Miley Cyrus Announces New Single "Malibu"

Late last night, Miley Cyrus took to Instagram to share her new Billboard cover story along with a special announcement: Cyrus has new music on the way. Due out next week, single “Malibu” is billed as a “breezy love song” about fiancé Liam Hemsworth while writer John Morris calls it “gimmick-free pop-rock unlike anything she has recorded before.” The track will serve as our first taste of Cyrus’s upcoming LP, which is expected to be a major departure from the likes of her past releases, despite the fact that it sees her re-teaming with Oren Yoel (the multi-instrumentalist also worked on the likes of 2013’s Bangerz and 2015’s Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz collaboration with The Flaming Lips).

You can check out a brief excerpt from the Billboard cover story below while the piece can be read in its entirety over at billboard.com. “Malibu” is set to drop May 11.

Where exactly did you write ­“Malibu”?
On the way to The Voice. I drive myself everywhere, but that day I decided to Uber, and I was trying not to sing out loud because someone else was in the car.

People might call it sentimental.
They’re going to talk about me if I come out of a restaurant with Liam. So why not put the power back in my relationship and say, “This is how I feel”?

After you guys broke up, you said something like, “I’m so immersed in work, I can’t even think about it.”
Yeah, but also ’cause I needed to change so much. And changing with someone else not changing like that is too hard. Suddenly you’re like, “I don’t recognize you anymore.” We had to refall for each other.

The new album is pretty singer-­songwriter-y, no?
Yeah. But not granola. I don’t listen to Ed Sheeran and John Mayer and stuff.

Did folk singer Melanie Safka [with whom Cyrus performed in 2015] ­influence you?
She did, and I grew up with her. But I also love that new Kendrick [Lamar] song [“Humble”]: “Show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks.” I love that because it’s not “Come sit on my dick, suck on my cock.” I can’t listen to that anymore. That’s what pushed me out of the hip-hop scene a little. It was too much “Lamborghini, got my Rolex, got a girl on my cock” — I am so not that.

I was torn on whether I was going to work with certain producers that I really like. But I feel if we’re not on the same page ­politically … My record is political, but the sound bite doesn’t stop there. Because you can write something beautiful and you know E! News will ruin our lives and say, “This is a political record.” Because then I’m the Dixie Chicks and I’m getting my album smashed in the streets, and that’s not what I want. I want to talk to people in a compassionate, understanding way — which people aren’t doing.