Miley Cyrus put her recent remarks about touring into context after some fans took her words as an expression of ingratitude rather than exhaustion.
“For clarity I feel connected to my fans NOW more than ever. When I win, WE win,” Cyrus wrote on Instagram Wednesday. “Even if I don’t see them face-to-face every night at a concert, my fans are felt deeply in my heart. I’m constantly creating and innovating new ways that I can stay connected to the audience I love — without sacrificing my own essentials.”
“This has nothing to do with a lack of appreciation for the fans and everything to do with I simply don’t want to get ready in a locker room,” she continued. “I just don’t want to sleep on a moving bus. It isn’t what’s best for me right NOW.”
What initially ruffled fans’ feathers were comments she made in the latest issue of British Vogue while addressing the near decade since her last major arena tour in 2014.
“Singing for hundreds of thousands of people isn’t really the thing that I love. There’s no connection. There’s no safety,” she told the magazine. “It’s also not natural. It’s so isolating because if you’re in front of 100,000 people then you are alone.”
Offended fans responded online, with one cynically saying she’d be back onstage when she needed money. Meanwhile, a follower on Instagram seemed to resent the freedom Miley has to step back from her job, writing, “Feels very privileged to just exit out and say it’s what’s best for you. It’s a job and like any other job there’s parts we don’t like but we still do them. Touring is that for artists, you drop an album and tour it.”
However, supporters quickly overwhelmed the negative comments, noting that Miley was merely the “queen of [setting] healthy boundaries.”
“Set those boundaries for what’s best for YOU queen, we love you,” responded one fan, while another declared that “real fans will support you.” Others pointed out that Miley has been in the public eye nonstop since she was a child, and she is well entitled to take a break.
Despite not touring, Cyrus said her love affair with her fans isn’t over.
“Performing for YOU has been some of the best days of my life, and we will continue this journey together as we have for the last almost two decades,” she wrote.
“This is proof that her words got taken out of context, and there will still be people out there not happy with THIS response but they don’t matter,” wrote another fan. “You do you, girl.”
