Miley Cyrus isn’t afraid of controversy — or cover songs. The 20-year-old pop star showed off nerves of steel during an appearance on BBC Radio1’s live lounge in the UK on Tuesday, Nov. 12, when she belted out an impressive cover of Lana Del Rey’s surprise hit “Summertime Sadness.”
“Check out my @BBCR1 live lounge cover of Summertime Sadness,” the “We Can’t Stop” singer tweeted after the performance. In her version, Cyrus went for a a stripped down, acoustic set for the ballad with the help of two female backup singers. The phenom dressed down her look as well, wearing dark pants and a black turtleneck. She also kept her blonde locks simply swept back to one side. (Originally appearing on Del Rey’s 2012 album Born to Die, her torchy-y dirge “Summertime Sadness” became an unexpected radio hit this past summer when a dance remix hit airwaves.)
The lounge performance is quite the chilled out departure from her appearance at the MTV European Music Awards. On Sunday night, Cyrus’ latest stunt included lighting up a a joint on live television while accepting the award for Best Video on stage for her hit “Wrecking Ball.”
“No one was expecting it to happen,” an insider told Us Weekly of the incident. “It was so brazen, so shameless. It was so uncalled for.”
Uncalled for, but nothing to worry about. After all, marijuana is legal in Amsterdam. As for Cyrus, she couldn’t care less about the backlash she received. “Sometimes in life you just gotta decide to not give AF,” she tweeted shortly after the show.
