During a special Miley Cyrus concert airing on ABC on Thursday, the singer opened up about the controversial open letter she received from the late Sinead O’Connor a decade ago.
private, called Endless Summer Vacation: Ongoing (Backyard Sessions)featured performances by Cyrus along with an intimate interview in which she shared stories from the first 30 years of her life and discussed her music career along the way.
Then it came to the release of her hit song “Wrecking Ball” in 2013, which came along with a more mature post-Disney channel image and fell around the same time as her memorable – and many described as overly sexual – performance with Robin. Thicke and Pharrell Williams at the MTV Video Music Awards.
After Cyrus is mentioned in a Rolling Stone interview herWrecking Ball video. Inspired by O’Connor’s video of the 1990 classic film “Nothing compares to 2 yoO’Connor wrote an open letter to Cyrus which was initially posted on O’Connor’s website, and later Published by The Guardian newspaper.
“I expected there to be controversy and backlash,” Cyrus said Thursday of her new image and music at the time. “But I don’t think I expected other women to put me down or turn on me, especially women who’ve been in my position before.”
While the message was meant to be from a good, motherly place, some of the things O’Connor said certainly turned some heads. Such as criticizing Cyrus for being “undressed”, and with statements like, “The message you keep sending is that it’s kinda cool to be in prostitution”.
Cyrus responded negatively Literally when it first came out, but she had 10 years to think about it and learn more about O’Connor, who has spoken out a lot about her mental health issues.
“I had no idea what a fragile mental state she was in, and I was only 20, so I really couldn’t wrap myself around mental illness much,” Cyrus said. “And all I saw was that another woman told me that this idea was not mine. And even if I was convinced of it, it was still only an idea of me by men in power. And they manipulated me into thinking that it was my own idea, when in fact it was not. Reality. He was. He is. And I still love him.”
O’Connor was found dead in her London home in July this year at the age of 56. The cause of death was not mentioned.
Cyrus went on to say that the letter came at a bad time when there were so many things going on with her overall life transformation.
“I think I had been judged for so long on my choices that I was exhausted. And I was in this place where I was finally making my own choices and decisions. Having that taken away from me upset me deeply,” she said, before adding later. “God bless Sinead.” O’Connor really, in all seriousness.”
The special then cuts to a performance of “Wonder Woman” from Cyrus’ latest album Endless summer vacationwith text on the screen saying it was “customized” for O’Connor.
Endless Summer Vacation: Ongoing (Backyard Sessions) aired on thursday on ABC.