Miley Cyrus @ The O2 Arena
Miley Cyrus
The American pop queen everyone loves to hate, Miley Cyrus lived up to her reputation as she brought her Bangerz tour to London on the first stop of its rescheduled European leg in support of Cyrus’ fourth post-Hannah Montana studio album of the same name.
Cyrus burst onto the cross-shaped stage with a mouthful of expletives, starting the show as she meant to go on: to try and push the boundaries beyond where they should be in the name of entertainment. The music that accompanied the show was primarily from Bangerz with a couple of hits from previous records thrown in amongst a couple of covers, including a cover of Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys’ Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? for the home country crowd.
She laid it on thick from her opening gambit of entering the arena by tearing down a tongue-shaped slide protruding from an image of her own face to returning to the stage in an outfit made up of faux-American currency with a golden marijuana-leaf necklace on top of a gold car whilst simulating masturbation. Madonna did it more elegantly twenty years ago dear.
There were brief moments where we thought she might redeem herself, explaining the dangers of smoking cigarettes for instance. But she turned it around quite skilfully, resulting in the most bizarre anti-smoking campaign you’ll ever hear, proclaiming that cigarettes led to a crease on her 21-year-old face and, as delicious as cigarettes might be, to instead smoke weed: "Weed never killed anybody!".
Crowd participation was achieved by way of Cyrus requesting members of the audience, particularly same sex couples, to engage in over the top kissing in order to appear on the large screen behind her. In the words of her 2009 hit and set-closer Party in the U.S.A., this was definitely not a Nashville party. She later re-engaged the crowd by asking them if it was okay if she spit water all over them citing American audience approval of the same treatment during the U.S. leg of the tour.
Cyrus even managed to squeeze the c-word into Dolly Parton classic Jolene while visiting the back of the vast O2 Arena on a b-stage before returning to the main stage to close the main set riding around on a big weiner.
I know, I know, it’s my own fault. To be fair to Miley, I knew what I was letting myself in for. I was just secretly hoping she’d surprise me and make me revaluate my perception of her music. I really think this girl has a powerful voice and potential to be a great singer-songwriter and musician. But tonight demonstrates that controversy sells.
The highlight of the evening for me came before Miley Cyrus even graced the stage by way of support act Sky Ferreira whose mixture of strong, growling vocals over heavy guitars seemed to confuse the Cyrusites around me but who proved herself a strong talent.
Miley Cyrus @ The O2 Arena
Miley Cyrus
The American pop queen everyone loves to hate, Miley Cyrus lived up to her reputation as she brought her Bangerz tour to London on the first stop of its rescheduled European leg in support of Cyrus’ fourth post-Hannah Montana studio album of the same name.
Cyrus burst onto the cross-shaped stage with a mouthful of expletives, starting the show as she meant to go on: to try and push the boundaries beyond where they should be in the name of entertainment. The music that accompanied the show was primarily from Bangerz with a couple of hits from previous records thrown in amongst a couple of covers, including a cover of Sheffield rockers Arctic Monkeys’ Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High? for the home country crowd.
She laid it on thick from her opening gambit of entering the arena by tearing down a tongue-shaped slide protruding from an image of her own face to returning to the stage in an outfit made up of faux-American currency with a golden marijuana-leaf necklace on top of a gold car whilst simulating masturbation. Madonna did it more elegantly twenty years ago dear.
There were brief moments where we thought she might redeem herself, explaining the dangers of smoking cigarettes for instance. But she turned it around quite skilfully, resulting in the most bizarre anti-smoking campaign you’ll ever hear, proclaiming that cigarettes led to a crease on her 21-year-old face and, as delicious as cigarettes might be, to instead smoke weed: "Weed never killed anybody!".
Crowd participation was achieved by way of Cyrus requesting members of the audience, particularly same sex couples, to engage in over the top kissing in order to appear on the large screen behind her. In the words of her 2009 hit and set-closer Party in the U.S.A., this was definitely not a Nashville party. She later re-engaged the crowd by asking them if it was okay if she spit water all over them citing American audience approval of the same treatment during the U.S. leg of the tour.
Cyrus even managed to squeeze the c-word into Dolly Parton classic Jolene while visiting the back of the vast O2 Arena on a b-stage before returning to the main stage to close the main set riding around on a big weiner.
I know, I know, it’s my own fault. To be fair to Miley, I knew what I was letting myself in for. I was just secretly hoping she’d surprise me and make me revaluate my perception of her music. I really think this girl has a powerful voice and potential to be a great singer-songwriter and musician. But tonight demonstrates that controversy sells.
The highlight of the evening for me came before Miley Cyrus even graced the stage by way of support act Sky Ferreira whose mixture of strong, growling vocals over heavy guitars seemed to confuse the Cyrusites around me but who proved herself a strong talent.