She will rock you! Miley Cyrus‘ fans were floored by her heavy-hitting performance of classic Queen songs between men’s basketball games at the NCAA March Madness Final Four on Saturday, April 3.
The 28-year-old strolled out of a dressing room at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis in an all-black ensemble, paying homage to the late Freddie Mercury by putting a twist on the U.K. rock band’s biggest hits, as well as performing some of her own tracks. Fans watched from socially distanced platforms in the audience as flames erupted on the stage. As she strutted over to the mic, Cyrus signaled for viewers to clap along to the iconic drum beat of “We Will Rock You.”
The former Disney Channel star showed off her singing chops, mashing up Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” with her 2013 single “We Can’t Stop.” Her inventive covers impressed those watching from home, who thought she’d be the perfect pick for next year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
“Miley Cyrus at the Final Four … HER VOICE. HER CONTROL. HER POWER,” one fan tweeted on Saturday. “Get her to the Super Bowl.”
Even the Hannah Montana alum’s family members were blown away by the glam-rock performance. “Mamaw Ruthie said it best ‘Wow Wow Wow !!!!’ Excellent performance #finalfour @mileycyrus,” her father, Billy Ray Cyrus, wrote via Twitter, poking fun at his daughter’s shaggy mullet. “I agree … Thank you first responders for your service and sacrifice. PS nice hairdo.”
Mercury wasn’t the only rocker to get a shout-out from the Last Song actress. She also put her own spin on Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and The Guess Who’s “American Woman” before belting out “Edge of Midnight,” a standout single from her latest record, Plastic Hearts.
The Grammy nominee announced her seventh studio album in October 2020, one month before its release. “If you’re reading this … know that I f–king love and appreciate you on the deepest level,” she wrote via Instagram at the time. “I began this album over 2 years ago. Thought I had it all figured out. Not just the record with its songs and sounds but my whole f–king life. But no one checks an ego like life itself. Just when I thought the body of work was finished … it was ALL erased. Including most of the music’s relevance. Because EVERYTHING had changed.”
Miley reflected on losing the Malibu home that she shared with her now-ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth, in a devastating wildfire in November 2018. “Nature did what I now see as a favor and destroyed what I couldn’t let go of for myself. I lost my house in a fire but found myself in its ashes,” she wrote.
Plastic Hearts is a departure from the pop music that fans might recognize from the “Party in the USA” performer.
“I am not the person I was yesterday,” the “Midnight Sky” singer said during a candid Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe in November 2020. “Everything changes me forever and I’ll never be who I was yesterday. In a way, every night before I go to sleep, I say goodbye to myself in a way, because it’s like that person’s done. … I’m really excited for this record to come out because it’s the most proud I could be of anything. And again, I just feel so much gratitude toward the collaborators who helped me create it.”
