Perennial pop star Miley Cyrus has handled us to numerous “eras” throughout her profession.
We’ve had the Hannah Montana model, the whimsical rom-com Miley, her post-Disney rebellious streak, her ‘wifey’ period with Liam Hemsworth and, now, we have now a grungy, reflective music star.
And in 2013, we had been smack-bang in the midst of the ex-child star-turned-singer’s so-called ‘wild’ period.
Just two years earlier, Cyrus’ long-running present Hannah Montana had come to an finish and he or she was decided to shed her harmless Disney image.
Watch the video above.
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The then 20-year-old had launched her album Bangerz and was selling her hit songs in the course of the MTV VMAs alongside singer Robin Thicke.
What occurred on that stage in entrance of tens of millions shocked and thrilled her followers in equal measure.
It’s now thought to be some of the iconic popular culture moments of the 2010s.
How is that this image of former youngster star Miley Cyrus applicable for 14-year-olds?
Cyrus danced and twerked alongside large teddy bears in a transfer that firmly distanced her from the “good girl” standing she earned on Disney.
During her performance, Cyrus additionally danced provocatively alongside Blurred Lines singer Thicke whereas donning a nude bikini and sporting a foam finger.
The duo sang a enjoyable medley of their hits We Can’t Stop, Blurred Lines and Give It 2 U and their literal tongue-wagging present made headlines for weeks to return.
Even the faces of celebrities within the viewers betrayed how they actually felt. Cameras panned over to Rihanna and the members of One Direction, all of whom seemed appalled.
Critics instantly slammed the performance as being too raunchy, inappropriate and over-sexualised.
Cyrus shouldered a lot of the blame, whereas Thicke managed to keep away from a lot of the backlash. He wasn’t sizzling off the heels of a decade of being a tween idol. Cyrus was and he or she paid dearly for it.
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“Cyrus’s performance was shocking, but for reasons not being discussed,” critic Kate Dries wrote for Jezebel.
“It was jarring because, as opposed to the random, half-nude models we’re used to seeing prance around Robin Thicke, we were watching a 20-year-old woman – a household name, someone we ‘know’ – play the object in Thicke’s sexy sex dream.”
The Parents Television Council additionally took purpose at Cyrus and MTV for airing the performance throughout prime time.
“MTV continues to sexually exploit young women by promoting acts that incorporate ‘twerking’ in a nude-coloured bikini,” it wrote in a press launch. “How is this image of former child star Miley Cyrus appropriate for 14-year-olds?”
Cyrus herself additionally knew simply how “shocking” her followers and viewers discovered the performance.
Years later, the Last Song actress mirrored on how her twerking offended folks’s delicate sensibilities. She defended her choice, explaining she had been ‘uncovered’ differently for years attributable to her TV position.
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“People were so shocked by some of the things that I did,” she advised Harper’s Bazaar journal in 2017.
“It should be more shocking that when I was 11 or 12, I was put in full hair and make-up, a wig, and told what to wear by a group of mostly older men.
“It’s no marvel that lots of people lose their approach and lose who they are surely as a result of they all the time have folks telling them who to be.”
Cyrus additionally admitted to followers she struggled with the body-shaming that passed off after the 2013 performance, revealing it stopped her sporting revealing outfits for a very long time.
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“All this s—t as a result of after the VMAs, the place I had on my cute little nude bodysuit, everybody began evaluating me to a turkey and placing a turkey in my outfit,” she said on an Instagram Live in 2020.
“I used to be simply so skinny and pasty, and I used to be feeling so unhealthy [about] myself that I didn’t put on a bikini for 2 years.”
In the last decade since Cyrus immediately shed her harmless Disney fame in entrance of an viewers of tens of millions, the pop star has undergone an enormous transformation.
She has since divorced her Australian ex-husband Liam Hemsworth, launched a number of extra chart-topping albums and reverted again to her earthy, country-music type.
Cyrus has additionally been reflecting on the previous 10 years of her profession in an sincere collection on TikTok, talking in regards to the pitfalls of being a former youngster star. Read extra about it right here.
Robin Thicke, for his half, has seemingly light into obscurity for the reason that 2013 performance.
His top-charting hit stays the controversial music Blurred Lines.
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