Miley Cyrus actually can stop. Despite the name of her chart-topping single, “We Can’t Stop,” the songstress has opened up about taking a break from live tours.
“It’s been a minute,” the “Flowers” singer, 30, said of her multiyear hiatus during her British Vogue cover story, which was published on Thursday, May 18. “After the last [arena] show I did, I kind of looked at it as more of a question. And I can’t. Not only ‘can’t’ because can’t is your capability, but my desire.”
She added: “Do I want to live my life for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own? And, you know what…”
Cyrus — who last headlined a concert tour in 2014 — revealed that she wasn’t sure if she could hit the road in the foreseeable future. The former child star even noted that the “traditional” cycle of recording an album, going on tours and releasing strategic collaborations “hold little interest” anymore as she’d rather produce works of substance.
Miley Cyrus performs during the Tik Tok Tailgate party prior to Super Bowl LV in Tampa on February 7, 2021. John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock (
“I wouldn’t erase my story or want it to be erased,” Cyrus told British Vogue. “Having an interesting life makes for interesting storytelling.”
She continued: “One thing I wouldn’t want this story to become is a complaint of being a woman in the industry. I don’t need this to be a women’s empowerment story. I wear my empowerment at all times. I don’t need to profess it.”
Cyrus rose to fame as the title character on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana upon its 2006 premiere. As the show grew in popularity, so did the Tennessee native. Following her TV success (and fictionalized pop career), Cyrus started making music under her own name. Her latest album, Endless Summer Vacation, dropped in 2022. The new LP features a hit song called “Flowers,” which seemingly refers to her 2019 split from ex-husband Liam Hemsworth.
“I never need to be a master at the craft of tricking an audience,” the “Midnight Sky” musician told the magazine when asked about the song’s similarities to her breakup. “It will set itself on fire all by itself. … I wrote it in a really different way. The chorus was originally: ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love me better than you can.’ It used to be more, like, 1950s. The saddest song. Like: ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better.’ The song is a little fake it till you make it, which I’m a big fan of.”
Cyrus and the 33-year-old Australia native, who met on the set of their 2010 film The Last Song, finalized their divorce in January 2020. The Disney Channel alum has since moved on with Maxx Morando, while Hemsworth found love with Gabriella Brooks.
