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Miley Cyrus in 3 scandals that marked pop culture
At just 30, Miley Cyrus has nearly a 15-year-long colorful and controversial career in acting and singing. Eager to shed her stereotypical image as a Disney princess, she has spent the last decade blasting away at preconceptions and ripping off Hannah Montana’s blonde wig to which she has too often been attached. Nude photos, shock performances, drugs, and musical turns followed on. As the singer is about to release a new single with Pharrell Williams tomorrow, let’s get back to three scandals that forged her new identity as a rock star.
Published on 12 January 2023. Updated on 12 May 2026.
Miley Cyrus celebrates 20 years of Hannah Montana
Bolstered by her new pop-rock image, Miley Cyrus is now one of the most iconic artists of her generation. Although her scandals have drawn many criticisms, they have allowed her to forge her own myth above all. Far from the teenager hiding behind the expectations of her parents, the media or Disney, the American singer is now putting back on her blonde wig with bangs to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first broadcast of the show Hannah Montana.
She is now proudly and willingly slipping into that role again for a special episode, which premiered on March 24th, 2026, on Disney+. Among covers of her iconic hits, such as The Climb and The Best of Both Worlds, the release of a new track, and guest appearances by Selena Gomez or her father, Miley Cyrus created an event. A flashback happening two decades after her debut and a few years after breaking away from her Disney princess image…
From Disney Princess to tabloid target
If the character of Hannah Montana that made her famous in the mid-2000s seems far behind her now, it is because Miley Cyrus has shaken up the morals of an overly puritanical America and left the Disney studios with which she has worked for a long time. The singer set the tone when she unveiled her single Can’t Be Tamed in 2010. Standing as the angel of the night, she opened her wings to show the world that she wouldn’t be “tamed” ever again.
In other words, Miley Cyrus intended to live her life as she saw fit, judging by the multiple antics and provocations that made the front pages of magazines, which portrayed her as a new Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears. A risky, yet necessary road to take in order to get rid of her country girl image once and for all… Indeed, her father is none other than the famous singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Throwback to three scandals that shaped her career and pop culture.
Posing almost naked on a magazine cover at 15
In 2008, Miley Cyrus played the role of Hannah Montana in the TV show of the same name for nearly two years. She was only 15 when she became a global star worshiped by a whole generation of young girls. However, she found herself on the front pages of American magazines for a completely different reason than her recent success. Photographer Annie Leibovitz shot her for the cover of an issue of Vanity Fair. The young girl poses almost naked, with a simple satin sheet covering her breasts. The photo was picked up by the press, which was offended by the girl’s nudity. An image at the opposite end of the one Disney Channel was trying to impose on her.
Tackling the controversy head-on, Miley Cyrus apologized. Yet, ten years later, she withdrew her apology on her Twitter. She posted an old copy of The New York Post with the caption: “I’M NOT SORRY. Fuck YOU #10yearsago.” A sarcastic reminder that she repeated in 2020 when she posted a video of herself using drugs ten years earlier. The caption wished a happy anniversary “to the groundbreaking video of a teenage girl smoking a bong and saying dumb shit to their friends.”
A wild twerk on Robin Thicke at the VMAs
This is probably one of the most high-profile scandals in Miley Cyrus’s career. At the end of August 2013, the star set the stage and critics ablaze during her VMAs performance featuring singer Robin Thicke. Dressed in skin-tight beige latex underwear, she sported a new peroxide short blonde hairstyle and performed a series of suggestive positions holding a foam glove with a forefinger raised up. Yet, the finale is what has remained engraved in people’s minds to this day. Miley Cyrus started twerking and rubbing herself against Robin Thicke, while sticking out her tongue.
The video went viral and broke the record of 306,000 tweets per minute about her. A sequence that the singer reenacted several times on tour with giant belt dildos and sultry outfits… Until one of her performances ended up being banned for “acts that go against morals and customs” in the Dominican Republic in 2014. If her image had been shattered, her career seemed to be tainted by the complaints of a puritanical America offended by the downfall of one of its favorite Disney princesses.
The sultry video for the track Wrecking Ball
Later the same year, Miley Cyrus released her single Wrecking Ball (2013) which, despite many criticisms, was a huge success. Perhaps due in part to the music video, which reached over a billion views. In the images, the pop star sports either a pair of panties and a white T-shirt, or is completely naked, with red lipstick on and a tear in the corner of her eye. She swings on a wrecking ball, determined to debunk the prejudices that have long imprisoned her. Although her narrative was moving, she unleashed a stream of criticism because of the nudity.
Since then, Miley Cyrus has been searching for her own identity and kept making the headlines of the tabloids. Her marriage, then her divorce from Australian actor Liam Hemsworth, her antics at parties, her lesbian relationships… Everything became a topic for the press. Yet, she has also built a strong career as a singer, trying out pop, country, and rock music. Her eighties-inspired album Plastic Hearts (2020), then her single Flowers (2024) earned her several nominations at the Grammy Awards.
The anniversary episode of “Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special” (2026) is available on Disney+.
