Many of Cyrus’s misses often have the makings of her great covers and end up faltering for the reasons the others succeeded: a vocal performance played too straightforward or too outside the lines a song choice that sets her up to disappoint or ends up ringing empty.
Sometimes, it’s singing the song that shows off the best contours of her voice others, it’s bending songs that just shouldn’t work to her will. Sometimes, it’s picking the perfect song for the moment others, it’s bringing a left-field song to a new audience or imbuing it with new meaning. It’s hard to consistently pinpoint what makes a Cyrus cover great. (In the name of setting boundaries, we’re sticking to officially released covers, meaning no live bootlegs.)
It’s the perfect time to take a look back at the highs and lows of Cyrus’s covers discography.
As the Plastic Hearts cycle has continued into 2021, so have the covers, from Mazzy Star at Cyrus’s NPR Tiny Desk to a slew of songs at her Super Bowl LV pre-show on TikTok. And just a week after releasing her longtime-coming rock album, Plastic Hearts, she dipped her toes in grunge with a Hole cover. The same weekend as the Unplugged special, she surprised with two more covers at her virtual Save Our Stages Fest set, further proving she’s on a real covers streak. (Not to mention her live shows, where she regularly busts out new covers in the name of fan service.) In 2020, Cyrus’s covers were back in the spotlight thanks to a new cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” hitting streaming (once again, by fan demand) and another revival of the Backyard Sessions as an MTV Unplugged special. She’s found success in other venues, too, from the BBC Radio 1’s “Live Lounge” to the stage of The Tonight Show to tributes and covers compilations. While she’s been recording covers since the late aughts, she made them a more intentional staple of her repertoire with her Backyard Sessions YouTube series, which first debuted with three fan-favorite covers in 2012 and returned by popular demand in 2015 with even more, along with some guests. And she has the voice to back it up - one that can effortlessly traverse pop, rock, country, and soul. Miley Cyrus, Disney star turned perennial headline-maker, has long recognized the power of a good cover.
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