After waiting 4 months for a rescheduled show to happen after the original show was cancelled due to a case of the flu, I was finally able to attend Miley Cyrus first tour (apart from Disney), respectfully called the Bangerz Tour. For those of you that don’t know who Miley Cyrus is, (and for those that need a little refresher), Cyrus is a globally known American pop sensation that took the world by storm in 2006 with her Disney TV debut on the musical sitcom Hannah Montana. October 2013 saw Cyrus drop her first solo effort “BANGERZ” which landed at the top of the Billboard 200 Charts, with the highly anticipated first single “We Cant Stop” and the ever-controversial #1 single “Wrecking Ball” that helped push the album to the top.
After months of waiting and listening to the hype, I got the chance to see the twerking girl in action. In an arena full of over-sized balloons bouncing from person-to-person and strings of balloons hanging from the floor and the ceiling, the excitement began to rise. After her opening act [Lily Allen], Cyrus emerged on the stage sliding from a tongue that came out of a floor to ceiling tall screen and performed her song “SMS (Bangerz)” that features pop icon Britney Spears on the album. From there, Cyrus performed her current and past hits, including “Can’t Be Tamed”, “Adore You”, and “We Can’t Stop”. She hit the stage with back-up twerkers, a dwarf with numerous costume changes, and many different videos that projected on the screen in the background to help tell the story behind each song throughout the night. It became a night to remember, but only for a short period of time.
The songs may have been great, but the show itself was a little less than spectacular. While I respect Cyrus as an artist, the show seemed to be a little try hard and was missing a lot of something that other artists were able to give off as genuine. Having been to concerts by her contemporaries such as Rihanna and Lady Gaga, Cyrus didn’t live up to the hype that built around her name. Cyrus gave vocals less than what she’s known for, as well as a stage presence that was sub-par to say the least. Even with the video projections, dancers, and all of the spectacle that comes along with Cyrus, it wasn’t good enough to hold the attention of everyone in the arena. Some fans proceeded to sit down during a few of her covers and songs they weren’t familiar with. Cyrus wasn’t able to keep the excitement going throughout the entire set, which ended up being a disappointment.
Highlights of the show were “SMS (Bangerz)”, her cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”, and her performance of “Adore You” which began with her telling the audience to “grab the person you came with, whether it’s girl and girl, boy and boy, girl and boy, whatever. Grab them and make out with them.” At the end of the show, Cyrus performed her first two singles ‘We Can’t Stop’ and ‘Wrecking Ball’, and then ended the show out with probably her most famous song ‘Party In The U.S.A.’ Confetti blasted into the sky and rained upon all the fans that were cheering and screaming for her return to the stage. Overall, the show was what you’d expect to see from Cyrus as her first solo effort apart from squeaky-clean Disney. Full of performance tactics, dance moves, sexual antics, and performances that lacked a little more than expected but made up for it by being some of the better pop songs released in 2013.
