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You know her as Hannah Montana from The Disney Channel. Or is it Miley Stewart? Wait a minute. Will the real Miss Cyrus please stand up?
HAN-NAH!! HAN-NAH!! Hannah Montana fans never stop screaming. Or they’re beating their feet on the arena’s large floorboards. Or they’re waving their green glow sticks back and forth above their heads. They’re mostly girls (and a few boys) — more than 10,000 fans — waiting for the blonde singer to take the stage so they can finally hear and see her live instead of on TV. These fans have scored their hard-to-get tickets and they want Hannah now.
HAN-NAH!! HAN-NAH!!
@outofcontexthannahmontana
The chanting becomes insanely loud. The arena goes dark and the large monitor above the stage shows a glittering, 80s-clad pop star leaving her glamorous dressing room. The crowd screams louder. On screen, the camera follows the tall, skinny star as she walks toward the now barely contained sold-out crowd.
“I’m Hannah Montana! Let’s get this party started! How are you tonight?” The deafening roar of the crowd means everyone is doing great. Live and in person is their new favorite Disney star. One girl can’t help but scream herself hoarse.
“I’m so glad you’re here tonight,” Hannah says before performing a song from the recently released Hanno Montana soundtrack. The audience stands up and sings along with her every word. After Hannah, the Cheetah Girls do their thing, an even bigger production. All in all, it’s a two-hour, hot show.
The Cheetahs will be hitting stages across the country every week until mid-January, but this will be one of Hannah’s final performances before taking a break from touring.
Before Hannah becomes Hannah
@outofcontexthannahmontana
Before her blonde wig is firmly in place, Hannah Montana is Miley Cyrus, a 14-year-old from Tennessee. In the anti-glam of the pre-show, Miley is completely down to earth. She’s wearing sweatpants, a hooded T-shirt, and Uggs. She’s sitting in her tour bus, parked next to the Cheetah Girls’ bus. “Hi, how are you?” she says in that creepy, cool twang.
GL Miley meets a reporter and three lucky Hannah fans: Sally, Sarah, and Sadie, who are sisters. Before boarding the bus, the sisters debate whether or not they like Hannah better than Hilary Duff—a debate that is likely being waged by girls across the country. So we ask: Has Miley dethroned Hilary as Teen Queen?
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” says Miley. “No way. Hilary’s a big star. I’m just getting started. I moved from a small town to L.A. But once you’re a country girl, you never change. I’m still me.”
Living a life where sometimes you’re yourself and sometimes you’re a pop star… sounds suspiciously familiar! “What happened to Hannah could happen in real life,” says Miley. “Hannah wants to live her dream and still be a normal kid.” And Miley? “I’m so glad I don’t have to hide things from anyone. If the show was my real life, I’d be like, ‘Hey, everybody, guess what—I’m Hannah Montana!’”
Hannah is not fake!
@outofcontexthannahmontana
You know, on the show Hannah Montana doesn’t tell people her real identity. Or is Hannah Montana more of a fake identity for Miley, an alter ego? We asked Miley how she sees it. “It’s not faking,” she says. “I’m Miley. On stage I’m Hannah.”
While the Hannah Montana premiere drew the largest audience in Disney Channel history (5.4 million viewers!), Miley doesn’t consider herself a huge star, and it’s funny how you do. Unfortunately, the Hannah TV character doesn’t have the luxury of being able to talk about her “real” life. Which begs the question we’d like to ask: does Miley think that hiding the truth from people is the same as lying, a lie by omission?
“No, I don’t think it’s a lie,” Miley says. “Hannah doesn’t want to be treated differently. I wouldn’t want to be someone you can’t say ‘hi’ to. I want to be very approachable. Say ‘hi’ to me. I love it. Anyone I can take a picture with or sign an autograph with, just a quick way to make them smile, that’s great.”
Humble. Honest. And… hungry. Miley picks at a package of chocolatey goo. “It’s just cookie dough,” she says, smiling broadly as she holds up her dough fingers. “I eat it right out of the package, see?” There are raw eggs in cookie dough, so does she know she could get sick?
“My mom tells me that all the time, and I just say, ‘I’m not going to get sick.’” Her chocolate chip dough is part of a diet that also includes gummy bears and fast food. Miley’s mother, who tours with her, jokingly rolls her eyes when asked for her opinion on her daughter’s food choices.
We ask Miley about her real father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, who also plays her dad on the show. “My dad is really good at making fun of me,” Miley says. “We saw Kelly Clarkson at an event and my dad was like, ‘Oh my God! My daughter is the biggest fan. She wants to take a picture with you!’ I looked at her and was like, ‘I’m so sorry about my dad.’ But Kelly is from Texas, so she knows all about country music and we talked about that.
Any other celeb runs? “I’m friends with Ashley Tisdale,” Miley says, excitedly, picking up her Sidekick. “Look at this. I have a picture of me and Ashley as my screensaver. I love her. People say, ‘Oh my gosh, you look like sisters when you wear your Hannah wig.’”
Even pop stars get the blues
Photographed by Keith Munyan
We tell Miley how great it is that she’s so confident. Teenagers can get so upset about everything. “Trust me, I get so upset,” she says. “I feel like I’m staring in the mirror 400 hours a day. I swear to God, I have this thing, this disease that people get. Mom, what is it?”
Mom interjects: “Body dysmorphic disorder. You don’t have it, but you probably spend as much time in the mirror as someone with that disorder.”
Miley says, “I swear to god, I’m going to stand in that mirror and be like, ‘I hate my hair. I hate my nose. I hate, hate, hate my teeth!’” Hey! Stop it! Miley, you’re beautiful. And you’re a pop star.
“I’m a girl too. I look in the mirror and think, ‘This shirt is ugly. These pants are stupid.’ It’s a lot easier when I have someone to do my makeup and my hair. People on TV have a lot of people who do it for us. That makes all the difference.
“Honestly, I hate dressing up. I’m holding my shoes in most of the pictures you see of me at red carpet events. If I could go to premieres in my sweatpants, I would! If you wear baggy things and just throw on a little tee, you look cute. A girl’s outfit doesn’t have to be, you know, all there is to it.”
Miley wears a lot of jewelry, especially bracelets that she’s gotten as gifts. “My mom made me this charm bracelet and I never take it off. These two bracelets are from fans, they made them for me,” Miley says, very proudly. “And this one I’ve had for years. It was one of those plastic bands you get at a water park, and it was originally orange! Now it’s kind of gray string. And this bracelet says ‘live and love’ and it comes with Lucky jeans. That was a gift from my girlfriend. She already had one and now we both have one.”
The most special thing is the ring on her hand. “My dad gave it to my mom, and my mom gave it to me,” Miley says, showing us the beautiful, plain band with a small crease in the middle. Mom jumps in: “It was two rings that my husband made into one for Valentine’s Day.”
Miley says, “It was two rings? I didn’t know that.”
Want to meet The Cheetah Girls?
Photographed by Keith Munyan
Miley is so cute we could hang around all day, but now it’s Miley’s turn to enter the arena for her sound check. Before she leaves, the three sisters get their chance to ask a question, and what a sweet question it is: “Do you like Jake Ryan in real life?”
Miley laughs loudly and throws her head back. “Who wouldn’t? He’s really cute. Emily (Osment) and I love doing scenes with Jake!”
Any other crushes? “I have so many celebrity crushes, it’s crazy,” she says. “I’ll always like Ryan Cabrera, but my biggest crush is Chad Michael Murray. He’s the hottest!” Miley tells Us that she’s allowed to date, but she hasn’t had one yet.
We wish Miley the best of luck with the new season and her own Miley CD, which is coming out in the spring of 2007. Miley disappears and we enter the empty arena. As we walk to some chairs, the Cheetahs are hanging out on some speakers. Adrienne Bailon sees us and says, “Hi, girls.” Wow! The sisters barely react because they are so impressed. The GL reporter says “hi” back to her. Miley eventually emerges into the silence of an empty arena and sings the first few lines of a few songs. It’s fun to see the behind-the-scenes stuff.
Later that night, Miley takes the stage to loud screams from an arena full of fans: “Han-nah! Han-nah!” We know who the real girl is under the wig. And we know we should be chanting “Mi-ley! Mi-ley!” We bet we will after her CD comes out.
Hey girl! Just wanted to let you know that this piece originally ran in our December/January 2007 issue. Want more? Read the print magazine for free today when you click HERE.
Where is Miley now?
@wmag
She won her first-ever Grammy Awards for “Flowers” as “Record of the Year” and “Best Pop Solo Performance.” Her latest album, Endless summer vacationand a documentary about it, Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions)both came out last year. Her episode of Netflix’s My next guest needs no introduction with David Letterman just came out, in which she performed and spoke about her work (including Hannah Montana!). She starred in one of Gucci’s latest floral perfume campaigns with her song “Flowers”. On August 11, she will be named a Disney Legend, making her the youngest person ever to receive this honor.
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Slide image: Photographed by Keith Munyan
