After stepping off a B stage into the middle of the stands at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday night, Miley Cyrus sat hunched over on the main stage, visibly exhausted from the 200-foot journey back into the spotlight. “You gave me so much energy, but you also took some energy away from me,” she said. “It’s a lot for me, if you could imagine walking from where I was through each of you and feeling how much passion and how much love each of you radiates to me. And I appreciate you so much. But it’s a lot for me and it’s a little overwhelming.”
It’s an admission that a seasoned pop star — one of our biggest and brightest, mind you — would rarely deign to make during her first big show in years. And yet it felt like the thesis of the first of two concerts Cyrus is giving in Los Angeles in support of her latest album “Bass Persuades,” a record with some brilliant moments but lacking the singular vision that has defined some of her strongest work. During the nearly two-hour set, Cyrus appeared at odds with the pressures of being a generational talent, proudly pursuing her muse with full-throated renditions of cooler, more opaque material while letting the audience carry the chants of her biggest hits. It was confusing, often bizarre and, ultimately, strangely entertaining, a snapshot of a megastar who, after all this time, is still figuring out what artist she wants to become.
It’s a thrill for anyone who’s followed Cyrus’ career since she became a Disney star with “Hannah Montana,” trying out different styles while navigating the mercurial sound of mainstream pop. She changes shape in an instant, chasing massive hits with pivots into deeply unconventional genres and sounds, starting with her reimagined 2013 era “Bangerz” and her subsequent global journey, her latest extensive tour. Since then, she’s remained prolific and expansive, moving from psych-pop (“Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz”) to glam rock (“Plastic Hearts”) and, perhaps not coincidentally, stumbling upon some massive hits along the way, with songs like “Wrecking Ball” and “Flowers” that she let the audience wear during the Bowl show.
On Friday night, Cyrus followed up her new material closely with tracks from “Bass Persuades” and a few from 2025’s wildly ambitious “Something Beautiful.” She performed so infrequently that nearly half the songs on the setlist were live debuts: In recent years, Cyrus has held just two fan-only shows in Los Angeles and Paris, appearances that bolstered her strengths as a performer without accounting for the pressures – interviews, TV appearances, shows at radio – which arise from it.
Yet Cyrus was quick to ground the series in her reality, a reality where she learned to balance her public and private life. “For someone who likes to keep life fun, who likes to jump out of planes and be spontaneous, doing the same thing your whole life can lose its luster if you don’t continue to give yourself that pressure and polish to create something beautiful, which is the life I live,” she said, leading into the title track of “Something Beautiful.”
For Cyrus, that meant pushing the boundaries of pop music and, by proxy, pop stardom. All bets were off when she opened with “Orbit,” a very languorous ballad about the magnetism of romance. The beat was already unpredictable, giving way to the zapping synth-pop of “Different Religion” (featuring and opening act Model/Actriz) and the fentanyl-rejecting “Bass Persuades.” She let her freak flag fly with Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne on the B stage for the band’s “Do You Realize??” and their collaboration “Karen Don’t Be Sad,” and strutted down the stageside catwalk for “Walk of Fame,” one of the most model-heavy songs in her discography.
Amid her thoughts on fame, she had a truly moving moment remembering her godmother Dolly Parton, recalling that the only time she had seen her perform was at the Bowl a few years ago. “Like so many things that Dolly did that I didn’t understand at the time, sitting here with you now, feeling her all around me, knowing that she’s here next to me every day, all the time, more than she could be when she was here, I feel her more than ever,” she said, holding back tears as she headed into a reprise of “Jolene.” “And knowing that I get to share this story with all of you makes this evening so worth it. This memory is gold to me. Me and Dolly are forever. Nothing in this life can ever tear us apart. And I’m going to see her again, and I can’t wait because I miss her.”
That’s where she felt most comfortable, belting out those familiar notes of “Jolene” like she had done so many times before. So it was odd that she largely held the mic toward the crowd for her biggest hits, “We Can’t Stop” and “Party in the USA,” where Coyne reappeared with a gigantic assortment of balloons that spelled out “Fuck Yeah Hollywood Bowl.” Cyrus seemed distant from these pieces, aware of the power they held over the crowd in attendance while recognizing that they had become so ingrained in the cultural fabric that they no longer belonged just to her.
Perhaps that’s why Cyrus’ first show at the Hollywood Bowl felt so possessive, so intrinsically tied to and eager to explore her recent eras. There were no traditional dance breaks or wild settings to accentuate the songs; here was Cyrus, 33, emerging from the other end of the success factory with the freedom to be who she was meant to be. Whether it’s satisfying is of little importance when, over two sold-out nights, 18,000 fans are still eagerly waiting to witness it.
Gn entert
