After telling fans on night one (Oct. 16) at the Hollywood Bowl that it had “always been a dream” of hers to play the iconic Los Angeles venue, Miley Cyrus hit back at critics of that performance during her second show on Sunday night (Oct. 18).
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“I’ve never heard that I don’t put my heart into something,” Cyrus told the audience at her second Hollywood Bowl show, according to a video of her comments posted on X by The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t know if any of you heard that. 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, yeah, and we’re not even going to entertain that.”
Though she didn’t refer to a specific complaint, the comments were seemingly in reference to videos that claimed Miley (the singer recently changed her stage name to a mononym) was not fully present and did not sing all the words at her first full concert in four years.
“You all have been with me long enough to know that anytime I’m doing something meaningful that’s gonna be a stepping stone in my life, in my career to become the artist and the person that I want to be,” she said. “You know that it’s been controversial. And the controversy, you know, it used to be a lot of fun. It still can be. I can be pretty melted. I love that about me. I actually used to live my life pretty hard. Because life’s hard, so I thought I had to get hard. … But, you know, I didn’t enjoy my life as much when I was living hard. I love pouring myself into something.”
Then Cyrus got real about the difficulty of getting back on stage to perform after so many years and her decision to step back from the rigors of major tours.
“It is hard for me to stand up here and do this show,” Miley added. “It does not come as natural as it once did to me before. Because, like all of us, we change, we evolve, we grow, and we find what gets to come with us. What continues to fit. And you all are more to me than an experiment. That is absolutely not what this is. This is not an experiment of you. This is an experience for me. You all make the experience possible. The only way that I get to test my personal boundaries, my limits, what I think I can do …”
The singer got real, admitting that before coming out to perform the Bass Persuades ballad “Orbit” to open Sunday night’s show, she had already convinced herself that the gig wasn’t going to happen. “I was gonna run away, but never would I leave you all sitting in these seats unfulfilled from a show.” The latter got the crowd chanting “Miley! Miley! Miley!”
Miley then made her intentions perfectly clear: “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. Not one. I am fully present,” she said. “The only thing that I have is this moment with all of you. And so to make it clear, I’m here with you right now.”
The two shows are the only live events Cyrus has planned to promote Bass Persuades. She opened the run on Friday with a selection of songs from the new album, as well as a moving tribute to her late godmother, Dolly Parton. The singer said one of the biggest reasons she wanted to play the Bowl was that it was the only place she saw Parton perform live.
“Me and Dolly are eternal,” she said, noting that she can feel Parton’s presence now more than ever. “I’m going to see her again and I can’t wait, because I f–king miss her.” Friday’s set also included a cameo from collaborator/opening act Model-Actriz as well as one from the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, who performed his band’s “Do You Realize??” as well as “Karen Don’t Be Sad” from their joint 2015 Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz project.