Miley Cyrus’s most startling pop-culture images—a wrecking ball, a sledgehammer, an oversized inflatable hot dog—were staged music-video and concert moments, not clues to her private life. They make more sense as part of a career that began with Hannah Montana, then repeatedly tested how far Cyrus could move beyond the character that made her famous.
How Hannah Montana made Miley Cyrus a star
Born in Franklin, Tennessee, Cyrus began acting as a child and auditioned for Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana at 13. She played Miley Stewart, a teenager who secretly lived as pop star Hannah Montana. The series ran from 2006 to 2011, giving Cyrus an unusually broad platform as both an actor and a performer.
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D23 says the series averaged 4.4 million viewers per episode, and a 2007 episode drew 10.7 million viewers. Those are figures reported by D23; its claims about the show’s ratings records describe the period when its biography was written, not a current all-time ranking. D23’s Cyrus biography traces the franchise’s place in her early career.
She began building a solo identity before the show ended
Cyrus’s transition was not a clean break after Hannah Montana. The 2007 release Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus paired franchise soundtrack material with songs credited to Cyrus, including “See You Again.” Her solo album Breakout followed in 2008, and “Party in the U.S.A.” became a signature hit in 2009. The groundwork for a separate pop identity was already visible while the series was still on the air.
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Why the Bangerz era drew such a reaction
In 2013, the album Bangerz and the single “We Can’t Stop” announced a sharp break from the polished teen-pop image associated with the Disney years. The era supplied several of the “bizarre” moments most often attached to Cyrus: she licked a sledgehammer in the “Wrecking Ball” video, rode a wrecking ball in that video, brought a giant inflatable hot dog into her touring show, and performed with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
These were public, deliberately staged video and performance choices. The VMA appearance became controversial and prompted extensive commentary; criticism also focused on the era’s use of hip-hop and Black cultural forms. That criticism is part of the public reception of the performances, not proof of Cyrus’s private intentions. Treating the imagery as a career strategy and a cultural flashpoint is more useful than turning spectacle into gossip.
From experimental pop to glam rock and beyond
Cyrus did not follow the Bangerz break with a single, steady move toward conventional pop. In 2015, she initially released Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz independently, an offbeat, psychedelic-pop project that contrasted with the highly visible commercial pop of Bangerz. Both records departed from the franchise’s teen-pop associations, but they did so differently: one became a major public pop era, while the other pursued a more experimental route.
Later releases continued to shift the sound. Plastic Hearts (2020) drew on glam rock; Endless Summer Vacation arrived in 2023; and Something Beautiful, her ninth studio album, followed in 2025. The Associated Press described the 2025 album as drawing on pop, rock, electronic music, disco, and funk. The sequence is less a straight line than a series of changing musical and visual choices.
When the Grammys recognized her work
“Flowers,” from Endless Summer Vacation, won Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2024 Grammy Awards. They were Cyrus’s first two Grammy wins. The Recording Academy’s artist page currently lists three wins and ten nominations, including a 2025 Best Country Duo/Group Performance win for “II MOST WANTED,” her collaboration with Beyoncé. It also lists a 2026 nomination for Something Beautiful. Because award totals can change, the live Recording Academy artist record is the reference for the current tally.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How Cyrus looks back at Hannah Montana
The franchise remains more than a launching pad in Cyrus’s account of her career. In a 2024 interview cited by Disney, she said: “Hannah Montana is the beginning for everything that I’ve been able to become — the person that I’ve been able become. She is such a part of me and taught me everything that I know.” Her words present the character as foundational, even as her subsequent work repeatedly established identities beyond it.
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That relationship was visible again during the series’ 20th-anniversary period. Disney’s March 19, 2026 article said the anniversary special streamed on Disney+ and Hulu and reported that Hannah Montana had accumulated more than half a billion hours streamed globally on Disney+ “to date.” That is Disney’s own reported cumulative figure, not an independently audited measurement. The company also listed the series, movie, and concert film in its Disney+ collection; streaming availability can vary by territory and date.
An Associated Press report from March 2026 described the special as featuring archival material, musical numbers, cast and family appearances, and an interview with Cyrus hosted by Alex Cooper. At the premiere, Cyrus reflected on seeing the franchise as an adult: “Getting to be on the outside now, getting to be grown and be a part of it in a way that I couldn’t when I was in the middle of it before, and all the chaos and the schedule and the performing of it all,” she said, “now it just gets to be a celebration. So it is a new perspective. I love that.” The anniversary offered a different vantage point on the role that launched her public career: not a past to erase, but a beginning she can revisit on her own terms.
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