A Look Into Miley Cyrus' Career 💐
Written by: Caroline Walters
In honor of Miley Cyrus’ new album Endless Summer Vacation being released on March 10th, we wanted to highlight her and the evolution of her career! Her discography is full of bangers and her acting career is nothing short of impressive! From pop princess to rebel rocker to mature artist, Miley has gone through many phases in her career, and we can’t wait to listen to her tenth studio album! 😍
2006-2009
At only 13 years old, Miley was cast in the hit Disney Channel show Hannah Montana, and immediately skyrocketed to fame! Her first music release was under Hannah Montana as the soundtrack to the show in 2006. She toured with The Cheetah Girls as Hannah Montana in 2006, and then in 2007, she released Meet Miley Cyrus alongside the Hannah Montana 2 album. Meet Miley Cyrus was the first time she was really seen as her own independent artist, and the single “See You Again” peaked at #10 on the charts! 💃
Her second album Breakout was her first completely solo album in 2008. “7 Things” spent 15 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and peaked at #9! This album had a harder image than what she’d been showing the public — she dyed her hair black and started making music that had more of a rock influence!
Hannah Montana: The Movie was released in 2009, and with it, “The Climb” peaked at #4, and “Hoedown Throwdown” peaked at #18 on the charts! Also in 2009, she released her first EP as Miley, The Time of Our Lives, and the classic we all know and love, “Party in The USA” peaked at #2, her highest song on the charts so far! 🤠
2010-2015
In 2010, Miley was starting to take on more mature acting roles, as her contract with Disney was almost up and she wanted to make an acting name for herself outside of her role as Hannah Montana. She starred in The Last Song, a movie adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, and had roles in the movies LOL and So Undercover as well.
While she was filming these movies, she was also creating her next album, Can’t Be Tamed! When this album was released, the lead single, “Can’t Be Tamed” peaked at #8 on the charts. The final episode of the hit show Hannah Montana aired in 2011, and Miley celebrated this new change in her life by dyeing her hair blonde! 👩🏼
Miley completely shed the image she’d created while she was still on Disney Channel when she released her fourth album as herself, Bangerz. This is when Miley started to be taken seriously as an independent artist and shed her Disney roots — her music became more experimental and had a hip-hop and dance vibe that everyone loved! She collaborated with Pharrell Williams on this album and he definitely helped influence the hip-hop sound. The first single, “We Can’t Stop,” was deemed her comeback single and became the first video to reach 100 million views on Vevo! Another single off the album, “Wrecking Ball,” was Miley’s first song to peak at #1, and has sold over two million copies, with the music video for it breaking the record for most views within twenty-four hours. Miley was definitely in her record-breaking era and we loved every minute of it! 🪩
Her MTV documentary, Miley: The Movement, aired in 2013 and documented the making of Bangerz. Soon after the release, she hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time and then performed what’s now known as the highest-rated MTV Unplugged performance. Miley then went on the worldwide Bangerz Tour, where she performed 78 shows over 5 legs of the tour! During the tour, there were rumors that she was working on a new album, and they were right. As soon as the tour ended, she released her fifth album, Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz, on SoundCloud and it was completely free — something not many artists at the time were doing! This album was her most experimental yet, with critics saying it was incredibly alt-pop and psychedelic. ✨
2016-2019
In 2016, while Miley was recording her sixth album, she was also a coach for The Voice, making her the youngest coach they’d had! Miley was still acting and had little cameos in movies every once in a while, but her main focus at this point became her music. In 2017, she released the first single from her sixth album, “Malibu.” The album Younger Now came out in September of that same year, but Miley announced that she wouldn’t release any more singles from it or tour it because she already had two songs from her next album ready! If there’s one thing about Miley Cyrus, it’s that she’s always writing music for us. 🌊
Miley’s seventh album was supposed to be called She Is Miley Cyrus and be made up of three six-song EPs, but only of the EPs was actually released. She Is Coming, the first EP, was released on May 31, but the other two didn’t see the light of day due to issues in Miley’s personal life. As sad as we are that they didn’t get released, we’re happier that she took care of herself and did what was best for her! Amidst all of this, she still managed to film an episode of the hit Netflix show Black Mirror and adopt an alter ego, Ashley O, which she released a song as!
2020-Now
In 2020, Miley made the transition into the rock genre with the release of her seventh album, Plastic Hearts! For this album, she collaborated with incredible artists such as Dua Lipa, Billy Idol, and even Joan Jett. While she wasn’t able to fully tour this album, Miley was still able to perform the album live at tons of festivals and even created a short festival tour for it! Her third live album Attention: Miley Live was released in April 2022 and featured the song, "ATTENTION." The album was created and recorded on the Attention festival tour in South America! 💗
Recently, Miley released the single from her next album Endless Summer Vacation in early January. “Flowers” debuted with incredible success and reached #1 in over 30 countries! So far, the song has spent six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it looks like it’s gonna stay there for a while!
As if a new album wasn't already enough, Miley also announced that she collaborated with Disney for ENDLESS SUMMER VACATION (BACKYARD SESSIONS), which will be available to stream on Disney+ after the album release. Her second single from the album, "River," will also be released the same day as her album release. We are being fed with Endless Summer Vacation and we couldn't be more excited for Miley's newest era! Endless Summer Vacation drops on March 10, and we hope it’s even better than “Flowers!” 💐
If you’re just as obsessed with Miley as we are, make sure to check out our YouTube video about her career — it’ll be way more in-depth and full of all of our favorite moments! Let us know what your favorite Miley movie or album is on our Instagram or Twitter! 🤩
If you want to get more involved in fan communities, join a Fan Crew or our awesome weekly newsletter!