American singer-songwriter and actress Miley Cyrus, who rose to fame in her iconic role as Disney’s Hannah Montana, has revealed that she was banned from performing songs from the show after it ended. Cyrus featured on an episode “The Ringer” podcast called “The Miley Cyrus Interview” where she talked through every single one of her albums.
Hannah Montana was an American teen sitcom that centred around Miley Stewart (played by Cyrus) living a double life as pop singer ‘Hannah Montana’ to hide her true identity so that she could live a normal life as teenage girl. Over its five-year running, the show featured numerous popular songs, with some of the most notable tracks including: The Best of Both Worlds, Nobody’s Perfect, Rock Star, and You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home, which were subsequently released as hit singles and as tracks on five soundtrack albums. Cyrus was only 13 years old when the show first started, and since has drifted away from the fictional character and started her own music career.
From an IP perspective, Disney hold all the copyright for the show, the character, the songs, etc. and were entitled to enforce the ban. On the podcast, Cyrus said she had mixed feelings on the ban and that although she did not want to perform the songs “it was still sad knowing those songs have my voice, my face, and I wasn’t allowed to sing them”. Further, she delved into her solo career music and said “performing ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ between ‘We Can’t Stop’ and ‘Wrecking Ball’ wouldn’t have really made sense.”
However, since becoming the youngest-ever Disney legend at an awards ceremony in August 2024, Disney has granted Cyrus permission to sing those songs again, should she wish to do so in the future.
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