“Flowers” is Miley’s ultimate comeback after many years of struggling with her relationship with Liam Hemsworth.
Miley Cyrus is one of the few successful child stars from Disney back in the day. She has worked on artistic endeavors since young and spent more than half of her life in the public eye, with both personal life and relationship stories all over the newspaper. As she grew older, Miley went through a major transformation into a bold and rebellious image. Along with her “rebels” were the turbulent romance that came from Liam Hemsworth.
With each new cycle of breakup, reunion and marriage, Miley miraculously gives birth to a new “life work.” With “Flowers” as the “payback” song, Miley walks powerful steps back into the music industry with new records to break.
From “Hannah Montana” to a Pop star: A struggling music career during the time with her ex-husband
Daughter to the famous country music Billy Ray Cyrus, the gate to the industry was readily open for her. Nonetheless, she did not debut directly into the music field but showcased her musical talent through the hit series “Hannah Montana,” through which her on-screen life became her real life. The singer-actress went on tour and became the star of millions of fans. However, as a consequence, she was boxed into a stereotype and had to make great effort to overcome the shadow of her early success.
The singer also started dating Liam Hemsworth in 2009 and had 10 years of ups and downs when they were deeply in love, went through temporary separation, long-awaited union that led to marriage yet ended up in eventual separation. The exposure of personal and private life for public consumption cost her mental well-being greatly. The period with Liam was the “dark days” for Miley and her career.
“Bangerz” released in 2013 was one of Miley’s shiniest milestones, where the series of hits such as “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball” were, ironically, made during the time Liam canceled the wedding that led to Miley’s extreme mental instability. Within the three years period from 2015 to 2018, the works released by Miley could not produce as good an effect as it was.
In 2016, Miley went for the role of a coach at “The Voice” and released “Malibu” in 2017. She was more reserved and quiet about her private life due to the marriage.
As peaceful as life could be when she was with Liam, Miley was not afraid to literally wreck everything when the singer went through the post-breakup days. In VMAs 2013, Miley was under heavy fire when she stripped off her “Disney princess” stereotype and gave a shocking performance as if to avenge her ex. “Wrecking Ball” was released during that time.
The shockingly raw imagery of Miley on a wrecking ball or swinging a hammer was a way the singer showed she was living for herself and not anyone else. And the song was among the greatest hits of 2013 that reached 100 million views in the fastest time. She earned “Video of the Year” at the “2014 VMAs” and No.1 on the “Billboard Hot 100” with 2 million copies sold, despite the controversial content.
In 2019, Miley divorced Liam and she spent the following two years to heal herself. The album “She Is Coming,” unfortunately, received a low review on Pitchfork with only 4.6/10 score with a comment: ““Unholy” is a book-report summary of “We Can’t Stop”; “Mother’s Daughter” is like Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish” and “Dark Horse” cooked together with a sprinkle of heartland corn.”
Classic-rock-influenced “Plastic Hearts” in 2020 also gained little popularity but all seemed to prepare for the ultimate comeback in January 13th, 2023, titled “Flowers.” The song was released on Liam’s birthday and a strong affirmation of her moving forward.
Career revival with “Flowers”
“Flowers” did not take long to dominate music streaming platforms. The song surpassed Adele’s “Easy On Me” and became the fastest song to receive 100 million streams in 7 days and 28 days to achieve 400 millions on Spotify. She achieved 84,7 million monthly listeners, breaking Taylor Swift’s record. She made a Guinness record with the top 3 most streamed tracks in one week.
The song was a “hat-off” to the struggle she has been through and was ready to move forward. She allowed herself to be broken and to feel the pain. Yet, in the end, she chose to stand up and do everything for herself without needing a man, as the lyrics of “Flowers” read, “I can buy myself flowers. Write my name in the sand.”
With the release of the song, fans were proud of the actress for overcoming the pain of breakup and dealing with severe mental illness.
She also caused a stir with the golden lamé from the Autumn-Winter collection of 1991/92 from Saint Laurent for her M/V. She showed that she has matured and that she was ready to walk out of the storm. This way, Miley has revived her music career and welcomed much praise both from the public and the critics.
Source: k14
