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Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century: No. 15 — Miley Cyrus
Miley Cyrus is our No. 15 Greatest Pop Star of the 21st Century for how she evolved along with her pop audience for 20 years.
On the title track, she made a point of explaining that she’d moved on from grinding on Teddy bears and straddling giant hot dogs — “No one stays the same … what goes up must come down” — and in the serene beachside music video for lead single “Malibu,” she appeared with her bleached hair symbolically growing out to reveal her natural brown roots. In 2023, years after it seemed Cyrus might never again score a smash as huge as “Wrecking Ball,” she circled back to a more straightforward pop sound on Endless Summer Vacation(via new label Columbia Records) and found runaway success with lead single “Flowers.” The Bruno Mars-echoing, Hemsworth-teasing track spent eight weeks at No. Her versatile talents are sought out by many in the industry, from Beyoncé on Cowboy Carter duet “II Most Wanted” to acclaimed indie studio A24 on a recent cover of Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer.” And the little girls she raised as Hannah Montana make up the next generation of stars, from Sabrina Carpenter — who at 10 years old won a fan contest to meet Miley — to Chappell Roan, whose fandom of the Disney Channel show inspired her own sparkly alter ego.
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