When Miley Cyrus walked out of a giant teddy bear at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards on Aug. 25, she probably thought herself as a modern echo of Madonna’s legendary performance of “Like A Virgin” from the very first VMAs back in 1984.
Sadly, what she thought she did and what actually ensued were two very different things.
Watching her performance — if that’s what it must be called — made me feel like I was doing something so very wrong.
I know Miley is now 20 and not the tween I remember from “Hannah Montana,” but I felt so inappropriate watching her twerk badly.
Controversial performances are pretty much a given at the VMAs.
However, Cyrus’ performance made me feel violated.
For comparison, lets go back to Madonna in 1984.
Her performance was racy, yes, as she walked down a giant wedding cake in full bridal attire complete with a “Boy Toy” garter, but it was also a daring and expertly calculated number.
At that point “Like A Virgin” wasn’t even on the airwaves or MTV yet, so she wasn’t even sure of how its reception would be.
The performance came off as genuine, with her losing a shoe at one point. She acted as if it was part of the show and chucked off the other one.
Every element of Miley’s performance felt like a huge miscalculation.
Even Robin Thicke in his snazziest “Beatlejuice” attire wasn’t able to save the performance when he came out to do a duet with Cyrus of his mega hit “Blurred Lines.”
Most of the audience got the feeling he was having to keep his poker face on the whole time as Cyrus violated his personal space.
Poor foam hands will never be the same.
I get that she was trying to do something audacious and provocative to get attention and show that she’s no longer a Disney girl, but Justin Timberlake and Kurt Russell were once Disney actors yet they never had to resort to something that felt exploitive for the sake of it.
It would be something if there was anything good about the performance.
The performance, though, comes off more as Billy Ray Cyrus dropped off little Miley at the playpen and just allowed her to spaz out, stick her tongue out as if she was seizing and point at things.
Miley is riding off this infamy now with her opening the new season of Saturday Night Live this weekend, which no doubt will be priceless.
As I finished this story, my news feed graced me with a headline that read “Cyrus poses nude for Rolling Stone.” My case stands.