Miley Cyrus facts: songs, reinventions, and records

Miley Cyrus facts start with a child star who became a teen idol, then kept rewriting her own story. She first rose to fame as Miley Stewart on Hannah Montana, a role that launched a profitable Disney franchise and helped establish her as a teen idol.

Her career has been marked by clear turning points, from her early Disney years to major pop reinventions. The first solo albums she released outside Hannah Montana were Meet Miley Cyrus and Breakout, and both reached number one in the United States. Later, Can’t Be Tamed became her first studio album not to top the Billboard 200 in the United States, while Bangerz returned her to the top with her fifth number-one album on the US Billboard 200.

How did Miley Cyrus become a breakout star?

Miley Cyrus became a breakout star through Hannah Montana, which made her a teen idol and launched her music career.

That early fame carried into her first big solo era. “The Climb” played a key role in that climb, making Cyrus the youngest artist in history to have four number-one albums on the Billboard 200. From there, her album run continued to stack up milestones, including Bangerz and the Grammy attention that came with it. Her first career Grammy nomination came from Bangerz.

Which Miley Cyrus songs became the biggest hits?

“Wrecking Ball” was Miley Cyrus’s first number-one single in the United States, and “Flowers” became her second US number-one single.

“Wrecking Ball” also became one of the defining pop moments of her career beyond the charts. Its video broke the Vevo record for the most views in twenty-four hours and became the fastest video to reach one hundred million views. Before that, “Party in the U.S.A.” had already become one of her most successful singles and is considered one of her signature songs. Another major hit, “We Can’t Stop,” was the lead single from Bangerz and peaked at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100.

“Flowers” brought another major peak. It won two Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year, and added a second US number-one single to her catalog. By then, her list of honors had grown large enough that she had received eight Guinness World Records and three Grammy Awards.

What happened around the Bangerz era?

The Bangerz era included major chart success, a controversial performance, and a lot of public attention.

At the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Miley Cyrus performed a controversial duet with Robin Thicke that generated 306,100 tweets per minute. That same period also centered on “We Can’t Stop,” which served as the lead single from Bangerz and reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. The album itself became her fifth number-one album on the US Billboard 200, and it also brought her first career Grammy nomination.

Why did Miley Cyrus change her image so often?

Miley Cyrus changed her image in very visible ways, including a dramatic haircut in 2012.

That year, she cut her traditionally long brown hair into a blonde pixie cut and said it changed her life. Her career has also included work beyond music and television. In 2014, she founded the Happy Hippie Foundation to focus on the LGBTQ community and youth homelessness.

Taken together, her path shows a performer who moved from Disney fame to chart-topping pop, from “Wrecking Ball” to “Flowers,” while collecting records, Grammy Awards, and reinventions along the way. Test what you remember in the quiz below.