Miley Cyrus was heckled by fans during an awkward appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday, June 7.
The “Flowers” singer, 32, appeared at the New York City event to promote her upcoming musical film Something Beautiful, which serves as a companion piece to her ninth studio album.
According to clips shared on social media, some fans expected Cyrus to perform during the event even though she was taking part in a Q&A with producer Panos Cosmatos. This misunderstanding led to a very awkward few moments when fans started shouting at her to sing during the panel.
“We thought this was a concert. We paid $800,” one angry attendee shouted, before another screamed: “Are you actually going to sing?”
Cyrus initially tried to ignore the continuous heckling until one fan started shouting at her to sing her classic 2009 single “The Climb.”
“Miley, sing ‘The Climb!’ Sing ‘The Climb!’ Come on,” a fan demanded.
By this point, Cyrus appeared to be rattled by the crowd’s behavior and eventually relented by singing a few lines from “The Climb” to appease them. Fans seemed hesitant to join in at first but finally started singing along when Cyrus poked fun at them.
“You’re not singing,” she complained.
Many sympathized with Miley over the embarrassing situation, with one fan writing via YouTube, “That’s so rude. It’s not her fault you can’t read, comprehend, or put 2 and 2 together. Sincerely, the biggest Miley fan.”
“She’s not puppet, next time read more about the event you pay for. How awkward and rude,” another fan vented.
A third viewer was equally bothered by the footage, writing, “I don’t understand why she didn’t tell them off because The entitlement of people is crazy ????????????Does this look like the best of both worlds to you???”
Her new film Something Beautiful premiered at Tribeca on Friday and will be released in theaters on Thursday, June 12, for one night only. The musical will then arrive on streaming services on Monday, June 30. In addition to starring in the film, Cyrus directed the project with her “Flowers” collaborator Jacob Bixenman and filmmaker Brendan Walter.
Cyrus released the Something Beautiful album on May 30 and it has already shown strong first week sales on international charts. Her ninth record features collaborations with Alabama Shakes frontwoman Brittany Howard, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and even supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Elsewhere, Cyrus candidly revealed during an appearance on The Ringer’s “Every Single Album” podcast that she hid drug purchases from her accountant earlier in her career.
“The drugs were the biggest cost, which to hide those from my accountant we called them ‘vintage clothes’,” she joked during her interview.
Cyrus went on, “Every time [my accountant] saw me, she’d be like, ‘Where’s that, like, $15,000 original John Lennon t-shirt that you bought?’ It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s upstairs.’ ‘We just really want to protect it. It’s really delicate. The fabric — got to take care of it.’ So, I bought a lot of ‘vintage clothes’ that year.”
The Hannah Montana star also reflected on her teenage romance with ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas, after jokingly pointing out that he’s now “married with children.” (Jonas and his wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas share a daughter, Malti Marie.)
While insisting that “everything is good now” between them, Cyrus recalled coming unglued when he broke up with her at the worst possible time.
“He broke up with me before my concert, and I was distraught,” Cyrus recalled on the “Every Single Album” podcast. “My big sister, [Brandi Cyrus], was playing guitar for me on that tour. … I was in my bed sobbing, and she came in like a regular big sister [and] she’s like, ‘Um, 25,000 people are waiting for you to pull your s*** together.’”
In hindsight, Cyrus said she understood Nick breaking up with her because their careers were going in different directions.
“I knew that his career was going to propel [and] he was going to become [well-known as] the Jonas Brothers,” she added. “They were opening for me, and they wanted to go. That was part of the reason why we were breaking up, because he was going to go do his own tour. He was, like, separating himself from the Disney thing.”
Jonas and Cyrus were together for more than a year at the height of their Disney Channel superstardom, before splitting in December 2007.
