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The amazing change Miley Cyrus made to ‘Flowers’ lyrics
Singer Miley Cyrus talks for the first time about how she wrote global smash and feminist anthem ‘Flowers’ and whether its about Liam Hemsworth.
‘Flowers’ by Miley Cyrus is one of this year’s global smash hits, with its message of female empowerment and self love.
More than four months after its release, the single is still holding strong in the upper reaches of Spotify’s Global Chart, with well over a billion listens, while on Youtube it has 436 million views, and is still in the world’s top 20 music videos.
Flowers - a hymn to female empowerment
Flowers has become a hymn to female empowerment after a failed relationship; which of course led to many to speculate that the song tells the story of the former Disney starlet and her ex-husband, actor Liam Hemsworth. But what does Miley have to say about Flowers?
Miley Cyrus explains amazing Flowers lyrics change
Cyrus sat down with British Vogue, and revealed that initially ‘Flowers’ did not have the empowerment angle that so many identify with; on the contrary, she says it was the saddest song she had ever written.
She explains that she originally wrote it very differently, with the chorus being ‘I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand, but I can’t love myself better than you can.’ Of course the final version that people around the world know and love goes: “yeah, I can love me better than you can”
Cyrus remarked of that version that it was so sad, because it was saying ‘Sure, I can be my own lover, but you’re so much better’. She admits that the final version is a little bit more ‘fake it ‘til you make it’, a concept she admits she is a huge fan of.
Is Flowers about Liam Hemsworth?
As for whether the song talks specifically about her love story with Liam Hemsworth, the actress said she doesn’t want all her music to be directly related to her ex-partner, and that she prefers to see her work as simply like that of a novelist who is inspired by their real life.
She said she wouldn’t erase her story nor would she want to. In her opinion, an interesting life makes for interesting stories.
You can read Miley Cyrus’s full interview for British Vogue here.