Miley Cyrus is speaking out about an experience she had at the MTV Video Music Awards last Sunday (August 30) and cited Kanye West, Travis Scott, The Weeknd and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine to illustrate her point.
During a conversation with Joe Rogan for The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the seasoned pop singer revealed the VMA directors made a sexist comment regarding her performance, one she found particularly offensive given her tenure and, of course, gender.
“I was just asking some questions, not even on some diva shit,” she said. “I wanted the lights to be turned off and then the lighting of the room to just be lighting me. So no key light, no beauty light. The beauty light is always used on women and I said turn the fucking lights off. You would never tell Travis Scott or Adam Levine that he couldn’t turn the beauty light off. I want this red light.
“They said, ‘OK, we’ll just do the same thing that we would do with the guys,’ because that’s what I want. And then something that I was doing, which I can’t say, but something I was doing for the VMAs, my bracelets kept getting caught in all the shit and they said, ‘You want to be treated like a guy and lit like a guy, we wouldn’t be dealing with this if a guy was doing it.’”
Miley Cyrus tells Joe Rogan the directors for her #VMAs performance made disrespectful comments after she asked to be treated like a guy:
“They said, ‘you want to be treated and lit like a guy, we wouldn’t be dealing with this if a guy was doing it.’” pic.twitter.com/XiF5zgnnnv
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 3, 2020
Cyrus, who was referring to a moment in her performance where she rides a giant disco ball, was undeterred and snapped back, “‘Well a guy wouldn’t be doing this because a guy doesn’t sell your show with sex the way that I’m going to.’ And I’m aware of that. It’s a ridiculous conversation and also embarrassing.’
“The VMAs is a pop culture show celebrating pop culture, and I wanted to bring that especially in this time of COVID-19 [with] all these at-home performances. I want to give my fans escapism good old pop culture. This is surrealism.”
Our girl @MileyCyrus has us all gazing at the #MidnightSky tonight! #VMAs ?✨ pic.twitter.com/7UVmPix1My
— MTV (@MTV) August 31, 2020
Cyrus then used Kayne and The Weeknd to further expound on her argument.
“The balance that I’ve found is firm and kind,” she said. “I don’t lose my kindness, but also don’t become a mat, but I am firm about what I want. In a way, you might expect someone [to say] ‘She was a diva, she was a bitch,’ but OK, like have The Weeknd come in here and say the same thing.
“Or Kanye is like a creative God and it’s like, come on, why am I not getting that I’m a creative mastermind but I’m becoming a bitch? No one would ever say that about Kanye West choosing what lighting he wants on a performance.”
Watch the full interview below.