Miley Cyrus’ Lead Singles, Ranked: Critic’s Picks

Where does "Flowers" rank alongside Cyrus' best-known lead tracks? See how we ranked all eight.

When Miley Cyrus announced that she would be kicking off 2023 with the release of “Flowers,” a new single to precede her forthcoming album Endless Summer Vacation, the news was exciting on two levels: a new Cyrus single was coming, but perhaps more importantly, a new Cyrus lead single was coming.

After all, Cyrus has spent the majority of her recording career deploying lead singles as hints to upcoming shifts in her sound and style, with clear demarcations between album eras and the tweaks in public persona that the pop superstar adopts for each. From her Disney days — when songs like “See You Again” and “7 Things” pointed toward the commercial aspirations of the teen star — to the devil-may-care flare-ups of her Can’t Be Tamed and Bangerz periods, the first five years of Cyrus’ career featured sharp pivots in sound and attitude, often to denote how “adult” how projects at the time should be considered.

As Cyrus continued to evolve, full-length explorations of psychedelica, country-pop and retro-rock were given coming attractions befitting their sounds. Now, “Flowers” nods toward where Cyrus, currently one of popular music’s most fascinating shape-shifters, is headed next.

So which lead singles illustrate Cyrus’ pop power most effectively, especially now that there’s a new one to consider? All eight of Cyrus’ lead singles have their charms — truly, not a flat-out dud in the bunch — but some of her songs excel as both previews of their host albums and standalone gems in her catalog. And while it’s still early days for “Flowers,” we tried our best to consider its place among Cyrus’ lead singles to date, and humbly rank the new track among the seven that have stood tall for years. (One note before we begin: 2015’s Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz did not have an official radio single as an independent release, but it does have a song that’s considered its lead single, so that’s the one we ranked.)

Here are Miley Cyrus’ lead singles, ranked.

Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was a glorious mess — a shambolic, proudly drugged-out independent release that was made with The Flaming Lips and threw up a middle finger at top 40 expectations post-Bangerz. Parts of the album are brilliant (“Lighter” remains one of Cyrus’ most perfect pop songs to date), other parts are unlistenable (at nearly five minutes, “Milky Milky Milk” is a tough hang), and “Dooo It!,” the lead track that Cyrus premiered while hosting the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, encapsulates the set’s dramatic highs and lows in a relatively short amount of time. The song’s zonked-out bounce never really moves forward, but some of its exclamations (“Yeah, I smoke pot, yeah, I love peace!,” “Sing about LOVE!”) are still a blast to shout along with when the speakers are turned up.

At a time when Disney Channel stars like the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato were releasing family-friendly pop-rock hits, Cyrus shed her Hannah Montana alter ego and joined that sound as well. “7 Things” turns teen drama into a wholly propulsive product, with Cyrus rattling off her crush’s worst qualities until finally throwing her hands up and admitting her feelings; the heightened emotion works, and begs the listener to climb aboard for the rush of the chorus. Released a year before “Party in the U.S.A.” became her true post-Hannah Montana smash, “7 Things” stands as a fan favorite today, and a precursor to even bigger things to come for the burgeoning pop star.

After the release of Bangerz turned Cyrus into a chart-topping party-starter and Dead Petz brought her on a trippy detour, “Malibu” acted as a palette-cleanser, its soft-rock edges signaling a calmer, more adult vision. “Malibu” is meant to evoke a SoCal sunset in both its gently strumming arrangement, ocean imagery and lyrical approach, in which Cyrus pleads for a perfect moment to continue on forever. And while the lead single to 2017’s Younger Now lacks the sort of barnstorming hook that Cyrus has made a calling card, the FM radio grace of “Malibu” stands out in her catalog, and is always a welcome surprise when it pops on.

Cyrus released “Flowers,” the lead single off of eighth album Endless Summer Vacation, on the birthday of her ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth; the detail has been widely interpreted as a parting shot at the actor, but really, the song focuses far more on self-sustainability than revenge, trading the melancholy of a song like 2019’s “Slide Away” for a more assertive outlook. “No remorse, no regret/ I forgive every word you said,” Cyrus sings, a subtle disco-pop arrangement supporting her steps forward. If the lyrical concept of “Flowers” was a red herring, the single also fakes out any listener expecting a full-blown reinvention with the single — this is sturdy, hummable pop, and it captivates without bells or whistles.

Even though it reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, “Can’t Be Tamed” is arguably Cyrus’ least-successful lead single, considering how derided the song and its clunky-metaphor music video became as an adult pivot away from her Disney brand, and how her 2010 album of the same time was bereft of any other crossover hits that could continue her momentum from “Party in the U.S.A.” from the previous year. In hindsight, though? “Can’t Be Tamed” rules: a throbbing, boisterous dance-pop declaration of independence that recalled Britney Spears’ Blackout sound (always a good thing) and also gestured towards the rise of EDM over the next few years. Cyrus’ Can’t Be Tamed era may have been a commercial misfire back then, but its lead single still hits hard today.

Everything about Cyrus’ Plastic Hearts era played to her artistic strengths, as a student of ‘70s pop songwriting who understands the larger-than-life aesthetics of glam rock and the defiant attitude required to fully hook an audience. And by extension, “Midnight Sky” perfectly previewed that era, its cool synth-pop sheen hoisting up Cyrus’ seasoned snarl — “I was born to run, I don’t belong to anyone, oh no,” she wails — and pulling in tons of throwback influences, while also maintaining a clear focus on evoking Stevie Nicks throughout. (Cyrus even released a mashup of “Midnight Sky” and Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen,” titled “Edge of Midnight,” ahead of Plastic Hearts). “Midnight Sky” continues to age well, evolving from a logical nostalgia play for Cyrus into a stylish, enduring jam.

No matter how much you agree with this ranking or think it’s totally off the mark, one thing here is inarguable: No other Cyrus lead single is as crucial to her career as “We Can’t Stop.” Following the disappointing performance of her Can’t Be Tamed album, Cyrus completely transformed her aesthetic by recruiting Mike WiLL Made-It and throwing a hip-hop party, haters be damned. Grills, twerking, veiled drug references and claims of cultural appropriation followed, but so did enormous commercial returns for her Bangerz album, as “We Can’t Stop” and its power ballad follow-up “Wrecking Ball” became two defining songs of 2013.

Removing “We Can’t Stop” from the context of its release can be difficult, but the fact is, the song became so popular because its collage of hedonistic sounds is so effective: You can get lost in its woofing beat, singsong pre-chorus and sneering bridge whether you’re at a club bellowing among friends or at home listening on headphones. And in the center of it all is Cyrus, torching her kiddie image with glee and slinging body positivity unabashedly. Along with being a linchpin moment in her career, “We Can’t Stop” is still a blast, the sound of Cyrus committing to a bit but having the pop brilliance to pull it off.