Miley Cyrus Wrote ‘Slide Away’ Long Before Liam Hemsworth Divorce: ‘I Just Keep Speaking These Things Into Existence’
When singer Miley Cyrus released her 2019 single “Slide Away” days amid news of her separation from Liam Hemsworth, fans wondered if the timing was a little too perfect. If they had just broken up, when did she write it? A year later, Cyrus explained how it all went down.
Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth’s relationship and divorce
Cyrus and Hemsworth began dating after meeting on the set of their film The Last Song. They were photographed holding hands at the premiere in 2010, and from then on, the media attention never stopped. Over several years, they were on and off, first getting engaged in 2012 before calling it off in 2013, and reuniting a couple of years later.
Hemsworth and Cyrus tied the knot in December 2018, in a ceremony with just family. Their marriage lasted only months, as they announced their separation to the public in August 2019. From there, Cyrus dated Kaitlynn Carter and then Cody Simpson, from whom she split in July 2020. Hemsworth is dating Gabriella Brooks.
After their public split, she released ‘Slide Away’
Just days after going public with the separation, Hemsworth filed for divorce. Meanwhile, Cyrus released a new single, “Slide Away.” She performed the song at the MTV Video Music Awards that same month. Given the subject matter and several clues, fans believed it was about Hemsworth.
Among the most obvious lyrics are in the pre-chorus, on which Cyrus sings, “Move on, we’re not seventeen/I’m not who I used to be/You say that everything changed/You’re right, we’re grown now.” As the singer was 17 years old when she and Hemsworth were first spotted together, this fits.
Cyrus’ song, ‘Midnight Sky,’ touches on the public perception of her
One year later, Cyrus returned with her single, “Midnight Sky.” On the track, Cyrus sings that she’s happily single. But she also refers to the media attention to her relationships with lines like, “See my lips on her mouth, everybody’s talkin’ now.” “I felt like my story, and my narrative had kind of been told for me over the past year,” she told Zane Lowe for Apple Music.
When she heard “Midnight Sky,” Cyrus was working on another song. She adds that she thought, “I’ve got to scratch everything and write this. This is the foundation on which I feel like I can lay my story on top of that.” And so the song became her way of telling her story in her way.
When did she actually write ‘Slide Away’?
Referring to “Slide Away,” Cyrus said it led to lyrics in her new single. “That’s why I wrote in ‘Midnight Sky’ ‘Can’t bite the devil on my tongue,’ because sometimes I just say what’s right there, but I’ve learned to kind of attempt” to do that, she continued, “because words are too powerful.” But what she said next may be even more interesting.
“I wrote ‘Slide Away’ before my breakup [with Hemsworth],” Cyrus revealed. “I wrote ‘Slide Away’ in February of the year before. I just keep speaking these things into existence. I’ve decided to use my language to love myself and to really create what I want to be my reality. Because otherwise, I keep doing the opposite.”
