During its final Performance test Hannah MontanaMiley Cyrus, 12, wears her heart on her sleeve and her life-changing look on her chest. “I should have my own TV show,” reads the T-shirt she wore under a blue sweater in the clip. She was right. In the nearly two decades since she landed the role, the musician and actress has become woven into the fabric of pop culture history. Last night, at the 2024 D23 Awards, Cyrus became the youngest person ever to be honored with the title of Disney Legend.
“Before we get started, I’m going to let everyone in on a little Disney secret — I’m the one who tells you what you shouldn’t know,” Cyrus said at the start of her speech, indicating from the start that she was 100 percent going to cry. “And what I’m saying is that legends get scared too. I’m scared right now… It’s legendary to be scared and do it anyway. There’s no such thing as failure when you try.”
At the event, country singer Lenny Wilson introduced Cyrus with the song “Best of Both Worlds” that started it all. Hannah Montana The intro song served as the foundation for a whole slate of songs that inspired a whole wave of pop singers nearly 20 years later. Wilson herself described the moment as a “dream come true,” adding, “Miley, I want to thank you for never being afraid to step out of the box, always staying true to yourself, and most importantly, always being strong.”
Cyrus has been like this since the beginning. During her speech, she talked about the audition process she went through in 2005. “Disney was on a mission to rebuild and reimagine the company — and that’s why they hired [Disney CEO] “Bob Iger and me,” she joked. “There was a buzz at the Disney office in Burbank that they were rumored to have created all the Disney kids… I definitely wasn’t created in a lab but if that was the case, there must have been a glitch in the system that caused me to go down somewhere between 2013 and 2016.”
pointing out her bad reputation Bangers The 1990s were another example of Cyrus embracing every moment of her career. While that period was marked by a sharp departure from the persona that made her a household name, she was never able to fully escape it. In light of what happened, she probably didn’t want to be. “I still stand here proud to be Hannah Montana,” Cyrus said. “Because she made Miley in so many ways.”
She recalled her first performance as a blonde pop star. It was a free show at the Glendale Galleria mall. While “Best of Both Worlds” would eventually become the song that defined Hannah Montana for all time, Cyrus opened her show that day with “This Is the Life.” “Of course, no one knew that,” she said. “Because I was really just a little girl in the mall with a blonde wig and a big dream. But in my heart, I was Hannah Montana. And I was so proud to be her.”
Cyrus followed the little girl's growth as a montage of clips from her career was shown at the ceremony. She took it all in through her tears and ended her speech with a touching dedication. “This award is dedicated to Hannah and all of her amazing, loyal fans and everyone who made my dream come true,” she said. “And in the words of the legend herself, 'That's life.'”
