Miley Cyrus is wasting no time in reinventing her personality.
The singer broke her silence after a recent name change, but fans felt her big announcement was a little too close to the passing of her late godmother and country music icon Dolly Parton.
“It hasn’t even been a week since Dolly’s passing… this is so weird of her,” one commented online.
Highlights
- Miley Cyrus is wasting no time in reinventing her personality with a dramatic name-change.
- Fans felt her big announcement was a little too close to the passing of her late godmother Dolly Parton.
- In an emotional tribute, Miley had spoken about making music in the wake of Dolly’s passing.
- Her recent name-change came years after having a complicated relationship with her father.
Miley Cyrus has sparked backlash with her latest career move, which involved abandoning her famous surname
Ahead of her new album release, Miley is cutting off one of the most recognizable parts of her identity.
The 33-year-old singer dropped the famous surname she inherited from her country singer father, Billy Ray Cyrus. The father-daughter duo has had a complicated relationship over the years.
On August 31, Miley shared a photo of herself with the caption, “MILEY,” and revamped her social media to simply say “Miley”
She even dropped her surname from her website, making it mileyofficial.com.
Shortly after, the singer shared a message about her upcoming album, BASS PERSUADES, releasing on September 18th.
“Music takes hold of us. We feel it, sing it, sometimes dance to it, let it out and carry on. It is powerful, vulnerable, sweet and strong,” she said. “Heart full, heartache, every part of life in between. That’s what the title means to me.”
She then thanked her fans for being a part of her wildest dreams coming true. “I sincerely hope you love this album,” she added before signing off with “Miley.”
Netizens weren’t happy with her latest announcement, claiming it was too soon to Dolly Parton’s passing.
Fans felt Miley’s big announcement came too soon after Dolly Parton’s passing
“Yeah she sacrificed dolly for fame Wbk,” one said.
Another wrote, “I can't believe she k**led Dolly just to rise a little higher in fame smh.”
“She doesn’t give a f*** about Dolly. She cares only about her awful music,” said another.
But fans said people were overreacting and believed, “This is what dolly would have wanted. For her to keep going and not stop.”
“Album rollouts are planned month in advance,” another pointed out.
Miley had addressed Dolly's passing last week and shared an emotional tribute to her, in which she said the late singer would have wanted her to make music.
In her tribute, Miley said the most sacred moments she shared with her Aunt Dolly would remain private, and her feelings over the loss is “beyond what feels right” to share with the world.
But “What I KNOW is Dolly would want me to feel it, write a song about it, and then continue on and be strong. I have an angel by my side. I always have,” she said.
One of Miley’s last conversations with Dolly was about music and metamorphosis, she added.
The Flowers singer addressed making music after Dolly’s passing in an emotional tribute
This isn’t the first time Miley is making changes to her name. She was only a child when she decided to legally change the name given to her by her parents, Billy Ray Cyrus and Tish Cyrus.
The now-divorced parents had named her Destiny Hope Cyrus, which held a special meaning to them.
“It’s a big shoe to fill,” Miley said during a 2024 interview with David Letterman.
She said her parents “thought it was [her] destiny to bring hope to the world.”
When David said, “That’s lovely but a lot to load on a kid,” she agreed with him.
But it “set an intention” for her life right from the star, “which we don’t always have,” she added.
The singer hasn’t given an explanation for why she abandoned her last name this week.
The move came years after sharing a complicated relationship with her father Billy, who starred alongside her in the hit Disney show Hannah Montana.
Miley’s complicated relationship with Billy Ray Cyrus has played out publicly for years
In a 2011 interview with GQ, Billy once admitted that co-starring with Miley for four seasons of the show drove a “wedge” between them. “I should have been a better parent,” he said at the time.
When her father had tied the knot with Australian Firehose, Miley had skipped the 2023 wedding altogether.
Billy and Firehose called it quits a few months later.
When Miley won the first two Grammys of her career in 2024, she dropped her father's name from her acceptance speech for the Record of the Year award.
She thanked her mother, sister, now-fiancé Maxx Morando, her collaborators, her team, and also her “main gays” because of how “good” she looked.
Basically “all the people that we love. I don’t think I’ve forgotten anyone,” she concluded, with no mention of Billy anywhere. “But I might have forgotten underwear. Bye!”
Miley and Billy seemed to have repaired their relationship in time for her Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special last year.
The two were seen together onstage after years of Miley reportedly not talking to her dad.
The father-daughter duo later appeared to repair their relationship, and Miley wrote a song for him as a “peace offering”
Miley had also released the song Secrets as a “peace offering” to her once estranged father in September 2025.
She addressed the relationship with Billy in a New York Times interview last year, saying things changed as she got older.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’m respecting my parents as individuals instead of as parents,” she said.
The singer acknowledged how it was very hard for her mother to be married to someone from the music industry.
“I think I took on some of my mom’s hurt as my own…” she told the outlet. “But now that my mom is so in love with my stepdad, who I completely adore, and now that my dad, I see him finding happiness, too—I can love them both as individuals instead of as a parental pairing.”
Ahead of her new album release, Miley spoke about the project and described it as a “love story” that explores all kinds of love, not just romantic relationships.
“This album is a love story, but love stories are never one-dimensional. They’re always layered,” she said during an interview with actress Daryl Hannah for Wonderland.
“There is definitely a romantic thread weaving through it because, like all my records, it’s a reflection of where I am in my life,” she said. “But this one feels especially meaningful because this feeling has stayed with me through multiple eras.”
“What’s weird of you is judging how someone is grieving,” one commented online after Miley’s latest updates
