Miley Cyrus on New Image, Music: ‘I Feel Like I Have Respect’
Miley Cyrus isn’t big on labels that limit her ways of being. In a recent interview with ITV program Lorraine‘s host Ross King, the former Disney star opened up about how she’s transformed as an artist over the last few years.
“I feel like I proved what I wanted to do,” Cyrus said. “I feel like I have respect and I feel like my charity Happy Hippie has given me that and I feel like I have the respect as an artist that I want, so it’s less that I have to prove myself, and that gives me a lot of contentment.”
In recent months, Cyrus has simplified her image to one that’s a bit more reminiscent of her days as the child star of Disney channel’s hit series, Hannah Montana. At the Billboard Music Awards last month, the outspoken singer donned white shorts, a white off-shoulder cropped top, boots and a floppy hat to perform her gauzy single “Malibu.” (The image was a far cry from her eye-popping, provocative performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV VMA Awards.)
But it’s not as though she’s become a different person, Cyrus said, noting that she’s always been “open” about who she is, even if that’s changed from time to time.
“I think that makes me have more freedom in my music, because I feel like I can really just be myself and my fans are so accepting of me,” she said. “But it’s just hard for people that are looking out from the outside inside my life all the time and going through every little thing.”
When asked toward the end of the interview what she thought was “weird” about herself, Cyrus said, “I’m weird for many reasons. I think I feel genderless, I feel ageless. I’m just a spirit soul, not divided by human being, even animals. There’s no me and them and there’s no us and you. I just want to be nothing.”
And though her career is still arguably on the rise, Cyrus’ veteran advice for her younger sister Noah sounds like a singer who’s withstood plenty of criticism with each new self.
“I think it makes you jaded, it makes you guarded, and I don’t ever want her to get like that,” Cyrus told radio host Elvis Duran in a radio podcast earlier this week. “Or your style or the way that you think because you want to please people. I really hope that she never feels those pressures and I hope other people respect her and don’t actually make her something she’s not.”