Miley Cyrus put on a raw and emotional show at Art Basel, revealing she has been in a “dark place” this year following the death of her beloved dog.
The singer, 22, who stripped down to pasties and smoked pot on stage, put on the show for the Art Basel Miami crowd at the Raleigh Hotel in South Beach on Wednesday night.
Appearing in a silver wig, a onesie and turquoise eye shadow, she told the audience that she appreciated they were an art crowd and probably not fans of her music.
“You thought [Art Basel] was a respected place where you could escape me,” said Cyrus, who talked about her difficult year after the death of her dog Floyd, who was killed in April by a coyote in the garden of her Los Angeles home.
Miley said Floyd’s death took her to a dark place, but it was a “wake-up call” and made her realize the things she was doing seemed meaningless.
“This year has constantly challenged me, and that’s why I started doing art,” she said, and then sang a song called “Twinkle” which she said she wrote after her friend’s dead cat spoke to her in a dream.
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Cyrus sang covers of songs from Johnny Cash and Led Zeppelin, and was joined on stage by Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. The pair dressed in a giant rainbow with their heads sticking out for a rendition of the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” as bubbles and streamers went out over the crowd.
Also joining Cyrus on stage were people dressed in shark costumes, a man dressed as a penis with silver streamers coming out of the top, and a giant mushroom. The stage was flanked by giant rubber duckies and trees with baby dolls strung on them.
“Usually I don’t smoke weed and drink, well that’s a lie … usually I don’t smoke weed and drink on show days, but I felt like it was fine in Miami,” said Cyrus.
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Cyrus ended by pulling back her top to reveal silver pasties. Fake $5 bills printed with her face fell into the crowd with confetti, and after she left the stage, a giant silver balloon was released saying “[Bleep] yeah Art Basel.”
Guests at the party, hosted by designer Tommy Hilfiger, art dealer and curator Jeffrey Deitch and V Magazine, included Cyrus’ boyfriend Patrick Schwarzenegger, MoMA’s Klaus Biesenbach, Linda Evangelista, Jill Zarin, and Paper magazine’s Mickey Boardman.