For nearly a decade, Miley Cyrus has been on an endless summer vacation from arena tours.
Although the “Flowers” singer has continued to perform live in recent years, her most recent full arena tour came in 2014, when she went out on her Bangerz tour to support her album of the same name. She has since played only festivals and brief album tours with five to eight performances, including a weeklong stint on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” in 2017.
In a recent cover-story interview with British Vogue, Cyrus explained why she has been leery of arena tours, despite her chart-topping hits and impassioned fan base.
“Like singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love,” the former Disney Channel star said. “There’s no connection. There’s no safety.”
Cyrus, who commands a following of more than 200 million users on Instagram, said she’s grateful for her fans, but added that it’s “not natural” trying to please thousands of people. She called the transition from being in front of 100,000 people to being alone afterward “isolating.”
Cyrus’ last headlining arena tour in 2014 spanned nine months and saw her traveling to three continents for 78 shows, including a stop at Los Angeles’ Cypto.com Arena, then known as Staples Center. Packed with hits such as “Wrecking Ball” and “We Can’t Stop” and a lot of twerking, the Bangerz tour amassed ticket sales of more than $60 million. Yet it was then that Cyrus started to rethink touring.
”Do I want to live my life for anyone else’s pleasure or fulfillment other than my own?,” she started wondering.
Turns out she prefers a more steady life in L.A. with family and friends. Cyrus said she journals frequently and shared one recent entry that said, “I make choices that I’m proud of that protect me.”
“I put my mental and physical health before a paycheck …,” the entry continued. “I freed up space for myself to be with friends and family doing what I love, which is working out, eating well, learning ways about how to enhance my life, staying dedicated to practices and protocols that are specifically designed for me.”
Her most recent album, “Endless Summer Vacation” was released this past March and draws heavily from her split with actor Liam Hemsworth. Cyrus and Hemsworth married in 2018 after dating on and off for about a decade. But after seven months, the pair filed for divorce, which was finalized in 2020.
“I wouldn’t erase my story or want it to be erased,” she said, referring to her relationship with the “Hunger Games” actor. “Having an interesting life makes for interesting storytelling,”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
