Miley Cyrus Let the Crowd Sing Her Hits at the Hollywood Bowl

Miley Cyrus played her first major show in years at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday, and handed her biggest hits to the audience. "We Can't Stop" and "Party in the U.S.A." got the mic-pointed-at-the-crowd treatment. The deep cuts, meanwhile, got her full throat.

That inversion is the story of the night. Cyrus, 33, is supporting her latest album, "Bass Persuades," with two Los Angeles concerts, and the first felt less like a victory lap than a working document of an artist still auditioning for herself. Confounding, oftentimes bizarre and, in the end, strangely entertaining — the show was a snapshot of a megastar who, after all this time, is still figuring out what artist she wants to become.

What happened at the Bowl?

Cyrus opened with "Orbit," a languid ballad about the magnetism of romance, before swerving into the synth-pop of "Different Religion" — with opener Model/Actriz — and the title track of "Bass Persuades." She hewed closely to the new record and to 2025's "Something Beautiful." She has performed so rarely that nearly half the setlist were live debuts; her only appearances in recent years were two fans-only shows in Los Angeles and Paris.

The staging was minimal by arena-pop standards. No traditional dance breaks, no wild set pieces. She descended from a B-stage in the middle of the stands, then sat hunched on the main stage, visibly sapped by the 200-foot walk back to the spotlight.

"You guys gave me so much energy, but you also took a little energy out of me, too," she told the crowd. "It is a lot for me and it is a little bit overwhelming."

It's a rare admission for a star of her rank. It also functioned as the evening's thesis: a seasoned hitmaker openly at odds with the pressures of being a generational talent.

Who joined her onstage?

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips appeared on the B-stage for "Do You Realize??" and the pair's collaboration "Karen Don't Be Sad." He returned during "Party in the U.S.A." with balloons spelling "Fuck Yeah Hollywood Bowl." Cyrus also strutted the catwalk for "Walk of Fame," one of the more supermodel songs in her catalogue.

The most emotive moment belonged to Dolly Parton, her godmother. Cyrus recalled that the only time she saw Parton perform was at the Bowl, then choked back tears before covering "Jolene."

"Me and Dolly, we are eternal. Nothing in this life could ever tear us apart," she said. "And I'm going to see her again, and I can't fucking wait because I miss her."

That's where she sounded most at home — belting the familiar notes of "Jolene," as she's done so many times before.

Why outsource the hits?

Cyrus let the audience carry "Wrecking Ball" and "Flowers" too. The read is generous but plausible: she seems aware of the power those songs hold over a crowd while recognizing they've become so woven into the cultural fabric that they no longer belong just to her.

Her career explains the instinct. Since emerging as a Disney star on "Hannah Montana," she has shape-shifted at a moment's notice — from the "Bangerz" reinvention in 2013 and its subsequent global trek (her last extensive tour) to psych-pop on "Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz" and glam rock on "Plastic Hearts." She frames the restlessness as method.

"For somebody that likes to keep life fun, and likes to jump out of airplanes and be spontaneous, doing the same thing for your entire life can lose its shine if you don't continue to give yourself that pressure and polish to create something beautiful, which is the life that I'm living," she said, introducing the "Something Beautiful" title track.

Does the anti-pop strategy work?

As criticism, "Bass Persuades" has a few bright moments but lacks the singular vision of her strongest work, and the show inherited that opacity. Yet the verdict matters less than the box office. Across two sold-out nights, 18,000 fans paid to watch a star come out the other end of the hit factory with the freedom to be who she's meant to be. Cyrus closes the run with a second Bowl date, and the setlist's live debuts suggest the experiment is only just beginning.