Miley Cyrus Fully Owns The “Subtle Shade” On Endless Summer Vacation

Ever since Miley Cyrus dropped her self-love anthem “Flowers” on ex-husband Liam Hemsworth’s birthday in January, fans have been very interested in what her new album, Endless Summer Vacation, says about her divorce. The full work finally arrived on March 10, and with it, the singer’s latest edition of her beloved “Backyard Sessions,” this time in the form of an entire Disney+ special. Between songs, Cyrus spoke about tracks from her eighth studio album and confirmed that fans are not imagining the shade.

“There’s subtle shade,” she said about Endless Summer Vacation. “There’s, you know, honesty and truth, and there’s some wisdom, and there’s some humor. And there’s some heaviness and depth.”

The Hannah Montana vet didn’t get into the specifics of who she was shading and in which songs — she left that for fans to analyze on Twitter — but she noted that the album “feels like an intimate, honest conversation.” The closest Cyrus came to referencing her divorce in the Disney+ special might have been when she discussed writing “River”; she explained that the track came from a time when she was “going through just a lot emotionally and personally” and a dance party helped turn things around for her.

Explaining the evolution, she said that sometimes “a trouble” can feel like an “April shower, it never stops raining,” but then it starts “raining down love.” During her tough time, it was her friends and music from “all the legends,” including Diana Ross, Whitney Houston, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton, that brought the love. “Sometimes we just need a dancefloor banger,” she explained of “River,” before adding, “aka they don’t want me to talk about how the song is actually about [bleep]. It’s f*cking nasty.”

The album as a whole “really represents” who she is, Cyrus said, which is a trait she thinks her greatest records and songs all have in common. “I think Endless Summer Vacation represents, to me, my fearlessness when it comes to experimenting, not just with my sound but also with my identity and the way that I want to be seen,” she explained.

Through her experimentation, Cyrus ultimately landed on “a concoction of all of the best of those sounds.” To Cyrus, that made Endless Summer Vacation “the Cinderella shoe.” “It’s just a perfect fit and it feels like it’s only mine and it could only be mine,” she explained.

During Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions), the singer performed “Jaded,” “Rose Colored Lens,” “Thousand Miles,” “Wildcard,” “Island,” “Wonder Woman,” “River,” and “Flowers,” plus her 2009 hit “The Climb.” The special is available to stream on Disney+ and the album is out now.