Miley Cyrus is opening up about her music career after leaving Hannah Montana behind.
In a recent interview on The Ringer podcast, the 32-year-old pop star and actress revealed that following the end of the hit Disney Channel series in 2011, she was banned from performing any songs associated with the teen sitcom.
“After I left Disney, I wasn’t allowed to perform any of the Hannah Montana music,” Cyrus said. “It’s not like I wanted to, I mean performing ‘The Best Of Both Worlds’ between ‘We Can’t Stop’ and ‘Wrecking Ball,’ wouldn’t have really made sense.”
But it wasn’t easy being cut off from music so tied to her early identity. “It was still sad knowing those songs have my voice, my face, and I wasn’t allowed to sing them,” she said.
That changed in August 2024, when Cyrus was officially inducted as a Disney Legend during a ceremony at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
“After being inducted as a Disney Legend, I was given permission to perform those songs in the future, which is pretty cool,” she told The Ringer.
Hannah Montana debuted in March 2006 and quickly became a cultural phenomenon, premiering to a record-breaking 5.4 million viewers, the highest in Disney Channel’s history at the time. Cyrus, then 13 years old, played Miley Stewart, a teenager living a secret double life as a Malibu student by day and global pop star by night.
Under her TV alter ego, Cyrus charted 20 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 as Hannah Montana. “He Could Be the One” became the biggest hit, reaching the top 10 in 2009. The show’s theme song, “The Best of Both Worlds,” also made the chart, reaching No. 92 in 2006.
Cyrus also earned three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 as Hannah Montana: Hannah Montana, Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus, and Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack.
