Miley Cyrus faced protests from fans at her decision not to sing at the Tribeca Festival premiere of her film Something Beautiful, an accompaniment to her new album of the same name.

During a Q&A between herself and the film’s producer Panos Cosmatos and co-directors and co-writers Jacob Bixenman and Brendan Walter, audience members began to heckle her, demanding that she perform.

‘We paid $800. Sing,’ one fan shouted, while another later said: ‘We thought this was a concert.’

It wasn’t. It was a film premiere. Meaning that Cyrus was under no obligation to sing. She gave in to fans demands and sang an acapella version of The Climb, a track from Hannah Montana: The Movie. But should she have had to? It feels like an example of fan culture at its most toxic when audience members feel entitled to seeing her perform, even if they’ve bought a ticket to a film festival, not a concert. Cyrus was promoting a film, therefore the focus should’ve been on that.

Cyrus has recently explained that she isn’t able to tour, and perform less now, due to her diagnosis of a condition called Reinke’s edema, which has led to a ‘very large polyp’, an abnormal tissue growth, on her vocal chord.

‘[It’s] given me a lot of the tone and texture that has made me who I am, but it’s extremely difficult to perform with because it’s like running a marathon with ankle weights on,’ she told Zane Lowe on his Apple Music show.

So to pressure Cyrus to sing at an event that was meant to promote another aspect of her career, that could affect her health, feels very selfish and unnecessary. But proves how entitled fan culture can become, leading fans to stop seeing musicians as human beings, but just there for their entertainment solely.

Fans have rushed to the singer’s defence by posting on social media. ‘She’s so nice and patient. Those “fans” are soooo rude and entitled. They should be ashamed,’** one wrote. Another said: ‘She owes these people nothing. She handled this with such class and grace. Shame on them.’

One posted: ‘Maybe do your research before attending then. She’s not an object, you don’t demand someone to sing 🫠.’

Speculation has also recently run rife that the golden dress that Miley wore in her Flowers music video was referencing the dress Lawrence wore to the 2012 Hunger Games premiere, as it too was gold.

When Lawrence was asked about this speculation back in 2023 by Watch What Happens Live host Andy Cohen, she denied any link between the two dresses and whether it referenced a secret fling between herself and Hemsworth while he was still in a relationship with Cyrus.

‘Not true. I would love to. Not true,’ Lawrence said. ‘Total rumour. I mean, we all know that me and Liam, like, kissed one time. It was years after they broke up. So I just assume that was, like, a coincidence.’

Earlier this month while signing autographs for fans and promoting her latest album Something Beautiful, Cyrus was asked whether her Flowers music video outfit was a reference to Lawrence, and she responded: ‘No, but I love that dress of hers.’

Fans are split on what this response actually meant, though. While some think it answered all speculation, others have described it as ‘a classy way to say yes’. ‘The Disney media training kicked in,’ one fan has said.

During an interview on the Every Single Album podcast, Cyrus also recently opened up about why she shifted her public image to protect her relationship, and how she feels now years later about those actions and her musical and private life now.

‘I think that when me and Liam split up the first time with Bangerz, it was because it was like I was this provocateur and it was highly sexualised,’ she said, explaining that she tried to ‘keep a happy home’ but appearing to the public as more innocent as a woman and less sexualised.

‘And so for Younger Now, the album, the reason I kind of like played into this innocence was because I think that was a way to keep and a way to stay… If I’m younger now, if I’m less awake as this sexual woman publicly, then this is going to be the way that I can keep a happy home,’ she said, describing how she now feels differently in herself and with her new album.

‘Because with Something Beautiful, this [latest] album, I do have that. I do have a really lovely personal life, and my career is exactly how I want it to be, and the music is great and all these things. And I think I was seeking that in Younger Now, but I didn’t know how to fully do it because I was also balancing the sobriety thing because I wasn’t getting fully sober yet,’ Cyrus said. ‘And so I was like, well, “I’m safe and I’m clean and I’m wearing all white and I’m singing songs about nature.”’

Cyrus described feeling a ‘duty’ to protect Liam’s image during their relationship, particularly when it came to his (and his brother Chris)’s career.

‘Liam was also a part of other big franchises like The Hunger Games, and his brother is a Marvel superhero. And so I was also representing the family,’ she said. ‘And so I felt like I needed to, and I, you know, it was my duty, too, because my plan was this time, I didn’t want the relationship to fall apart. I wanted it to stay intact. And the reason why it didn’t work during Bangerz was because of that.’

‘So for this time, I really wanted to be able to say, “I’m still making my music. I can still be Miley Cyrus, but I need to be able to keep this part of my life preserved,”’ she said.

‘Now, in hindsight, what I should have done was just kind of left it alone. Like, I didn’t need to come with me into the career. I didn’t need to be wearing all white. That was me trying to say, “I’m pure, look, I’m wearing all white! I’m going to get married. I’m in my wedding dress.” That kind of thing. And I probably could have just made a pop album, but for me, I don’t know how to not bring my personal life onto the stage,’ she said.