Miley Cyrus Compared Her 2013 VMAs Performance to Britney Spears and Madonna

TL;DR: 

• Miley Cyrus received backlash for her 2013 MTV Video Music Awards performance alongside Robin Thicke.
• In the aftermath, Miley Cyrus seemingly compared it to Britney Spears and Madonna kissing at the same event in 2003.
• “You’re wanting to make history,” she said. 
• Robin Thicke, who also received backlash, called the venue the “perfect place for a little shock and awe.”

Miley Cyrus’ performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards generated conversation for days. Even Paul McCartney watched to see what all the fuss was about. Similar to audience members and viewers at home, Cyrus had her own thoughts on it. During an interview following the 2013 VMAs, the now-29-year-old said the aim was to “make history,” not unlike the Britney Spears-Madonna kiss. 

Miley Cyrus performed a duet with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards

Cyrus brought elements of her “We Can’t Stop” music video to life on the MTV stage shortly after releasing the track in 2013. However, teddy bear dancers and pigtails weren’t the only things people remembered. 

She twerked, stuck her tongue out, and suggestively used a foam finger. Then Thicke joined her, singing his song, “Blurred Lines.” Audience reactions varied as Cyrus gyrated on Thicke. 

Cyrus isn’t performing at the 2022 VMAs. However, her performance from nearly a decade earlier remains a memorable moment in the awards show’s history. 

Miley Cyrus seemingly compared her 2013 VMAs performance to the Britney Spears-Madonna kiss 

Just days later, Cyrus shared her own thoughts on it. In doing so she put her VMAs performance in the same sphere as the 2003 Britney Spears and Madonna VMAs kiss.

“I don’t pay attention to the negative because I’ve seen this play out so many times,” Cyrus told MTV, per E! News. “How many times have we seen this play out in pop music? Madonna’s done it. Britney’s done it. Every VMA performance, that’s what you’re looking for; you’re wanting to make history.”

“Me and Robin, the whole time said, ‘You know we’re about to make history right now,'” Cyrus continued. “What’s amazing is, I think now, we’re three days later, and people are still talking about it. 

“They’re overthinking it,” she added. “You’re thinking about it more than I thought about it when I did it. Like, I didn’t even think about it ’cause that’s just me.”

Robin Thicke said the ‘whole point’ was to ‘excite and provoke and entertain’

Cyrus wasn’t the only one to comment on the performance in the aftermath. Thicke also commented on it in the days that followed. 

“We knew what we were getting ourselves into,” he told Star magazine. “We’re entertainers, and the VMAs is the perfect place for a little shock and awe.”

The “Blurred Lines” singer, continued, saying he and Cyrus expected there to be a conversation surrounding their performance. 

“Yeah, we kind of knew when we were in rehearsal,” he said. “We were like, ‘OK, if you touch me with your foam finger all over my crotch, obviously a few people are going to have something to say about this.’ But that was the whole point. I mean, the whole point was to excite and provoke and entertain.”

Thicke also pushed back against it being described as “sexual.” 

“I totally understand everyone comes from different places and has their own opinions, but when people use the word sexual, I didn’t feel anything sexual about the performance,” he said. “I thought it was silly and funny. 

“She [Cyrus] was being humorous and naughty, but it wasn’t sexually charged at all,” he added. “That’s who she is, that’s how she likes to dance. She was just being herself and I was just being myself.”

The 2022 VMAs air Aug. 28 on MTV at 8 p.m. EST.