Miley Cyrus reflects on controversial 2009 Teen Choice Awards performance: 'It wasn't a stripper pole!'

It's been more than a decade since Miley Cyrus caught controversy for her 2009 Teen Choice Awards performance — and now, the singer is looking back.

Cyrus, now 30, shared a TikTok reflecting on her 2009 performance of "Party in the U.S.A.," where she danced on top of an ice cream cart and held on to a metal pole. At the time, the then-16-year-old Cyrus sparked headlines for supposedly dancing on a stripper pole — but Cyrus reveals that she simply held on to the pole for stability.

"I had cut 'Party in the U.S.A.,' and I was doing my first performance for the Teen Choice Awards," Cyrus explains in the TikTok video, recorded as part of her "Used to Be Young" series. "My mom was like, 'I think it'd be really cool if she was in a trailer park because that's where we really do come from.'"

"It wasn't a stripper pole!" Cyrus insisted. "It was actually just for stability. I had a heel on. Guys, what did you want from me? Was I really going to do my performance without dancing on top of an ice cream cart?"

Cyrus added that she was still proud of the performance, 14 years later. "That performance was amazing," she said. "My pitch was honestly a little off, and the hat needed to go — but besides that."

The singer ended the video by looking back on a tabloid headline comparing her to Britney Spears. "'Is Miley turning into the next Britney?'" Cyrus reads. "Hopefully! If God is good, which we know She is!"

Cyrus has been reflecting on her early career in videos posted to TikTok as a way to promote her new single "Used to Be Young." She previously opened up about her "hectic" childhood work schedule and revealed that it was her younger sister Noah Cyrus who pushed the button to take her controversial nude Vanity Fair cover photo.

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