It's been two months since racy images of "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus surfaced online, sparking national headlines and inspiring significant debate among concerned parents and fans. And beyond an online apology, Cyrus has remained relatively mum ever since, going out of her way to avoid the press at red carpet events.
But in a Billboard magazine interview, Cyrus opened up about the hullabaloo. Back in late April, after several personal photos showing the teen in her unmentionables surfaced, photos shot by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair made their way to the ether, adding more fuel to an already raging fire because some of the pictures showed Cyrus topless in a bed, holding a blanket to her chest.
"I was embarrassed," Cyrus told Billboard, "but also, it's like, every career thing that I do can't be perfect, and sometimes my decisions are wrong. I think that just makes me even more relatable. I don't think people will look at me any differently because they're like, 'You know what, I'm going to do stupid stuff too, and I'm going to make mistakes, and that's fine.' It still hurts when I think about it — but you know what, it doesn't mean that you can't move on."
And Cyrus is trying to do just that, with her forthcoming album, Breakout, which is due to drop July 22 and will feature the hit single "7 Thing."
"It's grown-up," Cyrus told the magazine of the follow-up to her 2007 LP, Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus. "I wrote all the songs, except two. My last [record] was more just meeting me, finding out who I am, and here, it's more getting in depth of what's been going on in my life in the past year."
Cyrus said she wanted to write the material herself because "[n]o matter how long what I'm doing here lasts, I want to be a songwriter for the rest of my life." Composing songs, she said, was her "escape," and she hopes the new record "showcases that — more than anything — I'm a writer."
Cyrus has been spending a lot of time these days in Tennessee, where she's shooting the third season of her hit Disney show, as well as a "Hannah" movie. Meanwhile, Billboard reports that her camp is planning a successor to her 2007 concert tour, which drew nearly 1 million fans and inspired a popular 3-D movie.
"We're weighing the pros and cons of having her do multiple nights in one big city versus her doing one-night shows in a number of smaller markets," Chip McLean, senior VP of Buena Vista Concerts for Disney Music Group, told the magazine. "Since she is someone who appeals to families, we can't just have her play the top 15 markets. Families won't be able to afford to make the trip, buy the tickets and pay for the hotel if we did that."
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