After announcing the single just last week, Miley Cyrus released "Malibu" this morning—a song she told Billboard magazine is about her fiancé Liam Hemsworth. "They're going to talk about me if I come out of a restaurant with Liam," she said of why she wrote it about him. "So why not put the power back in my relationship and say, 'This is how I feel'?"
Cyrus wrote the lyrics on the way to The Voice in the backseat of an Uber. "I was trying not to sing out loud because someone else was in the car," she said. She shares the writer credit with Oren Yoel, who produced the song.
And, looking at lyrics in the context of her and Hemsworth's relationship, they tell their love story from Cyrus's point of view. Here, all the possible Hemsworth references annotated:
I never came to the beach, or stood by the ocean
I never sat by the shore, under the sun with my feet in the sand
But you brought me here and I'm happy that you did
Cyrus and Hemsworth met on The Last Song, a movie set on the beach released back in 2010. Cyrus could be referencing that starting point, and the fact getting back together with him was a return to it literally and emotionally.
'Cause now I'm as free as birds catching the wind
When Cyrus and Hemsworth ended their engagement in 2013, Cyrus was transitioning out of her Disney, Hannah Montana image. She'd go into a wilder period with her MTV twerk, experimental (and sometimes very naked) fashion, and Bangerz and Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz albums. She'd also open up and explore her pansexuality (Cyrus dated Stella Maxwell and Patrick Schwarzenegger before getting back together with Hemsworth)—one of the reasons she may feel more free now. As Cyrus told ELLE in its September 2016 issue, "When people say you're going to be so different at 22 or 23, when you're 16, you're like, I'm so not! And then you change drastically. But when you're younger, you're more selfish, because there's so much self-exploration, you're in your own mind. I didn't think about the meat I was eating. I would wear leather; I would wear fur. I was just uneducated."
"I think of who I was before who I am right now; that's a transition in itself. Everyone is constantly transitioning. When there's a thing you have to do, you have to do it."
I always thought I would sink, so I never swam
I never went boatin', don't get how they are floatin'
And sometimes I get so scared of what I can't understand
Chorus:
But here I am, next to you
The sky's more blue in Malibu
Next to you in Malibu
Next to you
The literal reference here is Hemsworth and Cyrus now live together in Malibu, as Cyrus confirmed in her Billboard interview; the figurative is they're sharing their life journeys again, as they're engaged again. They reconciled (at least publicly) at the beginning of 2016.
Verse:
We watched the sun go down as we were walking
I'd spent the rest of my life standing here talking
You would explain the current, as I try to smile
Hemsworth is famously a big surfer. He and Cyrus were photographed together in March one afternoon when he hit the beach in California.
She also Instagrammed a shot of him:
Hoping I just stay the same, and nothing will change
Cyrus told Billboard after the two broke up in 2013, "I needed to change so much [for us to be together]," she said. "And changing with someone else not changing like that is too hard. Suddenly you're like, 'I don't recognize you anymore.' We had to refall for each other."
Hemsworth echoed that much in his GQ Australia interview last May on why they broke up. "At the time we were going in different directions and it's just what needed to happen," he said. "We were both super young and it was a good decision at the time—we both needed that." But, as Cyrus said in her ELLE interview that change is constant ("Everyone is constantly transitioning"), so she is still a little scared they could grow apart.
And it'll be us, just for a while
Do we even exist?
When Hemsworth and Cyrus first got back together, they didn't talk about their relationship to the press. Hemsworth even said they weren't re-engaged in an interview with Australia's TV Week in April 2016, despite Cyrus wearing his engagement ring since January. Cyrus didn't do events with him until October 2016. The most she'd do is go with him to a premiere, like they did for his brother Chris Hemsworth's movie in April 2016, but not walk the carpet with him.
That's when I make the wish, to swim away with the fish
Is it supposed to be this hot all summer long?
I never would've believed you if three years ago you told me
I'd be here writing this song
Billboard suggested in its interview with Cyrus that this lyric was a reference not only to Cyrus not thinking she'd get back together with Hemsworth (or that it'd be this good this long) but that her musical sound would go this direction.
Chorus:
But here I am, next to you
The sky's more blue in Malibu
Next to you in Malibu
Next to you
Next to you
The sky's so blue in Malibu
Next to you
Outro:
We are just like the waves that flow back and forth
Sometimes I feel like I'm drowning
And you're there to save me
Cyrus highlighted an example of Hemsworth helping her in the aftermath of the election during her Billboard interview. Cyrus was deeply affected by Hillary Clinton's loss, posting an emotional video on her Instagram of her processing it:
But Cyrus wanted to go into The Voice for work "that next day [after the election], dude. I wanted to go to rehearsals. Liam was like, 'Just don't go. You're not there. And you don't know how everyone feels on that set.' Everyone's from all different parts of the country, so he was like, 'Don't go and get into it with people right now.' Because clearly unity is what we need."
And I wanna thank you with all of my heart
It's a brand new start
A nod to their re-engagement and upcoming wedding. Cyrus officially re-confirmed it in October, during her appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show.
A dream come true in Malibu
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
