| Name | Miley Cyrus |
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| Background | solo_singer |
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| Birth name | Destiny Hope Cyrus |
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| Born | November 23, 1992 |
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| Origin | Nashville, Tennessee,United States pop rock, teen pop, country pop, electropop, dance pop |
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| Occupation | Actress, author, entrepreneur, fashion designer, singer, songwriter, musician, dancer |
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| Years active | 2001–present |
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| Label | Hollywood, Fascination (UK), Avex (Japan) |
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| Associated acts | Jonas Brothers, Billy Ray Cyrus |
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| Url | |
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Miley Ray Cyrus (born
Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer. She achieved wide fame for her role as
Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the
Disney Channel sitcom
Hannah Montana.
Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks,
Hannah Montana (2006) and
Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), released by
Walt Disney Records. With the success of the
Hannah Montana franchise she established herself as a
teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to
Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She went on the
Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film entitled
(2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album,
Breakout (2008), which was commercially successful.
She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film Bolt (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of Bolts theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in (2009). The introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.
She began to cultivate an adult image in 2009 with the release of The Time of Our Lives (2009), an extended play which presented a more mainstream pop sound, and by filming The Last Song (2010), a coming-of-age drama film. The former included Cyrus's best-selling single, "Party in the U.S.A." (2009). A studio album titled Can't Be Tamed was released in 2010 and presents a new dance-pop sound. The music video and lyrics of the album's lead single, "Can't Be Tamed", portrays a more sexualized image for the entertainer. Cyrus ranked number thirteen on Forbes 2010 Celebrity 100.
Early life
Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in
Nashville, Tennessee to Leticia "Tish" (
née Finley) and country singer
Billy Ray Cyrus. Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things with her life. They gave her the nickname "Smiley", which was later shortened to "Miley", because she smiled so often as a baby. Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing
tachycardia which, though not dangerous, is often bothersome.
Against the wishes of her father's record company, Cyrus's parents secretly married a month after Cyrus's birth on December 28, 1992. She has a half-brother, Christopher Cody, Billy Ray's son from a brief relationship, born the same year as Miley; he grew up with his mother in South Carolina. Tish and Billy Ray had two more children, Braison and Noah. Cyrus's godmother is entertainer Dolly Parton. Cyrus was very close to her paternal grandfather, Democratic politician Ronald Ray Cyrus. Cyrus has paid her grandfather several tributes since his death in 2006, including eventually changing her middle name to "Ray". According to Cyrus's father, "A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces." and attended Heritage Elementary School. She was raised Christian and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church prior to moving to Hollywood in 2005. She attended church regularly while growing up and wore a purity ring. Cyrus would not seriously consider acting until she was eight. Several of Cyrus's siblings also eventually entered the entertainment business: Trace became a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station, Noah became an actress, and Brandi became a guitarist.
Career
2001–05: Early work
In 2001, when Cyrus was eight, she and her family moved to
Toronto, Canada while her father filmed the television series
Doc. Cyrus said watching her father film the show inspired her to pursue acting. After Billy Ray took her to see a 2001
Mirvish production of
Mamma Mia! at the
Royal Alexandra Theatre, Cyrus grabbed his arm and told him, "This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress." She began taking singing and acting classes at the Armstrong Acting Studio in Toronto. In her first role, Cyrus played a girl named Kylie on
Doc. After sending in a new tape and flying to Hollywood for further auditions, However, her persistence and ability to sing in addition to act led the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Cyrus eventually received the lead, renamed "
Miley Stewart" after herself, at the age of twelve.
As Cyrus's career took off, Tish Cyrus made several critical decisions regarding her daughter's representation. She signed Cyrus with Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty. Gossett, who specializes in creating child stars, had arranged for Cyrus's auditions for Hannah Montana and is credited with "discovering" her. For Cyrus's music career, Tish followed the advice of Dolly Parton, Cyrus's godmother and a singer herself, and signed Cyrus with Jason Morey of Morey Management Group. "Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter," Tish Cyrus recalls, "and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business." Tish also recruited Billy Ray's business manager to manage her daughter's finances. Tish herself continues to co-manage or produce many of Cyrus's career decisions. and studied with a private tutor on the set of her television show.
2006–07: Hannah Montana and Meet Miley Cyrus
.]]
Hannah Montana became an instant hit and propelled Cyrus to
teen idol status, according to
The Daily Telegraph. The series premiered on March 26, 2006 to the largest audience ever for a Disney Channel show and soon became one of the highest-rated series on basic cable, elevating Cyrus's wealth and fame along with it.
Time magazine reports that Cyrus's "phenom[enal]" success is due partially to her talent and partially to "Disney learning to use its vast, multimedia holdings" and market Cyrus and
Hannah Montana appropriately. Cyrus eventually became the first artist to have deals in television, film, consumer products, and music within
The Walt Disney Company. "The Best of Both Worlds" is credited to "Hannah Montana", the pop star Cyrus portrays on the series by the same name. As with other songs credited to Montana, Cyrus typically dressed as the character when performing the song live. Cyrus's first release under her own name was a cover of
James Baskett's "
Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", released on April 4, 2006 on the
fourth edition of
DisneyMania. Dressed as Hannah Montana, Cyrus opened for
The Cheetah Girls on twenty dates of their
The Party's Just Begun Tour, beginning on September 15, 2006. On October 24 of same year,
Walt Disney Records released the first
Hannah Montana soundtrack. Of the nine tracks on the soundtrack performed by Cyrus, eight were credited to "Hannah Montana" and one, a duet with her father titled "
I Learned from You", was credited to Cyrus as herself. The album peaked at number one on the U.S.
Billboard 200 chart.
The second season of Hannah Montana premiered on April 23, 2007, and ran until October 12, 2008. Cyrus signed a four-album deal with Disney-owned Hollywood Records and, on June 26, 2007, released a double-disc album. The first disc was the soundtrack to the second season of Hannah Montana, while the second, titled Meet Miley Cyrus, was Cyrus's debut album credited to her own name. The double-disc album peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and was later certified three times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Meet Miley Cyrus generated "See You Again", Cyrus's first single to be released under her own name and her first top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100. In Fall 2007, Cyrus launched her first tour, the Best of Both Worlds Tour, to promote Meet Miley Cyrus and the Hannah Montana soundtracks. With the Jonas Brothers, Aly & AJ, and Everlife as her opening acts, Cyrus toured from October 17, 2007 to January 31, 2008 with stops in the U.S. and Canada. Tickets sold out in minutes and were scalped for up to $2,500 and an average of $214, well above their $26–$65 face value. A Ticketmaster official commented, "Hell hath no fury like the parent of a child throwing a tantrum. People who have been in this business for a long time are watching what's happening, and they say there hasn't been a demand of this level or intensity since The Beatles or Elvis."
2008–09: Breakout, transitions and film career launch
After the end of the
Best of Both Worlds Tour in January 2008,
Walt Disney Pictures released
, a 3D concert film of the tour, on February 1, 2008 for what was expected to be a one-week run. The film earned $29 million at the box-office and an average of $42,000 per theater, twice the expected total, convincing Disney executives to extend the release for an indefinite run. "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," said Chuck Viane, Disney's chief of distribution. The was released by Walt Disney Records/Hollywood Records on March 11, 2008 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.
On July 22, 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album under her own name, entitled Breakout. Cyrus said Breakout was inspired by "what's been going on in my life in the past year." Cyrus co-wrote eight out of twelve songs on the album. The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and its lead single, "7 Things", peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. She hosted the 2008 CMT Music Awards with her father in April and the 2008 Teen Choice Awards by herself in August. Cyrus provided the voice of Penny in the 2008 computer-animated film Bolt, which was released on November 21, 2008 to critical acclaim. Cyrus also co-wrote and recorded the song "I Thought I Lost You" as a duet with John Travolta for the film, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In September 2009, she participated in the charity single "Just Stand Up!" in support of the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer and in the City of Hope Benefit Concert in support of cancer research and training programs. She also became involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an environmentalist group, for which she recorded the charity single "Send It On" along with several other Disney Channel stars.
Cyrus had already begun transitioning to a more grown-up image in late 2008, when her representatives negotiated a deal for novelist Nicholas Sparks to write the screenplay and novel basis for a film that would serve as a star vehicle for Cyrus by introducing her to audiences older than the young fans she had gained through Hannah Montana. Sparks and co-writer Jeff Van Wie developed The Last Song. In March 2009, Cyrus published Miles To Go, a memoir co-written by Hilary Liftin chronicling her life through age sixteen. Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in , released April 10, 2009. Both the film and its soundtrack, which contained twelve songs performed by Cyrus, achieved commercial success. The soundtrack's lead single, "The Climb", became a Top 40 hit in twelve countries and introduced Cyrus to listeners outside her typical teen pop audience. Cyrus had considered ending Hannah Montana after its third season, which finished production on June 5, 2009, but Disney retained and exercised its option for a fourth season.
Production on The Last Song lasted from June 15, 2009 to August 18, 2009. In between, Cyrus launched the third Hannah Montana soundtrack, recorded the extended play The Time of Our Lives, and released the EP's lead single, "Party in the U.S.A." Cyrus said The Time of Our Lives "is a transitioning album. [...] really to introduce people to what I want my next record to sound like and with time I will be able to do that a little more." "Party in the U.S.A." debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for her best-ever ranking on the chart. The Time of Our Lives was released in conjunction with a clothing line co-designed by Cyrus and Max Azria for Walmart.
From September 14, 2009 to December 29, 2010, Cyrus toured on her Wonder World Tour to promote Breakout and The Time of Our Lives. On December 7, 2009, Cyrus performed for Queen Elizabeth II and numerous other members of the British Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, North West England.
2010–present: Can't Be Tamed and focus on film career
Production on the fourth and final season of
Hannah Montana began on January 18, 2010. In the aftermath of the
2010 Haiti earthquake, Cyrus appeared on the charity singles "" and "
Everybody Hurts". Her third studio album,
Can't Be Tamed, was released on June 21, 2010. The album's first single is the title track, "
Can't Be Tamed". The single was released for sale on May 18, 2010 and entered the
Billboard Hot 100 at number eight. Cyrus's costumes and dances while promoting
Can't Be Tamed were also considerably more provocative than previous performances, arousing media criticism. After releasing the album, Cyrus intends to take a break from the music industry in order to focus on her film career. She commented, "I've not taken, like, acting lessons or anything, but it doesn't mean I don't need to because I'm sure I do [...] I'm probably going to go book an acting coach." Cyrus has also decided to opt out of college for the same reason, saying "I'm a firm believer that you can go back at any age you want, because my Grandma went back to college at 62 [...] For right now, I really want to focus on my career. I've worked hard to get to where I am now, and I want to enjoy it while it lasts."
Cyrus starred in The Last Song, which was released on March 31, 2010, and received generally poor reviews, as did Cyrus's performance. Nonetheless, the film was commercially successful, grossing more than $88 million at the worldwide box office. According to box-office analyst Exhibitor Relations, the film marked "a successful transition to adult roles for Miley Cyrus."
The fourth and final season of Hannah Montana began airing on Disney Channel on July 11, 2010 and is scheduled to end in 2011.
As of December 2010, Cyrus is set to star in two more films, and So Undercover. In LOL, a remake of a 2008 French teen comedy, Cyrus plays "a daughter who is involved with all the wrong kids, doing drugs, failing school, but [...whose] mother has her on this perfect pedestal" and says "[She] just fell in love with the story." Miley's character loses her virginity, smokes cannabis, gets wasted and kisses two girlfriends on the lips. She will also star in So Undercover, an action comedy film. Cyrus will play the part of "a tough, street-smart private eye hired by the FBI to go undercover in a college sorority." She will learn street fighting for the role. Parade magazine reported she was the richest teenage celebrity and that her franchise would be worth approximately $1 billion by the end of the year. With Cyrus's increased success came increased media attention. In a May 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, said Cyrus's market value had picked up considerably after the Vanity Fair photo controversy: "She's started to sell more. [...] It used to be $300, and now it's $2,000 for a picture." Estimates for a picture of the then-15 year old's first kiss ranged from $30,000 to $150,000.
Cyrus celebrated her 16th birthday at Disneyland with a charity fundraiser for Youth Service America, a youth volunteer service organization.
At the end of 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Cyrus the fourth best-selling female artist and the fifth best-selling singer overall. Forbes ranked her #29 on the Celebrity 100 and reported she had earned a total of $25 million.
On October 8, 2009, Cyrus deleted her account on the social networking site Twitter, citing a desire for more privacy. She also told Parade magazine, "I deleted my Twitter account because I said on there that I believed in gay marriage because everyone should have the right to love each other, and I got such hate mail about my being a bad person." Cyrus was very popular on the site: her account was watched by approximately 2 million Twitter users in addition to the general public at the time of deletion.
On October 26, 2010, less than a month before Cyrus's eighteenth birthday, her father Billy Ray Cyrus filed for divorce from her mother in Tennessee, citing irreconcilable differences. In a statement made to People the next day announcing the split, the couple said, "As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for our family... We are trying to work through some personal matters. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers."
Controversies
In December 2007, a brief controversy emerged when photos Cyrus had posted on her private
MySpace account, depicting her and a female friend sharing a piece of licorice, were spread across the internet. "For me, I was like, That's two girls—it's not a big deal. But they got spread around. Like someone copied and pasted and said, Omigod, look at this, and blah blah blah," said Cyrus.
In April 2008, several provocative images of Cyrus in her underwear and swimsuit were leaked onto the web by a teenager who hacked Cyrus's Gmail account. Cyrus described the images as "silly, inappropriate shots" and stated, "I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone." On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program Entertainment Tonight reported that Cyrus, then 15, had posed topless for a photoshoot taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. On April 29, 2008, The New York Times clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless. Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, was quoted by Portfolio magazine to have said, “For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back."
In May 2008, Gossett, Cyrus's longtime acting agent, left Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for United Talent Agency, partially with the hope of "giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career", according to The Hollywood Reporter. About a year later in June 2009, Cyrus left both Gossett and UTA, which had recently negotiated her deals for The Last Song and the fourth season of Hannah Montana, and joined the Creative Artists Agency, which had already represented her for music. Nikki Finke, who broke the news, reported, "Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish Cyrus".
Cyrus's performance of "Party in the U.S.A." at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards incited a media uproar, with some viewers criticizing Cyrus's provocative outfit and inclusion of a brief pole dance as inappropriate for her age, then sixteen, and for her young fans. Conversely, Newsday reported that her sexualization "has been coming for some time." Cyrus was also criticized that year for dating Gaston, five years her senior, and for a photo displaying Cyrus and friends making "slant-eyed" expressions, which the Organization of Chinese Americans claimed was offensive to the Asian community. Cyrus apologized for the photo on her website, defending her actions and saying, "In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was simply making a goofy face."
Later in 2010, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, then 16, giving Adam Shankman, producer of The Last Song, a lap dance at the film's wrap party. Cyrus's father defended her actions, saying Miley was just "having fun" and that "it's what people her age do". Later that year in December, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, which took place five days after her 18th birthday at her Los Angeles home, in which she is seen smoking from a bong. She claimed she was smoking the psychoactive plant salvia divinorum, although this has not been confirmed by anybody but Cyrus herself. Salvia is legal in the state of California, and Cyrus was of legal age at the time the video was shot. Cyrus's father expressed his sadness regarding the matter on Twitter, saying, "Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. Im so sad. There is much beyond my control right now".
Relationships
Cyrus told
Seventeen magazine that she and
Nick Jonas had dated for two years and "were in love", but were "fighting a lot" by the end.
In February 2008, Cyrus and her friend opened a
YouTube account and began posting videos of what they called
The Miley and Mandy Show. The show, described as a "YouTube hit," is said to be filmed for fun by Cyrus and Jiroux and to be entirely their work, with Cyrus and Jiroux editing the footage together.
In June 2009, Cyrus ended her nine month relationship with model Justin Gaston shortly before flying to Georgia to film The Last Song. While filming later that month, Cyrus began dating her co-star in The Last Song, Australian actor Liam Hemsworth. She later called him her "first serious boyfriend". In August 2010, it was confirmed that her relationship with Hemsworth had ended. Cyrus and Hemsworth were seen together a month later, and were reportedly back together. It was announced in early November that the couple had split again.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Films
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2003
|
Big Fish
| Young Ruthie
|
|-
| 2007
|
High School Musical 2
| Girl at pool
|
Disney Channel Original Movie
|-
| 2008
|
| Herself
| 3D Concert film
|-
| 2008
|
Bolt
| Penny (voice)
|
|-
| 2009
|
|
Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana
|
|-
| 2010
|
| Veronica "Ronnie" Miller
|
|-
| 2010
|
Sex and the City 2
| Herself
| Cameo
|-
| 2011
|
| Lola
| Remake of French film
|-
| 2011
|
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
| Herself
| Cameo
|-
| 2011
|
So Undercover
| Molly
|
Filming
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Television
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 2001–2003
| Doc
| Kylie
| Recurring role
|-
| 2006– 2011
| Hannah Montana
| Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana
| Lead role
|-
| 2006
| The Suite Life of Zack & Cody
| Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana
| "That's So Suite Life of Hannah Montana" (Season 2, Episode 20)
|-
| 2007
|
| Celebrity Star (voice)
| "Frog Prince" (Season 2, Episode 5)
|-
| 2007–2008
|
| Yata (voice)
| Recurring role
|-
| 2009
|
| Miley Stewart / Hannah Montana
| "Double-Crossed" (Season 1, Episode 21)
|}
Discography
Albums
Meet Miley Cyrus (2007)
Breakout (2008)
Can't Be Tamed (2010)
EP's
The Time Of Our Lives (2009)
Live Albums
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008)
iTunes live from London (2009)
Hannah Montana Albums
Hannah Montana (2006)
Hannah Montana 2 (2007)
(2009)
Hannah Montana 3 (2009)
Hannah Montana Forever (2010)
Tours
Best of Both Worlds Tour (2007–08)
Wonder World Tour (2009)
Awards and nominations
List of awards and nominations received by Miley Cyrus
References
Further reading
External links
}}
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
Category:1992 births
Category:2000s singers
Category:2010s singers
Category:Actors from Tennessee
Category:American child actors
Category:American child singers
Category:American Christians
Category:American female singers
Category:American film actors
Category:American pop singers
Category:American singer-songwriters
Category:American television actors
Category:American voice actors
Category:Bubblegum pop
Category:Fascination Records artists
Category:Hollywood Records artists
Category:Living people
Category:Miley Cyrus
Category:Musicians from Tennessee
Category:People from Franklin, Tennessee
Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:Southern Baptists
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![A traditional red and blue striped pole located outside a barber shop. The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting.[1] During medieval times, barbers performed surgery on customers as well as tooth extractions.](http://web.archive.org./web/20110618044115im_/http://cdn.wn.com/pd/4d/e1/f864acaa14095266b8ccb0bcb0bb_thumb.jpg "A traditional red and blue striped pole located outside a barber shop. The origin of the barber pole is associated with the service of bloodletting.[1] During medieval times, barbers performed surgery on customers as well as tooth extractions.")
