Last night, Miley Cyrus proved once and for all that she really does know how to love herself better than anyone can. The former Hannah Montana star’s Grammy performance was nothing short of triumphant. She took home not only her first but also her second-ever award for “Flowers” (Best Pop Solo Performance and Record Of The Year respectively). Those statues were handed to her by Meryl Streep and Mariah Carey, whose presence sent the singer into a bit of a meltdown after the fact. She wore four different dresses and looked great in all of them—an objective fact she acknowledged in her Record Of The Year acceptance speech by thanking “my main gays because look how good I look!” She brought the house down with her first televised performance of her winning single, complete with the same ebullient choreography from the music video and a joyful Tina Turner nod at the end. She looked strong, she looked powerful, and most importantly, she looked like she was having the time of her life.
She deserves it. A decade ago, the phrase “Miley Cyrus Grammy Winner” would have sounded like nothing but a low-hanging troll. While the industry expecting sexuality from young female artists and then immediately punishing them for it is nothing new, the level of criticism leveled at Cyrus for doing pretty much anything in her “We Can’t Stop” era—and even before—was a different beast entirely. “I carried some guilt and shame around myself for years because of how much controversy and upset I really caused,” the singer said (via The Independent) of a controversial Vanity Fair cover she shot when she was 15, for example. “Now that I’m an adult, I realize how harshly I was judged.”
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That astounding level of hard-won self-reverence was on full display last night. No one was as confident on that stage or in their own skin as Cyrus. During her awards speeches, she danced with Billie Eilish and quipped that she may have forgotten her underwear. There isn’t a full video of her “Flowers” performance online yet (what gives, CBS?), but it sent a message. You hated me for being too visible for years, she seemed to be saying. Now, I’m not going to let you look away. “Why are you acting like you don’t know this song?” she chastised the audience in the first verse. Later, she let herself celebrate: “Started to cry but remembered... I just won my first Grammy!”
One thing really shone through in that moment: she sounded like adult Miley Cyrus, sure, but she also sounded like her teenage alter-ego, Miley Stewart. This writer picked up on it immediately and she wasn’t the only one. This was a win for both of them. Cyrus has had to climb a lot of mountains in her career, but last night she finally reached the summit.