Miley Cyrus picked up the first award of the night, and the first Grammy of her career, for Best Pop Solo Performance for her 2023 hit “Flowers,” which went to No. 1 internationally, including on the Billboard Hot 100. Cyrus has been previously nominated for a Grammy eight times.
Presented with the award by Mariah Carey, during her acceptance speech, Cyrus shared the story of a young boy who loved butterflies and was given a butterfly net by his parents. When he put the butterfly net away, a butterfly landed on his nose.
“He just went outside, out in the sun, and started swinging and swinging,” said Cyrus telling the story. “But, with no luck, he sat down on the ground [and] he finally let go and he surrendered. And he was OK that he wasn’t going to capture this beautiful butterfly. And right when he did is when the butterfly came and landed right on the tip of his nose.”
She added, “This song ‘Flowers’ is my butterfly.”
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Cyrus followed up her win by performing “Flowers” for the first time on television. Barely covered in a shimmering silver cut-out dress, she sang through her hit, switching switching her lyrics I didn’t wanna leave you / I didn’t wanna fight / Started to cry, but then remembered I and adding “I just won my first Grammy” to its end.
Before her performance, Cyrus talked about “Flowers” in a prerecorded video. “When I see other people singing the ‘Flowers’ the way that I dance to ‘Flowers’ it makes me so happy that I could cry,” said Cyrus. “I just want to be the artist that my idols would be proud of,” she added calling out Tina Turner, Celine Dion, and Dolly Parton.
“The reason I’m so excited when I get to sing this song live is because I’ve literally only sang it live twice,” said Cyrus. “Why am I performing at the Grammys? So I can lay in bed on February 5 and watch a video of myself performing at the Grammys. That is like actually the most honest answer I could give you.”
Cyrus added, “I thought about it this morning. When I was rehearsing for the Grammys. I thought why am I doing this? And I was like, ‘Oh yeah, for me.’ When my future self looks back on this moment. She’s gonna say ‘You look good.”
At the end of her performance, Cyrus dropped the mic and walked off the stage.
In 2023, Endless Summer Vacation peaked at No. 3 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart with “Flowers” marking Cyrus’ second No. 1 single since “Wrecking Ball” in 2013. “Flowers” also broke a number of streaming records and became the longest-running No. 1 song in the history of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
Cyrus also received a nomination in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category and is also up for Album of the Year and Pop Vocal Album for Endless Summer Vacation, along with Record and Song of the Year for “Flowers.”
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
