Whenever people think about Miley Cyrus’s long music career, they are often surprised that this girl is only in her early 30s. I also do not understand how Miley can stand firm like that for so many years in the face of all the pressure around her. Those are the giant shadows ready to collapse, from the successful role from the time she was in the Disney club, the famous and infamous artist father, and the statements and images full of freedom and not hesitating to show her reckless rebellion. The press is always waiting for this girl to fail. And that is why I still listen to her music from time to time, although it is difficult to say that I like this music. But there are definitely products that always make me curious, those are the songs that are combined with other artists. Sometimes they are duets with someone on the album, or sometimes they are just impromptu combinations on stage with someone in a cover.

But whether we like it or not, one thing is certain, mortals can see that Miley Cyrus’s singing voice has been deteriorating over time. Some sources say it’s because she had to have throat surgery due to Reinke’s edema. Others say her voice is affected by post-traumatic stress disorder caused by a house fire – the house she shared with her then-lover Liam Hemsworth. Some say it’s simply because Miley Cyrus went on tour at such a young age, when she was only 12 or 13, so all those years of stimulants and partying were enough to destroy her vocal cords.

Even with easy-to-sing hits like “The Climb,” Miley often hits C#5, which isn’t too high a note for a female singer. If Miley could hit that note easily in previous performances (early 2010s), it would be a huge effort now.

That’s not even mentioning the higher notes Miley has hit like D#5 in “Party In the USA” or even F#5 in “We Can’t Stop”.

Of course, she can use studio tricks to make her voice higher – perhaps surprisingly for Miley Cyrus – but she doesn’t try to use studio tricks or Autotune at all costs. Perhaps in part because Miley wants to give her all in her live performances, there’s no point in pushing herself too hard in the studio and making her performance difficult. A plus.

So Miley Cyrus has had to find ways to overcome her vocal limitations, sometimes by creating music with more complex harmonic progressions than conventional pop music, combining bass lines with melodies that complement the vocals, and choosing instruments that play along to open up her “middle” range. For example, on her latest album Endless Summer Vacation (2023), without the need for overly high notes, Miley’s husky voice actually has a lot of emotion and soul in it.

And there’s one way Miley Cyrus does it even better: she uses a second vocalist to create some of the most listenable duets on her albums. This is especially useful when the duet partner can provide the high notes or the high-pitched melodies. But unlike your average pop duet, Miley’s use of her duet partner’s voice is more like that of a rapper.

And this seems to add an interesting plus point to this young girl’s music.

Whether you’ve heard of Miley Cyrus’s music or not, you know that she became famous for her role in the hit Disney series Hannah Montana . The film is about a country singer born into a family with an artist father (played by Miley’s father, Billy Ray Cyrus ), who has to juggle her studies and life as a high school student, while also living the nightlife of a famous singer with the stage name Hanna Montanah.

Miley Cyrus is also a rare artist who can break away from the overwhelming pressure of being a child artist from Disney training school, to become an independent artist. To do that, it seems that this girl’s development path is quite special.

While Miley Cyrus’s first few albums still stuck to her Country Pop forte and “followed” the Hannah Montana movie with easy-to-listen-to, easy-to-sing songs written by others, Miley Cyrus suddenly changed with the album Bangerz (2013) and completely shed the image of a Country singer with a gentle smile.

And from here, Miley Cyrus began to know how to utilize the “resources” from duets to make her music album more colorful as well as create highlights in the release of her singles.

More than anyone else, Miley Cyrus is probably aware that her familiar Country voice has certain limitations, especially when her musical thinking has probably gone beyond the borders of safe Pop music.

These are the different songs like “4×4” with Nelly or “Love Money Party” with Big Sean in the album Bangerz, “Tiger Dream” with Arial Pink in the album Her Dead Petz (2015), “Rainbowland” with Dolly Parton in Younger Now (2017), “Prisoner” with Dua Lipa or “Night Crawling” with Billy Idol in Plastic Hearts (2020), and most recently “Thousand Miles” with Brandi Carlile or “Muddy Feet” sung with Sia in the latest album Endless Summer Vacation.

Bangerz with its duets with hip hop artists, and Plastic Hearts with its duets with rock artists are definitely the two albums that made me feel a lot of affection for this girl.

It feels like since Bangerz is Miley Cyrus’ first attempt at a completely new sound, she had to call on Hip Hop brothers like Nelly, Future, French Montana, Big Sean or Ludacris to help make this R&B-influenced sound more believable.

“4×4” with Nelly has the full body of Southern music, “My Darlin” is pure autotune by Future , and “Love Money Party” seems to just borrow Big Sean ‘s name so that Miley Cyrus can show off her quite confident rapping ability.

On her rock-influenced Plastic Hearts, Miley Cyrus enlists Billy Idol, Joan Jett, and Dua Lipa to sing along on her 1-2-3-4. This is also the record where Miley Cyrus begins to lose her ability to sing high fifths, and where beautiful highs are needed, often with someone else helping, as in the case of Joan Jett and Dua Lipa, as well as clever songwriting choices like talking in the same key as her old friend, like Billy Idol.

“Midnight Sky” is also a special track, not because it is written almost exactly according to the structure of Stevie Nicks ‘s “Edge of Seventeen” , but because the Remix of this song with “Edge of Seventeen” sounds like two in one, and the caption in the title has the participation of the famous Stevie Nicks.

But obviously when listening to this track, we have to wonder, which part does Stevie Nicks sing because it’s almost all Miley Cyrus’ voice?

It turns out that Stevie Nicks’ beautiful voice only features on the soaring chorus of ” Just like the white ringed love ” and mostly provides backup for Miley.

It’s Miley’s way of making the song both fun and showing her gentle humility as she always knows how to show appreciation to those who inspire her.

If we look at it more broadly, the track “Bad Karma” with Joan Jett or recently the track “Thousand Miles” with Brandi Carlile or “Muddy Feet” with Sia, the voices of those “seniors” all appear in a very distinctive way, but only at a moderate level, like adding an instrumental part to enhance Miley’s song.

Thanks to knowing how to collaborate well with her senior artists, Miley’s songs know how to differentiate themselves from pop songs of the same period when they always carry a bit of nostalgia for the music that was recognized in the past. Miley Cyrus’s songs in the later period are therefore harder to attach to time points. More or less, this girl has known how to overcome the limitations of her voice to create sounds that have a moderate blend between the past and the present, and between genres.

Don’t songs like “Prisoner” immediately remind you of Olivia Newton Jones’ “Physical” or “Flowers” ​​immediately remind you of Bruno Mars ’ “When I Was Your Man” ? In many other cases, people might think of suing each other, but why does Miley Cyrus seem to stay out of these scandals?

In addition to creating memorable moments for herself in pop history with iconic songs like “Wrecking Ball,” I think Miley Cyrus is smart to always make her own moments in her performances with covers of classic songs. Sometimes it’s Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” Metallica ’s “Nothing Else Matters ,” and sometimes Blondie ’s “Heart Of Glass .” Despite her outward appearance as a rebellious girl, Miley always has a way to show respect to her senior artists when she has the opportunity to perform with them or sometimes simply perform in memory of the deceased.

On the other hand, contemporary pop artists probably always know to turn to Miley Cyrus whenever their music needs a little bit of Miley’s “color”, like Pharrell Williams ‘ “Come Get It Bae” or Mark Ronson ‘s “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” , both of which are impressive hits with Miley Cyrus’s reasonable vocals. She adjusts her singing style and even moderates her voice and volume to suit each song, just enough to blend in with Pharrell’s voice, but confidently takes the lead in the song with Mark./.