In 2013, Miley Cyrus released her hit song “Wrecking Ball” and it became one of her biggest hits to date. And although the lyrics of the song were catchy and gut-wrenching by themselves, the music video of the song took its success to another level as Cyrus fully stripped in the video, which caused shockwaves all around the world.
Now, years after the song became a classic, the singer is opening up about the song, and all the nasty feedback that followed. “So at the time when I made ‘Wrecking Ball,’ I was expecting for there to be controversy and backlash, but I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women that had been in my position before,” Cyrus said in the ABC special Endless Summer Vacation: Continued (Backyard Sessions), which premiered on Aug 24, per Daily Mail.
Cyrus then revealed that the late singer Sinead O’Connor, who passed away last month, wrote her a letter at the time. “So this is when I had received an open letter from Sinéad O’Connor, and I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in,” Cyrus said of the Irish singer. “And I was also only 20 years old. So I could really only wrap my head around mental illness so much. And all that I saw was that another woman had told me that this idea was not my idea.”
“And even if I was convinced that it was, it was still just, you know, men in power’s idea of me,” Cyrus remembered of O’Connor’s letter. “And they had manipulated me to believe that it was my own idea when it never really was.”
Although that might’ve been O’Connor’s message, Cyrus said that was far from the truth. “It was [my idea],” she said. “And it is. And I still love it.”
As a reminder, in between scenes of Cyrus swinging nude on a wrecking ball, the music video also had a closeup scene of Cyrus singing and crying straight to the camera. At the time, it was compared to O’Connor’s very own music video to her song “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
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For Cyrus, O’Connor’s letter joined a series of critics at the time who couldn’t understand Cyrus’ artistic vision. “I think I had just been judged for so long for my own choices that I was just exhausted,” she added. “And I was in this place where I finally was making my own choices and my own decisions. And to have that taken away from me deeply upset me.”
Overall, however, it seems like Cyrus had no bad blood for the singer. “God bless Sinéad O’Connor for real, in all seriousness,” she added.
Per Daily Mail, Cyrus then took the stage to perform a song and a text over her read, “Dedicated to Sinéad O’Connor.”
Although we can relate Cyrus’ frustration at the time, we can also understand that O’Connor’s letter was just a female artist looking out for another in the industry. Kudos to Cyrus for not holding that grudge.
Before you go, click here for more documentaries about strong women in music.
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