion album to new movie Joker: Folie à Deux. On Instagram Tuesday (Sept. 24), Gaga […]
Zach Top charts his first song on the Billboard Hot 100 (dated Sept. 28) as “I Never Lie” debuts at No. 95.
Released in April on Leo33, the song enters with 4.9 million U.S. official streams (up 16%), 261,000 radio audience impressions and 1,000 downloads sold in the Sept. 13-19 tracking week, according to Luminate.
“I Never Lie” also ascends 26-23 for a new high on the multimetric Hot Country Songs chart. It’s one of two Top songs on the survey, as “Sounds Like the Radio” rises 41-37, becoming his second top 40 hit.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
“I Never Lie” appears on Top’s debut full-length, Cold Beer & Country Music. In a February interview with Billboard, in which he was named Country Rookie of the Month, he explained co-writing the album with Carson Chamberlain, formerly the late Keith Whitley’s bandleader and steel guitar player. “How we met was kind of hilarious,” Top shared. “In late 2018, he emailed me and said he wanted to work with me. I had archived the email, and my girlfriend at the time – now my wife – called me a few weeks later and said, ‘Do you remember that email from this Chamberlain fellow? I’m sending you his Wikipedia link. I think we need to email him back.’
“I did and met him in early 2019, started flying to Nashville every month to do co-writes with him and then he’d set me up on other co-writes,” Top said. “It was full circle because I love Keith Whitley and he was best buds with Keith.”
Trending on Billboard
Cold Beer & Country Music jumps 111-90 on the Billboard 200, reaching the chart’s top half for the first time, and 21-18 on Top Country Albums.
Top, from Sunnyside, Wash., first appeared on Billboard’s charts in January, when “Sounds Like the Radio” debuted on Country Airplay. It holds at its No. 20 high on the latest list.
Both of Top’s breakout hits have benefitted from TikTok. “I Never Lie” has soundtracked over 25,000 clips on the platform to date, while “Sounds Like the Radio” has been used in over 3,000.
Top is currently supporting Lainey Wilson on her Country’s Cool Again Tour. He kicks off his headlining Cold Beer & Country Music Tour in January.
With the first quarter of the 21st century coming to a close, Billboard is spending the next few months counting down our staff picks for the 25 greatest pop stars of the last 25 years. We’ve already named our Honorable Mentions and our No. 25, No. 24, No. 23, No. 22, No. 21, No. 20, No. 19, No. 18, No. 17 and No. 16 stars, and now we remember the century in Miley Cyrus — who at age 31 has already lived through several artistic lifetimes, generating numerous pop classics and countless unforgettable moments in the process.
For many artists, it’s their hit songs, pop culture-defining albums or chart successes that are easiest to pinpoint as landmarks for the most pivotal stages of their careers. But for Miley Cyrus, it’s hair.
Trending on Billboard
Though she certainly has plenty of all the above accomplishments, the 31-year-old generational talent’s phases of life have always been irrevocably intertwined with what’s going on atop her head — from the blonde wig that made her famous in the mid 2000s to the bleached pixie cut that introduced the world to a very different Miley in 2012. It goes beyond the public’s obsession with beauty standards, which a thin, blue-eyed Cyrus would embody for the first several years of her career before rejecting that mold altogether; the singer’s hair has had a way of symbolizing where she’s at personally and artistically over the years.
And where she’s been, in both regards, has been all over the map. From eager Disney Channel prodigy to unruly pop outlaw, freewheeling genre experimenter and mature modern hitmaker, Cyrus’ knack for earnest reinvention has sustained her through all the peaks and valleys of her career. With no shortage of chart hits and even more iconic culture-shocking moments, she’s endured as one of the century’s most significant pop stars – because no matter what style she’s trying out, at the end of the day, she’s always still just being Miley.
Born Destiny Hope Cyrus on Nov. 23, 1992, in the Nashville metropolitan area of Tennessee, the most recognizable head of hair in the young star’s childhood wasn’t her own, but father Billy Ray’s signature mullet. Miley, who legally adopted her childhood nickname in 2008, grew up in a constellation of other stars before she would become one herself, with her dad becoming a country sensation in the ’90s for the massive crossover hit “Achy Breaky Heart” and her godmother being none other than Dolly Parton.
Seeing Billy Ray act on his early-’00s medical drama Doc inspired Miley to want to be a performer, too, leading her to audition for Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana at just 12 years old. After first reading for the part of sidekick Lily, the preteen was instead asked to try for the sitcom’s main character instead: Miley Ray Stewart, a Malibu teen who could transform at any moment to global pop sensation Hannah Montana, with a wig that somehow carried the same camouflaging powers as Clark Kent’s glasses. Billy Ray was cast as her character’s dad, their natural chemistry translating beautifully on screen.
It’s hard to describe just how magnetic Cyrus was on that show. Here was a girl who could deliver a cheesy catch phrase — usually “Sweet niblets!” or “Yeeee doggies!” — like a seasoned comedic actor, unafraid of appearing unattractive or goofy in service of a good bit with an innate power and resonance in her voice that was almost unnatural for her age.
Miley Cyrus
Sam Emerson/Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection
Miley Cyrus
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
And you’d better believe that Disney capitalized on her raw talent. During Hannah Montana’s run from 2006 to 2011, the children’s network churned out four seasons of TV, five soundtrack albums, a feature film, a tour and a concert movie — not to mention countless clothing lines, lunch boxes, backpacks, accessories, makeup, blankets, throw pillows and Happy Meal toys plastered with Miley and Hannah’s shared face.
All the while, Cyrus was essentially holding down two music careers at once, signing with Walt Disney Records for all things Hannah and then with Hollywood Records for her own work as Miley. Her first two albums, Hannah Montana and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus both debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. On the Best of Both Worlds Tour, she performed one half as herself and the other as her alter ego (the trek grossed more than $54 million, according to Billboard Boxscore). She scored numerous chart hits under Hannah — “Best of Both Worlds,” “Nobody’s Perfect” and 18 more tracks made the Billboard Hot 100 during the show’s run – which gave way to additional hits as Miley. Both “See You Again” and the Nick Jonas breakup anthem “7 Things” reached the Hot 100 top 10 and gave her credibility outside of the Disneyverse, leading pop fans to start taking her seriously outside of her lane as a kids’ TV star.
As Miley and Hannah became increasingly inextricably linked, however, it got harder for the public to detangle Miley Cyrus from Hannah Montana, or even from Miley Stewart. Activities like posing bare-shouldered on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2008 or hitting a salvia bong the week of her 18th birthday in 2010 weren’t the mere antics of a maturing teenage girl, they were affronts to a squeaky-clean, million-dollar brand dependent on the adoration of little kids and the approval of their parents. This left Cyrus with few options for mapping out her career post-Hannah: risk spending the rest of her life living in her own character’s shadow or control the narrative by inelegantly demolishing that character and forcing the world to watch. We all know which route she chose – but first, attempts at a more seamless transition were made.
In 2009, the same year Hot 100 No. 4 hit ballad “The Climb” and barn-raising dance tune “Hoedown Throwdown” came out for Hannah Montana: The Movie’s soundtrack, Cyrus dropped the 7-track EP The Time of Our Lives, featuring what is still one of her most beloved and easily recognizable hits: “Party in the U.S.A.” The Dr. Luke-produced quasi-patriotic banger immediately became Cyrus’ biggest home run so far, exploding on pop radio and reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 thanks to its charming lyrics and infectious main hook. (Seriously, how does one not sing along to that “Yeah-ee-ah-ee-ah-ee-ah” in the chorus?) The track also offered a glimpse at what her post-Disney pop music career might’ve looked like for the next decade if she’d wanted it: polished, widely palatable and performed by the same Miley Hannah Montana fans knew and loved, just with a more mature sound and maybe slightly shorter shorts
But then, she got on stage at that year’s Teen Choice Awards and innocently performed the track on top of a prop ice cream cart, holding onto a silver bar so as not to fall off while dancers pushed her around. Except, the masses didn’t see it that way: The showcase sparked global gasps and pearl-clutching over what scandalized audiences interpreted as a risqué pole dance. One famous tabloid headline asked if Miley was “turning into Britney.” Instead of coming to her defense, her network quickly released a statement: “Disney Channel won’t be commenting on that performance, although parents can rest assured that all content presented on the Disney Channel is age-appropriate for our audience – kids 6-14 – and consistent with what our brand values are.” (This is why we can’t have nice things.) .
After that, Miley came back with 2010’s Can’t Be Tamed, an album meant to showcase her edgier side and her last with Hollywood Records. Its title track was the effort’s biggest hit, peaking at No. 8 on the Hot 100 that summer – assisted by a music video showing the star in a leggy feather leotard, writhing sensuously in a bird cage – but public interest in the rest of the album petered out quickly, and Cyrus would disavow it as her “last pop record” soon afterward. In January 2011, Hannah Montana’s final season finished airing, and its soundtrack became the show’s first to not break the top 10 on the albums chart. Miley took a break from music to focus on acting, filming the Nicholas Sparks tear-jerker The Last Song (during which she met future ex-husband and frequent muse, Liam Hemsworth), detective comedy So Undercover and teen romance LOL over the course of two years.
But let’s get back to hair. Cyrus’ signature brunette waves were aesthetically quintessential to the Miley-Hannah package. That’s why it was so shocking when the star shaved the sides of her head in August 2012 and bleached the scruff that remained on top. Miley Stewart – and certainly Hannah Montana – were long gone. Cyrus tweeted, “Never felt more me in my whole life.”
The makeover was the first domino in a pop culture-disrupting series of events and a full metamorphosis for Cyrus, who still wouldn’t reach legal drinking age until November 2013. In March of that year, she posted a video of her twerking to J. Dash and Flo Rida’s “WOP” in a unicorn onesie. In June, she dropped “We Can’t Stop,” a Mike Will Made-It production originally penned for Rihanna. The hedonistic, anti-polite-society earworm and its music video were both massive year-defining hits, with the track reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100 and the Diane Martel-directed visual deliberately showing Cyrus in the most extreme anti-Hannah light possible: shaking her ass at a grimy house party, making out with a doll in a swimming pool full of nearly naked friends, wagging her tongue Gene Simmons-style and repeatedly flashing her grill to the camera.
In August, she caused nothing short of nationwide panic by grinding on Robin Thicke and miming sex on a foam finger at the VMAs, earning bemused looks from Rihanna and One Direction in the audience that were nothing compared to the horrified outcries from parents and think piece writers everywhere the next day. It sparked months – years, even – of discourse surrounding Cyrus’ body, the children she’d supposedly scarred and whether she was mentally “disturbed,” as MSNBC anchor Mika Brzezinski put it at the time. Her “stripper pole” incident in 2009 now seemed like child’s play.
In September, she swung butt-naked on a demolition ball and made out with a sledgehammer in the since-disgraced Terry Richardson-directed “Wrecking Ball” music video, leading the late Sinead O’Connor to urge Cyrus to stop “pimping” herself in an open letter. In October, she unblinkingly said that Hannah Montana “was murdered” while hosting Saturday Night Live.
Miley Cyrus
John Shearer/Getty Images
You could say Cyrus was overcompensating. You could say she was being raunchy just for the sake of being raunchy. You could definitely say that she was appropriating and caricaturing Black culture, a critique that would plague her career for years to come.
But you can’t say that it wasn’t working: “Wrecking Ball” became her first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, topping the chart for three weeks, and album Bangerz debuted atop the Billboard 200 with assists from Nelly, Future, French Montana, Ludacris and Cyrus’ oft-claimed predecessor, Britney Spears. The corresponding world tour grossed a reported $63 million in 2014, according to Billboard Boxscore. Love it or hate it, the era remains one of the most commercially successful and iconic of her career, so much so that Billboard’s staff named her the Greatest Pop Star of 2013.
“I know what I’m doing,” she told Rolling Stone at the time. “I know I’m shocking you.”
From there, Cyrus embraced her role as provocateur, raving about her love of smoking weed and taking molly and appearing on late night shows with heart-shaped pasties covering her nipples. She also discovered new passions outside of music and acting. Fueled by the attention she so easily captured with her and Thicke’s NSFW performance, Cyrus began her Happy Hippie Foundation in 2014 — “If the world is going to focus on me and what I am doing, then what I am doing should be impactful and it should be great,” she told Wonderland — dedicated to helping homeless and LGBTQ+ youth. The next year, she returned to the VMAs as host, which had some hiccups (“Miley, what’s good?”) but seemed like something she truly enjoyed doing; seven years later, she’d host Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party with her famous godmother for NBC.
During the 2015 ceremony, she would also announce her psychedelic LP Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, having severed ties with Dr. Luke amid his legal battle with Kesha. Seemingly rebuking the spotlight she’d earned with Bangerz, Cyrus dropped the album for free on SoundCloud before making it available commercially with new label RCA Records much later. The record was panned by critics and ineligible for chart consideration, but ended up being a wise move even disregarding its retroactive love from fans down the line; with Dead Petz, Cyrus effectively cleaned her slate to do whatever she wanted next without the pressure of matching Bangerz’s commercial success.
Miley Cyrus
Jason Merritt/Getty Images
In 2016, she came out as pansexual, a major moment of visibility for the LGBTQ community considering her conservative Disney Channel roots. “My first relationship in my life was with a chick,” she told Variety. “I grew up in a very religious Southern family … Once I understood my gender more, which was unassigned, then I understood my sexuality more. I was like, ‘Oh — that’s why I don’t feel straight and I don’t feel gay. It’s because I’m not.’”
Either satisfied that she’d made her point or having simply outgrown her rebellious phase, Cyrus calmed down a bit in the mid-to-late 2010s. But she would spend her next few albums trying to reckon with her past behavior, starting with 2017’s Younger Now, a lighter album partly inspired by her newfound domestic bliss with Hemsworth, whom she married the following year. On the title track, she made a point of explaining that she’d moved on from grinding on Teddy bears and straddling giant hot dogs — “No one stays the same … what goes up must come down” — and in the serene beachside music video for lead single “Malibu,” she appeared with her bleached hair symbolically growing out to reveal her natural brown roots. The project peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard 200, a new low for Cyrus, and barely eked out a top 10 hit with “Malibu.”
After scrapping a planned three-EP rollout after its first installment, She Is Coming – the highlight of which was “Slide Away,” an ode to her pending split from Hemsworth — Cyrus again wrestled with her past on Plastic Hearts. “They told me I should cover [my body], so I went the other way,” she sang on “Golden G String.” “I was trying to own my power, still I’m trying to work it out.” It was during this era that Cyrus embraced rock music – marked, of course, by her edgy blonde mullet – a style that was arguably a better fit for her than pop ever had been, artistically speaking. Though not her most commercially successful album, she proved herself in other ways, holding her own in the booth next to the LP’s special guests Billy Idol, Joan Jett and Stevie Nicks and earning viral moments for her exquisite Blondie and Cranberries covers.
Over these years, she also set a new precedent for herself when it came to touring: With the Bangerz trek marking her most recent proper solo headlining tour to date, Miley opted not to tour at all for Younger Now and performed only a limited run of festival dates for Plastic Hearts, preferring instead to give fans live numbers through her years-long Backyard Sessions series. For someone whose life was so heavily regimented by other people when she was young, there’s no doubt that shirking the traditional touring model was an especially meaningful boundary for her to set on her own behalf in adulthood.
In 2023, years after it seemed Cyrus might never again score a smash as huge as “Wrecking Ball,” she circled back to a more straightforward pop sound on Endless Summer Vacation (via new label Columbia Records) and found runaway success with lead single “Flowers.” The Bruno Mars-echoing, Hemsworth-teasing track spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and earned Cyrus best pop solo performance — her first-ever Grammy — at the 2024 awards, as well as record of the year. On final single “Used to Be Young,” she once again addressed her past: “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.”
Cyrus has already lived multiple lives in her nearly-two-decade career — from tween idol to pop rabble-rouser to rock star and everything else in between – but now, the label that suits Miley best at age 31 is simply seasoned professional. Her versatile talents are sought out by many in the industry, from Beyoncé on Cowboy Carter duet “II Most Wanted” to acclaimed indie studio A24 on a recent cover of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” And the little girls she raised as Hannah Montana make up the next generation of stars, from Sabrina Carpenter — who at 10 years old won a fan contest to meet Miley — to Chappell Roan, whose fandom of the Disney Channel show inspired her own sparkly alter ego.
In 2024, Cyrus seems especially at peace, with both her past and who she is now. And after years of the world struggling to catch up to her, it seems the culture – far less uptight than it was when she entered it, thanks in part to her so loudly disavowing the standards of sensibility we used to force on female artists – is finally giving the singer credit for leaving such a lasting impression.
In an emotional full-circle moment, Cyrus got the rare chance to bask in that recognition at the Disney Legends Ceremony in August. Tearfully facing the crowd with her hair mostly brunette for the first stretch since 2013 – aside from a few streaks of blonde highlight, perhaps showing that all her past selves will always be with her in some capacity – she said that “a little bit of everything has changed” since she first donned her famous wig in 2005.
“But at the same time, nothing has changed at all,” Cyrus continued. “I stand here still proud to have been Hannah Montana. Because she made Miley in so many ways.”
Read more about the Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century here — and be sure to check back on Thursday when our No. 14 artist is revealed!